VILNIUS - Antanas Sireika, who in 2003 led the Lithuanian men's basketball team to one of the Baltic state's greatest sports victories since independence 's the European Championship title 's will no longer head the national team. The Lithuanian Basketball Federation decided Oct. 4 to accept the 50-year-old coach's resignation, adding that Sireika's 2003 European Championship victory in Sweden would "forever remain inscribed into the history of Lithuanian basketball."
The federation also decided that Sireika's recent performance at the World Basketball Championships in Japan, where Lithuania placed seventh, was unsatisfactory.
But for a country of 3.4 million people, placing seventh in the world is not so bad, especially having surpassed Italy, Serbia, Brazil and a few other basketball "super stars." What's more, the Baltic country team has never stood higher in the world tournament, although it won bronze in the Olympic Games of 1992, 1996 and 2000, and took fourth place at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.
Although fans in Lithuania, where basketball is considered a second religion, were not happy with last month's World Championships outcome, few would believe that this alone could jeopardize Sireika's position as head coach.
Indeed, the main reason for Sireika's resignation was dissatisfaction among the players.
On Sept. 26 Arvydas Macijauskas, Europe's highest paid basketball player and one of the national team's most beloved stars, spoke with Lietuvos Rytas weekly supplement Krepsinis (Basketball), where he accused Sireika of poor management and announced that he was quitting the national team.
"I no longer want to play on the national team," he told the newspaper. "I know that many players share my opinion [about Sireika's poor management]. It must be said, and I shall be the first to say it. I am not afraid. I know that I spoke the truth and it will be better for Lithuania and Lithuanian basketball, believe me."
Macijauskas' public expression of discontent proved contagious, and soon another basketball star 's Sarunas Jasikevicius, who plays for the NBA's Indiana Pacers and already missed two tournaments with the Lithuanian team - said he agreed with Macijauskas, and openly criticized Sireika and his fellow team leaders of disorder.
A few days after Jasikevicius' public statement, Sireika, who earlier this year signed a coaching contract with Russia's Kazan Uniks, handed his resignation to the federation.
"I see no point in staying amid the current circumstances," Sireika told Lietuvos Rytas.
Vladas Garastas, president of the Lithuanian Basketball Federation, said he had four candidates to replace the head coach.
Although Garastas did not disclose his choice, basketball specialists say the most likely candidates are 46-year-old Sarunas Sakalauskas, head coach of Germany's "Eisbaren" team, Ramunas Butautas, 42, who coaches ASK Riga (Latvia), head coach of Ural-Great (Perm, Russia) Rimas Kurtinaitis, who was Olympic champion with the Soviet Union team and later led Lithuania to Olympic bronze, and 35-year-old Rutenis Paulauskas, who coaches Dinamo Moscow and Lithuania's youth team.
Garastas did reveal that, personally, he would like Jonas Kazlauskas, Sireika's predecessor, to return and head the national team. However, experts say this is not very likely, as Kazlauskas is under contract with the Chinese national team until 2008.
But one thing is clear, whoever replaces Sireika, Lithuanian fans will never be happy with less than a championship title - whatever the tournament.
