By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
Sarunas Jasikevicius makes the trip to Sacramento.
He will join the Sacramento Kings for one month, thus through the 2023 NBA Preseason. The news was reported by the Lithuanian outlet 15min on Thursday.
Jasikevicius, 47, is currently a free agent. He parted ways with FC Barcelona following the 2022-23 season, despite winning Spain’s Liga Endesa with a three-game sweep against archrival Real Madrid in the ACB Finals. Over three seasons as the head coach of the Catalonia powerhouse, he captured the ACB championship in 2021 and 2023, and the Copa del Rey in 2021 and 2022. However, he missed out on all opportunities to win the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague.
Before Barca, he introduced himself to the coaching world by guiding his hometown team Zalgiris from 2016 to 2020, following two years as an assistant coach. Success with the Kaunas outfit was highlighted by reaching the 2018 EuroLeague Final Four.
Bouncing back to action, he traveled to Sacramento intending to follow the training camp over the next month. Leading player Domantas Sabonis and assistant coach Deividas Dulkys are fellow Lithuanians permanently based with the Kings in the capital of California.
Before his coaching career, Jasikevicius logged 148 games played in the NBA between the Indiana Pacers and Golden State Warriors. Despite numerous achievements as a player in Europe, including winning four EuroLeague titles at the club level and one EuroBasket title at the international level, his run in the NBA was far from equally eventful.
Photo Credit: EuroleagueBasketball.net