EUROBASKET RECAP: LITHUANIA WON BRONZE, OLYMPIC BID
Wizards forward Darius Songaila and his fellow Lithuanian teammates are all smiles as they won Sunday’s bronze medal game of EuroBasket 2007 against Greece, 78-69, and also earned a trip to the Olympic games in 2008.
STATS: Songaila played in all nine games in the European Tournament and averaged 11.2 points and 4.8 rebounds in 19.6 minutes per game. He made 36 of 70 (51.4%) two-point field goals, 4 of 14 from behind the international three-point line, and made 81% of free throws.
Songaila also posted a blog entry on NBA.com, explaining many reasons he played in this tournament, why it is important for his Lithuania national team to be able to qualify for the Olympics, and much more…
Songaila On The Importance of Playing in EuroBasket:
“I didn’t get to play a lot last year with Washington because of the injuries so one part is it is good for me to play a good level of basketball, get ready for the season and get in shape. I don’t think you can get a better level of competition during the summer than we’ve got right now. Secondly, it is national pride. I am from Lithuania and we are one of the smallest countries in the world… Basketball is the No. 1 sport in the country and that pride, you want to come back and play for your own country and wear those colors.”
Posted: September 17th, 2007 under Wizards.
Comments
Comment from ricklevinenyc
Time September 18, 2007 at 12:08 PM
check out this old pic of EG
Comment from tules
Time September 18, 2007 at 12:13 PM
Congratulations to Darius. He has always been a good player in my mind.
BTW, new Gil blog update with shoe pic 
Comment from neal
Time September 18, 2007 at 10:36 PM
So this means he’ll be playing in the Olympics. When?
Comment from WizDom
Time September 19, 2007 at 1:07 AM
offtopic, but Gil has a new blog up with his new shoes!
Comment from Lin
Time September 19, 2007 at 11:31 AM
The Lithuanians are the best!
To my mind, Lithuanians should had won the silver, Spain – gold:)
No Rossiya okazalas hitree:)))
Comment from AUNDRA
Time September 20, 2007 at 8:47 AM
OUTSTANDING JOB BIG D NOW IT’S TIME TO GET YOUR BUTT AWAY FROM THE HOMEBOYS AND PUT THE WORK IN AT VERIZON CENTER WITH THE CHAMPIONS TO BE!
I AM COUNTING ON YOU TO BE ULTIMATE FORCE OFF THE BENCH! YOU MOST SHOW THE ROOKIES HOW THE VETERANS DO IT AND LEAD THEM DOWN THE RIGHT PATH!
GOOD LUCK
Comment from BruceO
Time September 21, 2007 at 3:12 PM
Kirilenko wants out of Utah, he’s willing to give up the rest of his contract. IF he gets a buyout we should acquire him. We might have to give up some of our pieces to accomodate him. I hope his salary doesnt affect gils too much, gil once said he is willing to not get max if it will help the team. He doesnt want to be another kg, a star player without any championship.
Comment from Wiz034
Time September 22, 2007 at 9:24 AM
Man, everytime someone is free, you guys want to pick them up. Can we at least see how the newly acquired pieces work before we make changes?
Personally, I don’t AK is going anywhere. The Jazz would be crazy to let him go.
Comment from neal
Time September 22, 2007 at 3:39 PM
Sure, I’d love to have Kirilenko. But who are you going to give up? He’ll make $13.7M this year. That means Arenas and Young or Pecherov. Want to make that trade? And he’s a SF – that doesn’t address our main need.
Comment from BruceO
Time September 23, 2007 at 3:10 AM
not everyone whos free, just the good players who can actually fit into the princeton offense., and he’s a sf who can play the four, just like jamison. Same height, same weight plus he’s probably longer, better rebounder, better shot blocker, better defensively but worse offensively. The offensive difference can be made up though. PLus if caron becomes fast enough to keep up with SG, we could play kirilenko at small forward. If theoretically we traded jamison our starting five would be arenas, caron, kirilenko, songaila/ blatche or pech, haywood.
The problem I have is his price tag. But if he’s willing to do a buyout I’d look into it, but not until then. Isn’t LA looking into it too
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Comment from WizDom
Time September 18, 2007 at 11:37 AM
Congrats Darius!.. I hope the experience helps him this coming season for us