13th time lucky for Ilgauskas?

RIGA - At age 35 and nearing the end of his professional career, Lithuanian basketball legend Zydrunas Ilgauskas is better placed than ever to claim his first ever National Basketball Association (NBA) championship ring. Playing on the NBA’s most talked about team, the Miami Heat, Ilgauskas may finally claim the ring that has eluded him in his 12 previous seasons as a professional basketballer in the world’s elite competition.

On paper, the Miami Heat have one of the most formidable lineups seen in the NBA in recent memory, boasting not one, but three superstars in Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and the so-called King, Lebron James.
Winning an NBA championship only seems appropriate for a player who has become a favorite amongst teammates and fans alike in a career which has steered clear of any major controversy and broken records along the way.
Ilgauskas spent the first 12 seasons of his NBA life playing for the Cleveland Cavaliers, where he claimed the record for most appearances for the club as well as the league record for the most post-season appearances. He would also be selected to two NBA All-Star games.

Known affectionately as “Big Z,” Ilgauskas was a crowd favorite in Cleveland, but he became disillusioned during the 2009/2010 season when the team acquired Shaquille O’Neal, seeing the Lithuanian demoted to the bench. Since acquiring Lebron James in the 2003 draft, the Cavaliers had come close to winning a championship on more than one occasion, but it was argued that the team needed someone to play in the center position other than Ilgauskas if they were to win a championship, hence the acquisition of O’Neal. The season then became worse for Ilgauskas, when he found himself traded to the Washington Wizards. However, he would never suit up for the Wizards and before the season was out he was back sitting on the bench for the Cavaliers, perhaps not with the same amount of loyalty as he had once felt.

At the end of the 2009/2010 season, Ilgauskas’ future looked uncertain, when he became a free agent. His former teammate James, who had recently signed for the Miami Heat, is then understood to have played a major role in getting his new team to also sign Ilgauskas so the two could continue playing together. With James already being lauded as one of the greatest basketball players of all time, the gesture shows just how highly he respects Ilgauskas, tweeting at the time of the announcement, “Welcome Big Z. Glad u are joining me in South Beach my friend...”

Ilgauskas claimed the decision was difficult to make, to move away from Cleveland, but also knew his most realistic chance of winning a championship was by following James south to Miami.

The decision to date appears to be the right one. The Miami Heat stormed through the regular season to finish second in the Eastern Conference with a 58 win, 24 loss record. While all the attention was focused on his teammates, Ilgauskas went about his work quietly – no easy task for someone who stands at 2.21 meters and weighs 117.9 kg – starting in 51 of 72 games, averaging 15.9 minutes for five points and four rebounds a game. As for the Cavaliers? They finished with the second worst record in the league, winning just 19 of 82 games.

When the two-month long playoffs got underway on Saturday, Ilgauskas was fist-pumping teammates as he ran onto the court at American Airlines Arena as starting center for Miami in the first game of their best of seven series against the Philadelphia 76ers. As expected, it was Ilgauskas’ teammates who were creating the fanfare as “Big Z” went about his work outside of the spotlight, shooting four-from-five from the floor to finish with eight points and six rebounds in his team’s 97-89 victory. On Monday evening, Ilgauskas was being his consistent self, claiming another six rebounds and seven points, shooting two-from-two from the floor as Miami routed Philadelphia 94-73 to go ahead two-zero in the series and move one step further to gaining Ilgauskas his long overdue ring.

The NBA playoffs continue throughout April and May, with selected games available for viewing in the Baltics on pay television channel, NBA TV.