By Chris Sheridan KAUNAS, Lithuania — Just when you thought you’ve seen it all … Well, you’ve never seen it all. That’s something you always have to keep in mind when attending a FIBA tournament. Greece defeating the United States in the semifinals of the World Championship in Japan in 2006? That was right up there, probably No. 1 in my book. Russia beating Spain in Madrid for the gold medal at EuroBasket in 2007? Yeah, that’s up there, too. Might have been the closest
The undefeated crab says Lithuania will win
By Chris Sheridan KAUNAS, Lithuania — The Lithuanian news portal delfi.lt has a crab named Lazdeika (named after a legendary ancient Lithuanian wizard) in their office in Vilnius, and this is no ordinary crab. Before each game Lithuania has played, the crab has correctly predicted the winner. So far, the crab is 8-0. Here is how the crab prediction works: Two empty shells are set up on each side of the crab’s tank (it is the same size as a small fish tank). The
Thanks to O’Grime, Jonas Valanciunas has been rapped about
By Chris Sheridan Check out this video by Miami rapper O’Grime: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WV9c0pBH5dM It is going viral here in Lithuania, and should do the same in Toronto when the lockout ends. So far, 2,500 likes on O’Grime’s facebook page. Guaranteed to stick in your head.
Russia defeats Macedonia at buzzer; Eurobasket quarterfinals are set
By Chris Sheridan VILNIUS, Lithuania — Sergei Monia banked in a 3-point shot off an inbounds pass with 2.5 seconds remaining to give Russia a 63-61 victory over Macedonia on Monday night in the final game of Round 2 at Eurobasket. After two aborted inbounds plays — the Macedonians intentionally fouled on the first one with 2.8 seconds left, and Russia’s Alexei Shved then banged the ball off the player defending the inbounds pass and back out of bounds to avoid a 5-seconds call, Shved found Monia on the right
Eurobasket: Dancer of the Day
This is Ugna, a performer for Leaderdance of Klaipeda, Lithuania. Unfortunately, further biographical information is unavailable.
Eurobasket: Dancer of the Day
This is Vaiva, a dancer with Leaderdance, a performance group from her hometown of Klaipeda, Lithuania. She is 21, and her favorite player is Jonas Valanciunas.
Eurobasket: Nowitzki to play his biggest game since NBA Finals
By Chris Sheridan VILNIUS, Lithuania — With Serbia defeating Turkey this afternoon 68-67, Dirk Nowitzki still has a chance to get his national team into the quarterfinals when Germany plays Lithuania tonight. (The games can be watched live on FIBA.com). It’ll be Nowitzki’s most important game since the NBA Finals, but his team doesn’t just need to win … they need to win by 11 points or more. That is because of the complicated FIBA tie-breaking rules, which use point differential among games between