BC Zalgiris

The Wizards preseason schedule was released today and besides having a game at the Patriot Center, the only odd thing was a scheduled game versus Zalgiris Kaunas.

BC (Basketball Club) Zalgiris (Named after the Battle of Zalgiris, means green grove) Kaunas (the city in Lithuania that the team is from). I guess if they were an NBA team they would be called the Kaunas Zalgiris, or probably the Kaunas Green Groves.

The team plays in the Euroleague (last place last year) and also in the Lithuanian league (first place last year). Zalgiris won the Lithuanian league 14 out of the 17 years the league has existed. However they have only one 1 Euroleague title.

The most noteworthy player from Zalgiris history is Arvydas Sabonis, the old guy that was on the Blazers years ago. In fact Arvydas is the president of the team. Tyus Edny & Anthony Bowie also played there after their NBA careers.

They don't have a full roster yet (I think...I can't really understand the language). I'm not sure if all the players left or what happened, but so far they have a couple of Division II players and some straight Lithuanians. The only player some crazy NBA fan may know is Marcus Brown, former Murray State basketball player and 2nd rounder that played 2 seasons in the NBA. If you have heard of him then you win the prize.

So the Wizards bench gets to play the worst team in the Euroleague, and I'll probably end up going to the game. Bah.

As usual I looked at Wikipedia. Here.