By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Sarunas Jasikevicius appears to be included on the Toronto Raptors’ agenda once more. According to veteran NBA reporter Marc Stein, the Raptors have “registered a level of interest” in Saras, currently at the helm of Barcelona.
The Raptors had previously interviewed Jasikevicius for their vacant head coach position in 2018, before hiring Nick Nurse.
Jasikevicius is coaching Barcelona on an expiring contract. He has expressed his willingness to stay with the team even if that means that he will take a massive salary decrease (around 80 to 90 percent) amid overall budget cuts on the basketball department and a certain disappointment following the team’s failure to win the EuroLeague again.
Barcelona fell to archrival Real Madrid in the 2023 EuroLeague semifinal, which was the same scenario as in the previous year’s Final Four. In 2021, the Blaugrana were beaten by Anadolu Efes in the championship game after making the Final Four for the first time since 2014.
“It’s an option,” Barcelona team manager (and once Saras’ teammate) Juan Carlos Navarro said on the chances of Jasikevicius staying with the club, after the semifinal defeat to Real this season.
A EuroLeague and Barcelona legend as player, Saras took over the team in 2020 after spending his first four years as head coach with Lithuanian side and hometown team Zalgiris Kaunas. He led Barca to the 2021 Spanish ACB League championship title (their first after 2014) and two Copa del Rey trophies (2021, 2022).