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[00:00:19] Good evening, on air LRT
[00:00:21] Forum. Basketball in Lithuania
[00:00:25] is not just a sport. Its importance in Lithuanian history has probably not yet been
[00:00:29] adequately assessed. What
[00:00:31] role did the European men's
[00:00:34] interwar victories in the Republic of Lithuania
[00:00:37] have for national unity, and the European women's
[00:00:41] championship silver, for women's self-awareness
[00:00:44] in interwar Lithuania? Or without Kaunas Žalgiris' victories
[00:00:48] against the strongest Soviet teams in the 1980s,
[00:00:51] would the national liberation movement
[00:00:54] have been so powerful and all-encompassing? What
[00:00:57] impact did the consecutively won Olympic bronzes
[00:01:01] of the restored Lithuanian national team have on the nation's mood and
[00:01:05] splitting, sense of pride, precisely at a time when
[00:01:08] optimism was not too abundant in daily life?
[00:01:12] The discussion about the future of basketball should not take place only
[00:01:16] within the community. Therefore, tonight, we will talk about
[00:01:19] the current situation in basketball with personalities
[00:01:23] who have contributed to it and experts, in the first
[00:01:26] part. And about how and where Lithuanian basketball will move
[00:01:30] forward, we will talk with candidates for the Lithuanian
[00:01:33] Basketball Association presidency in the second
[00:01:36] part. So, in the first part of the show,
[00:01:40] former coach of the Lithuanian men's basketball national team, Jonas
[00:01:42] Kazlauskas, is participating. Hello. Also, the director of the Basketnews.lt
[00:01:46] portal, Jonas Miklovas. Ah,
[00:01:49] the team manager of the Lithuanian Women's Basketball National team and a long-time
[00:01:53] national team player, former captain, Gintarė Petronytė.
[00:01:56] Hello. And basketball expert, coach Tomas. Purlys,
[00:02:00] hello, hello, so in the first part, I would
[00:02:03] like to diagnose
[00:02:05] change something. Do you the situation we are in now.
[00:02:09] Mr. Kazlauskas, maybe let's start
[00:02:11] with you. How do you see the current basketball
[00:02:15] situation, especially after the context I mentioned
[00:02:18] at the beginning? I am not a doctor, I cannot
[00:02:21] evaluate it like that right away. Well, it's certainly not a healthy situation, but
[00:02:25] the fact that we are sick is a
[00:02:27] fact, because we have been waiting for
[00:02:31] victories for a long time. The worst thing is that our
[00:02:34] main flagship, the men's national team,
[00:02:38] is the most severely affected, the one
[00:02:41] that has the most opportunities to earn and share with others and so
[00:02:44] on. I think we always
[00:02:48] had some
[00:02:50] is downturns and upturns, and if we remember, there was that loss
[00:02:53] to Belarus, but immediately there was silver
[00:02:56] in Europe, there was a loss to Latvia,
[00:02:59] and immediately there was gold. We knew that
[00:03:02] we would fix something, that we would pull ourselves together
[00:03:05] and everything would be fine again. Now
[00:03:08] we are playing with teams of moderate strength or even
[00:03:11] weaker ones,
[00:03:14] and, what's worst, I think, we are lying to
[00:03:18] ourselves, lying that everything is fine, that our
[00:03:21] offense is the best, that the defense is the best, and all our
[00:03:25] fans are angry, they see that this
[00:03:28] is not the case and I think that manipulation is happening.
[00:03:32] By not acknowledging our problems, we cannot take those
[00:03:35] steps forward, those next
[00:03:37] there is a key, well, steps. Jonas, how do you see the current
[00:03:40] situation? Here I can only repeat the coach's thoughts, in
[00:03:44] fact, one thing is that the last few years have probably
[00:03:47] been years of certain division,
[00:03:50] when even people who had contributed a lot to basketball
[00:03:53] were derisively called the elite, here's
[00:03:57] this elite. What elite, we have to
[00:04:00] think about everyone, and the conversation is essentially about trying
[00:04:03] to please those people who will bring you votes in the
[00:04:07] upcoming elections,
[00:04:09] and flattering voters, most of whom are in the regions,
[00:04:13] representatives of regional basketball communities,
[00:04:16] right? And on the other hand, there was no denigration
[00:04:19] of those people, nobody said that those people were doing some bad work,
[00:04:23] it was just that perhaps there was a lack of
[00:04:26] involvement of those people in the decision-
[00:04:30] making process for those issues, because we have many people, Coach
[00:04:33] Kazlauskas is one of them, who have been sidelined and their
[00:04:37] opinion is not really asked about how things should be done, because
[00:04:41] allegedly one has to listen to those who hold more important
[00:04:44] voting positions. And in your opinion, is that
[00:04:48] the biggest problem, or is it somewhere else that
[00:04:52] the deteriorating results, the worsened
[00:04:55] results are due to? I think, generally, when
[00:04:58] an organization's leader
[00:05:01] is not focused on strengthening the organization,
[00:05:05] but is engaged in many other things and primarily strengthening
[00:05:08] his own position, his personal position, can we talk about a long-term strategy?
[00:05:12] Can we talk about youth development plans for 10
[00:05:15] years? Can we analyze,
[00:05:18] strategize? All that was a closure
[00:05:22] to protect one's inner circle, one's positions,
[00:05:25] to win future elections, to look four years ahead and no
[00:05:29] further. A few more big topics: women's
[00:05:32] basketball, Gintare, how do you see the situation? Well,
[00:05:35] if we talk specifically about women's basketball, well, and generally, let's start with the broader
[00:05:39] picture, then maybe move towards women's, so first. About the general
[00:05:42] picture, how do you see it? The general picture is really very sad and
[00:05:46] that division, and we see that the bubble finally
[00:05:50] burst, because we've been heading towards that for many years, everyone
[00:05:54] is tired of losses,
[00:05:58] of a hunger for victories. Now we never had such a problem that
[00:06:02] we can't even gather the best players for the national team, and now finally
[00:06:05] look at how many dramas we have in total, it is really very
[00:06:08] sad. We don't have, I would
[00:06:11] look deeper into the foundations, because now everyone
[00:06:15] is pointing fingers at the top of the pyramid, talking about the men's national team, about
[00:06:18] the women's national team and that there are no results, but we need to look at what
[00:06:22] was done and how we got to this point, what our system is, and
[00:06:26] those problems lie much deeper. As for women's
[00:06:29] basketball, currently we cannot say that
[00:06:32] it is very bad, we have finally returned among the eight
[00:06:36] strongest European teams, we have two WNBA
[00:06:40] players, perhaps we will be able to say soon, maybe even a
[00:06:43] WNBA champion, because Justė Jocytė is playing in the final.
[00:06:47] Juškaitė had an impressive season, the European Championship is approaching, which
[00:06:51] will be held in Lithuania for the first time, such a huge event, so
[00:06:54] in fact a spark, we have a
[00:06:57] Euroleague team that returned after so many years, so
[00:07:01] for us, is everything okay? Ah, no, I certainly wouldn't say that
[00:07:05] it's good, because look,
[00:07:07] how much has happened over all these past
[00:07:10] years, it's only now that we can rejoice,
[00:07:14] but realistically, looking at the problems
[00:07:17] and all the dramas that have been here, it's not
[00:07:20] all as beautiful as it seems now. Tomas, you
[00:07:23] are a youth coach, you work with the most talented
[00:07:27] young people, that core,
[00:07:30] the spearhead of all basketball,
[00:07:33] the spearhead. How do you see the situation, how does
[00:07:37] the whole system seem to you? You see,
[00:07:40] first of all, one must start from the very
[00:07:42] children's basketball, that is probably the main
[00:07:46] indicator, which is mass participation, where we see that football
[00:07:50] already surpasses basketball in mass participation, conditions, coaches'
[00:07:53] competencies, then moving further, the transition from
[00:07:57] children's basketball to youth basketball, we see that
[00:08:00] the results in youth basketball are also not good, perhaps
[00:08:03] not very bad, we are somewhere near medals,
[00:08:07] but still it's not what we were used
[00:08:11] to before. And now, looking at the men's national team
[00:08:15] context, we really have talent, we have quite a lot of talent, and
[00:08:19] and of course those talents, super talents, they
[00:08:22] usually are born, like Wembanyama, like
[00:08:25] Arvydas Sabonis, like Šarūnas Marčilionis, we may not
[00:08:28] have such players, but generally we have talent, it's just a shame that for
[00:08:32] some reason we cannot gather the best talents of the country
[00:08:36] in both men's basketball and youth basketball. Well,
[00:08:40] such a position from many parents
[00:08:43] who send their children to sports, perhaps I would try to ask. Well,
[00:08:47] it used to be thought that if I send my child to basketball,
[00:08:50] that is an area where Lithuania has
[00:08:54] world-class competence, and where
[00:08:57] Lithuania has world-class competencies, there are really not too many
[00:09:00] such areas. It is obvious that
[00:09:03] some time ago, when parents sent their children to basketball,
[00:09:07] they expected that he would probably receive the best
[00:09:10] education in the world or one of the best. Education,
[00:09:13] methodologies, knowledge, certain
[00:09:17] systems, because here Lithuania is very super
[00:09:20] professional, because it is in the elite. Now
[00:09:24] is there that relationship or not? As we see, in children's basketball itself there
[00:09:27] are really many problems, first of all coaches' salaries, where coaches often
[00:09:31] have not one, not two, but sometimes three or four
[00:09:35] groups to collect enough money to support themselves or
[00:09:39] their family, then similarly the conditions are in many
[00:09:42] cases, when coaches run from
[00:09:46] one gym to another, travel because
[00:09:49] simply in Vilnius and Kaunas there are not a certain
[00:09:52] number of gyms, so that coaches could be
[00:09:56] in one, one of them, so there are indeed problems here as well, similarly
[00:09:59] coaches' competence, for now, for now, from the federation, well, there wasn't
[00:10:03] perhaps what we hoped
[00:10:06] to get, that all coaches would get a truly
[00:10:09] guaranteed course or
[00:10:13] other things, so that coaches could develop. Jonas, how do you see the reasons?
[00:10:17] There is, well, everyone sees
[00:10:20] a slide downhill, right, or a fall,
[00:10:22] maybe not a slide, but what are those
[00:10:26] reasons? How would you explain it? The questions touched upon here were very good,
[00:10:29] but not fully generalized. Yes, please. He said very well
[00:10:32] that the president tried to keep his position,
[00:10:36] didn't care about all the activities he was supposed
[00:10:39] to care about, and that change from federation to association, I don't
[00:10:42] understand why, perhaps to attract more convenient
[00:10:46] sponsors for himself and so on, and I don't want to delve deeper.
[00:10:50] Gintarė spoke very well about women's basketball, now there are
[00:10:53] talented players, we have a chance, there will be
[00:10:56] a championship in Lithuania, but again, I think that the federation didn't do
[00:11:00] everything, why didn't we keep Caukin's daughter to play for Lithuania,
[00:11:03] a super talent, so if we added
[00:11:06] one more to that, that she was here, trained with us,
[00:11:10] further, Kibirkštis is also playing in the Euroleague,
[00:11:14] but with whom to play in Lithuania, where
[00:11:17] where there are so few teams? Now we talk very little about
[00:11:21] the pyramid, about the foundations, about basketball, yes, those children are born
[00:11:24] talented, but not as many grow up as before,
[00:11:28] it was overflowing in all the courts, perimeter
[00:11:31] 2003, Jasikevičius, Kaukėnas, Šiškauskas,
[00:11:34] Macijauskas, we can list them endlessly. And
[00:11:37] now, where, where, you see,
[00:11:40] we talk little, we don't talk about how
[00:11:43] to standardize the system for coaches, how to help them, how,
[00:11:47] how, that someone would protect, how, we
[00:11:51] don't communicate, we don't talk among ourselves and we don't look for those problems.
[00:11:55] Didn't you try to offer yourselves, to say, listen, maybe I'll try?
[00:11:58] Jonas said very well before
[00:12:01] that, right? There are those who can speak, there are those who are smart, and there are those who
[00:12:05] have to step aside. Did you feel such an attitude or not?
[00:12:08] Well, that maybe it's better if Kazlauskas doesn't stir
[00:12:11] the waters. Look, I'm not offended,
[00:12:15] not hurt, not anything,
[00:12:17] it's just a shame, of course, that the years are passing and
[00:12:21] when you can help someone, but well, it is
[00:12:25] what it is. About the reasons again,
[00:12:27] because well, everyone sees the result, all viewers see
[00:12:30] that basketball, well, it's too
[00:12:34] big a deal for even the uninterested not to know
[00:12:37] that things are not going well, right? How do you see the reasons, Gintare?
[00:12:41] Where are the main reasons for this
[00:12:44] downhill slide? I would like to return to
[00:12:48] what you would focus your attention on. On the women's basketball side, if I wanted,
[00:12:51] what I see as the biggest problem is , as Tomas said, about
[00:12:55] mass participation, to
[00:12:57] bring girls into basketball. Realistically, we currently
[00:13:01] have no one to choose from. The numbers for the last few years
[00:13:04] of the school basketball league are approximately
[00:13:07] 6,000 boys playing and only 900 girls. So
[00:13:11] the difference
[00:13:15] huge. There are several age groups in the school
[00:13:18] league where only six teams participate in the girls' championships, so
[00:13:22] what level are we talking about and...
[00:13:25] eventually, this is all part of the system. A young
[00:13:29] girl comes, she needs to see what chain and what path
[00:13:32] awaits her to professional sports. So what does she
[00:13:35] see now in the school league? Six teams, then the youth
[00:13:38] national girls' teams, who usually fight for
[00:13:41] survival in division A or to get into it. Then
[00:13:44] we see the women's league, where foreigners dominate, and some
[00:13:48] players just come to train after work, who are just
[00:13:52] perhaps semi- professional. So
[00:13:55] how to bring children into it? Tomas, was there something that
[00:13:59] worked and perhaps was destroyed? Maybe
[00:14:02] some solution that changed
[00:14:05] reality, from which the deterioration began,
[00:14:08] or is it some schools in the regions,
[00:14:11] maybe some I don't know, what Kasparas
[00:14:15] Jakučionis said after the U16
[00:14:19] national team, when we became European champions, he said one very good
[00:14:22] thing, he said: I am very happy that there was a rule
[00:14:26] that you couldn't set screens, make plays, which we used to do
[00:14:29] perhaps too much, and everything was focused on individual
[00:14:32] preparation, and as much as I was in national teams, we had
[00:14:36] for the first time, where we really did not lag behind in individual
[00:14:40] preparation, yes, we might have lagged behind in physical preparation, but physical preparation might be somewhat
[00:14:43] due to maturation, because we Lithuanians are often later maturers. Here
[00:14:47] I think one mistake was also made, that we again returned to perhaps
[00:14:51] screens, of course, whoever wants to, doesn't do it, it's somewhat
[00:14:55] the coach's business, but on the other hand, what we gained
[00:14:57] is truly that we prepared many individually
[00:15:01] stronger children than we used to before. Now
[00:15:05] yes, this was destroyed before, this was before the old federation,
[00:15:08] we played like that, and precisely those old federations were terrible because we
[00:15:12] in U16 could play individually, we had individually strong
[00:15:15] guys. Jonas, how do you see it? Were there any fundamental
[00:15:19] decisions that, well, that caused these results, which
[00:15:23] are still happening now, or is it just some characters,
[00:15:25] oppositions, I don't know, intrigues, what you are talking about and
[00:15:29] so on. I will add to Tomas what he mentioned, why those changes
[00:15:33] were canceled, because again, before
[00:15:35] the elections,
[00:15:38] sports schools were promised that we would cancel
[00:15:41] this, we would cancel that rule that children
[00:15:44] should play without screens, without plays, so that
[00:15:48] they would develop individually, because allegedly it was a certain
[00:15:51] advantage for stronger big city
[00:15:55] sports schools, and the regions were promised that it would be
[00:15:58] canceled, and again they were thinking about their
[00:16:01] votes, I'm repeating myself here, but essentially it was done to create a better
[00:16:05] position for themselves, not to think.
[00:16:11] Jonas, let's explain to the viewers, this is a matter for discussion,
[00:16:15] we need to discuss how to do it better, not those regions, as they say, but here
[00:16:19] it's about for example, regions fighting
[00:16:22] again to defend the court, where at
[00:16:26] a young age, where that court is not needed by anyone, and
[00:16:29] then you are left with, when everyone crowds into the three-second zone, you
[00:16:33] are left with one thing, to shoot from afar, whether you make it or not. Yes, they
[00:16:36] lose less, but is it important
[00:16:40] for us to have a difference, or is it important
[00:16:43] for us to grow someone? That's one thing, another thing,
[00:16:47] look, for me, the national team is the national team, for me
[00:16:50] the national team means the best players, whether women or men, are the best
[00:16:53] players, at first there was the national team, then there was the second
[00:16:57] national team, then what happened was, whoever
[00:16:59] came together, right? I say, I think this is a very big
[00:17:03] minus for the federation, that it shouldn't be like that, we
[00:17:06] have been talking about this for a long time. We talk about how long the war can continue,
[00:17:10] FIBA, Euroleague, that we should sit down,
[00:17:14] negotiate, so where are our influential people
[00:17:18] who participate there, why are there no
[00:17:20] talks, why nothing is happening and
[00:17:24] we always suffer and windows, plus some
[00:17:27] other things, and we don't gather and don't gather,
[00:17:30] so then it turns out that no one
[00:17:33] wants to go anymore. So we have to solve,
[00:17:37] talk about these problems, raise these problems,
[00:17:40] influence,
[00:17:43] see that, well,
[00:17:45] the winning side,
[00:17:48] with those they
[00:17:52] competed with, opposed, or those who supported
[00:17:55] the competitors, are immediately excluded from any
[00:17:58] decisions, and rallying, I guess, is not
[00:18:02] a strong point of this
[00:18:05] federation for a long time. Yes, I always give
[00:18:09] the Serbs as an example, look how they fight among themselves, argue,
[00:18:12] get angry, but when the question arises, Serbia
[00:18:16] and the rest of the world, they are united.
[00:18:20] Insiders and outsiders, Gintare, do you see that kind of thing, that within
[00:18:24] Lithuania, in that very basketball
[00:18:27] community, some are outsiders, what
[00:18:30] Jonas is talking about, division, what didn't exist before, right? Do you
[00:18:34] notice that people are categorized into...
[00:18:37] Yes, yes, absolutely, more than ever, more than ever, more than ever, and that is
[00:18:41] the result of the former federation president
[00:18:45] Mindaugas Balčiūnas' activities. So what's happening now,
[00:18:48] everything was happening then, and now I say, what have we come to?
[00:18:51] Well, I can't even comprehend
[00:18:55] looking at what's happening
[00:18:57] now, for example, in the men's national team, when there is such
[00:19:00] a possibility, when one, two, three players refuse to play, one can think
[00:19:04] about some personal
[00:19:06] reasons, but the refusal is massive, so you understand that
[00:19:10] something is wrong, and then we see these conflicts in the public
[00:19:13] sphere, when a coach's assistant, how much can he allow himself to go
[00:19:17] and talk about Jonas Valančiūnas, who
[00:19:20] played for so many years, gave his all and is the team captain,
[00:19:24] gave so much to this team, and someone from the team staff,
[00:19:27] not just anyone, goes and allows himself to talk like that. So how can we expect
[00:19:31] some normal relationship and Jonas,
[00:19:34] sport is such a thing where sometimes even when you are
[00:19:37] best prepared, with the best staff, the best
[00:19:41] players, you will not succeed. In 2019,
[00:19:44] Adomaitis' performance at the World Championship, when the French
[00:19:47] player Gobert touched the rim with his hand at the end of the game,
[00:19:51] the referees didn't call it, they deflected the ball, they recovered that
[00:19:54] ball, won. Adomaitis' result
[00:19:58] is that he doesn't make it into the top eight, and does he not make it because
[00:20:01] he did something wrong? Most likely not, it's just that at that
[00:20:05] moment luck didn't smile on him.
[00:20:08] And at the same time, as Gintarė says, there is another
[00:20:11] way, you don't even try to do everything best you can
[00:20:15] from your side, you, becoming a coach's assistant, start with
[00:20:18] insulting the captain, and no one
[00:20:21] seems to do anything from that side to support
[00:20:25] the captain, a person who from childhood, from 16, 15
[00:20:28] years old, every summer traveled to the national team,
[00:20:31] represented youth national teams, men's national teams, and no one
[00:20:34] even stands up for him, as if the federation, please. Someone
[00:20:37] stood up, no one from the federation stood up, no one from the federation stood up,
[00:20:41] correctly, yes, Tomas, let's continue
[00:20:43] about the importance of the psychological
[00:20:47] climate, if we continue that topic, it seems very
[00:20:50] important, so one of the goals in the near
[00:20:53] future is probably what? It is to
[00:20:57] rebuild relationships across the entire community? Look, we
[00:21:01] are a small nation, and when we have such people
[00:21:04] as Jonas Kazlauskas, Šarūnas Jasikevičius, Benas
[00:21:07] Matkevičius, Martynas Pocius, Tomas Balčietis, these are some of the best
[00:21:11] specialists in their field, and when
[00:21:14] basketball is indeed modernizing in every area, you
[00:21:17] having such people,
[00:21:20] it is simply a very big mistake not to use
[00:21:24] them. And here is the answer, that we are small, we
[00:21:27] really have a lot to offer the world, we really have many
[00:21:31] specialists who could help basketball, but they are
[00:21:34] turned away, and this is probably the new federation's, the new
[00:21:38] federation president's perhaps responsibility and
[00:21:41] and and goal, that these
[00:21:45] people would help and be with us, with the basketball community,
[00:21:48] help with their knowledge and other things. When did that
[00:21:52] division,
[00:21:55] start, well, so loudly about it, as Gintarė says,
[00:21:58] it's never been like this, more than ever, there's never
[00:22:02] been such division as now, never, says Gintarė,
[00:22:05] when did it start, Jonas, it's hard for me to say, but
[00:22:09] indeed it is, you also agree that it's a red
[00:22:13] flag from the tension between different people. When I was
[00:22:16] a coach and Sabas was president, there was already some
[00:22:20] offense, dissatisfaction, someone said something wrong to someone,
[00:22:24] something was not honored correctly, no,
[00:22:27] something already started from then,
[00:22:29] and it just kept
[00:22:33] going and going until it spiraled out of control, as long as
[00:22:37] Sabas was president, as long as he covered for everyone, as long as everything
[00:22:40] was fine, and then everything suddenly
[00:22:43] changed, and since there was one side,
[00:22:46] let's say, the other side was artificially
[00:22:50] created, as you said. I don't think that
[00:22:53] elite, as it was called, was so bad or anything,
[00:22:57] but we talk a lot about what was, of course, we need to analyze, we need
[00:23:00] to close. For me, it would be more interesting what we see, because
[00:23:04] now is a very important moment, now are the elections,
[00:23:08] what ideas, what will we do, what will we change, how, where will we
[00:23:12] go, how much do we talk about that pyramid, about that
[00:23:15] unification? Now we have to use
[00:23:19] all our chances, we still have a chance
[00:23:22] to make it, when we no longer have it, then we can talk, we no longer have it, but now
[00:23:26] we have a chance. I see that only
[00:23:30] by uniting everyone, especially by reconciling
[00:23:33] with Žalgiris, we can still win something,
[00:23:36] I'm talking about the men's national team, we have to make the best
[00:23:40] women's championship, but now talking about the men's national team,
[00:23:43] since it clashes, without Žalgiris' sacrifice, it will be very
[00:23:47] difficult for us, whoever will be. whoever will unite, whoever
[00:23:51] will speak, he must arrange with Žalgiris, that anyway,
[00:23:54] however it will be, because their matches clash, they want
[00:23:58] Dainius Adomaitis, it seems, very wise
[00:24:01] decisions, to take one assistant from Rytas, another
[00:24:04] assistant from Žalgiris, such no political
[00:24:07] thinking, but there is still
[00:24:10] a federation behind Adomaitis, again, which
[00:24:13] also has its very strong say, so
[00:24:17] these are close relatives, this is the women's championship. the national
[00:24:20] team, close relatives, it is very important to us, what Tomas
[00:24:23] said, about the pyramid, our foundations started to crumble,
[00:24:27] about the general concept, how we will go forward, how we will raise
[00:24:31] young people, they leave too early, too late, how we will
[00:24:34] integrate, I think that now in the league there are already
[00:24:37] many, almost all teams are working very well, before
[00:24:41] we used to think where to direct that young player,
[00:24:44] whether in Panevėžys or Klaipėda, there is no difference, or
[00:24:47] in Šiauliai, the coaches are working well, professionally. physical
[00:24:50] training, maybe we should direct those young people so that they
[00:24:54] grow up there, and then they come, but we need to
[00:24:57] sit down and talk, and who is that unifier, who
[00:25:00] is our leader, who talks about it. Gintare,
[00:25:04] the division, it is in principle
[00:25:07] real, or is it created, what I
[00:25:10] mean, is there really some natural
[00:25:14] opposition between basketball people in the regions
[00:25:17] and those who are in Vilnius and Kaunas, for me. that
[00:25:20] there really is, and we see that
[00:25:24] perfectly, and anyway,
[00:25:26] as it was mentioned about the elite and non- elite, it seems like there are
[00:25:30] some conflicting people here, but now I would also agree that we need
[00:25:34] unity more than ever, as you see,
[00:25:37] Tomas, let's briefly summarize this part, is it
[00:25:41] solvable in the short term, or are there some already
[00:25:44] deeply rooted I don't know, really
[00:25:47] solvable, really yes.
[00:25:50] It was from perhaps one or a few people some
[00:25:53] I don't know things, where it really did not
[00:25:57] in that sense oppose society, it did not try
[00:26:01] to unite it, so I... I think this was a very big problem and
[00:26:05] really probably one of the new LCK
[00:26:08] president's, probably one of the main goals, is to integrate
[00:26:12] and integrate the elite elite, elite people
[00:26:15] and of course, that there would not be that opposition, what was now
[00:26:19] some opposition between the provinces, between cities, between
[00:26:22] perhaps those people who voted for you, it doesn't matter, and
[00:26:25] those who voted against, well, there were exactly such things,
[00:26:29] where sometimes if you voted for me, you get some
[00:26:33] bonus, like a youth national team assistant position and so on and so forth,
[00:26:37] I think such things cannot be. Jonas, let's summarize, a few
[00:26:40] key accents for the future about the basketball community and
[00:26:44] basketball a Lithuanian basketball association? Mutual
[00:26:48] dialogue, a mandatory thing, involving everyone, involving
[00:26:51] everyone, looking for those you like and dislike, but
[00:26:55] dialogue, listening even to those opinions you don't like,
[00:26:58] that was especially lacking, not surrounding yourself with people
[00:27:02] who are convenient for you and who will bring
[00:27:06] you some benefit, but those who will lead Lithuanian basketball forward and finally start looking to the future four
[00:27:09] to eight years ahead. What are the thoughts of the candidates
[00:27:13] for the presidents of the Lithuanian Basketball Association, what are their possible
[00:27:17] priorities, we will talk after a short break, stay with
[00:27:20] LRT, we will soon continue the LRT forum.
[00:27:35] Trump's deal with Putin, Ukraine's betrayal or
[00:27:39] an election trick?
[00:27:42] President Putin is very good at manipulating President Trump,
[00:27:45] what impact will the unpredictable turns of the White House
[00:27:49] have on European and Lithuanian security? The
[00:27:52] message sent is this: it is necessary to strengthen common defense
[00:27:55] in Europe. Octopus. Thursday, half an hour before
[00:30:36] So, we return to the LRT forum and continue the discussion, this time
[00:30:40] with the candidates for the presidents of the Lithuanian Basketball
[00:30:43] Association, that is Darius Gudelis, candidate for the association's president,
[00:30:46] good evening, also Gediminas Kvietkauskas,
[00:30:50] candidate for president and Rolandas
[00:30:53] Kaizgirys, candidate for the association's president. This is not
[00:30:56] a discussion, it is not a debate, just a discussion, so you.