Lithuania appoints Adomaitis as new head coach

KAUNAS (FIBA EuroBasket 2017) - The Lithuanian Basketball Federation (LKF) on Tuesday confirmed Dainius Adomaitis as the new head coach of the senior men's national team during an Executive Committee meeting.

The 42-year-old Adomaitis will replace Jonas Kazlauskas as the man in charge after the latter opted not to renew his contract with the LKF following the Rio de Janeiro Games.

After a lengthy meeting, the current Neptunas coach was given the green light for a four-year term which coincides with the new Olympic cycle.

"Dainius played basketball at a high level himself and is one of the most talented new generation coaches that we have. We also consulted with national team players about the potential candidates and they saw Adomaitis as someone who they would like to work with for the next four years," LKF President Arvydas Sabonis explained of the main reasons behind the decision.

He also revealed the names of two other candidates discussed in the Executive meeting  - Rimas Kurtinaitis and Kazys Maksvytis, but neither of them received as much support.

"As for criteria, it had to be a person who would not only be in charge of the team for the Olympic cycle, but also someone who would take responsibility of our entire basketball pyramid, including overseeing the youth national teams," said Sabonis.

"FIBA's New System of Competition comes into effect in 2017 with international windows and we will have to play in the qualifiers for the FIBA Basketball World Cup in China 2019."

Under Kazlauskas, Lithuania were FIBA EuroBasket runners-up in 2013 and 2015 and came in fourth at the FIBA Basketball World Cup in 2014.

Once a member of the Lithuanian national team himself, Adomaitis started his coaching career immediately after bringing his professional playing career to a close in 2009.

After spending the first couple of seasons in Poland, he then returned to Lithuania where he was in charge of Lietuvos Rytas, Juventus and most recently Neptunas.

After successful domestic campaigns over the last two seasons, Adomaitis received back-to-back Lithuanian LKL Coach of the Year honours.

FIBA