101 Greats of European Basketball

Vladimir Stankovic
after two overtimes. Arlauckas contributed 13 points
but before the end of the regular season he was cut for
the second time in his career. In 12 games he averaged
10.7 points and 4.7 rebounds.
Re-birth in Spain
The new era in Arlauckas’s career would start in
Spain. He landed in Malaga to join Caja de Ronda. At the
beginning, he didn’t match well with coach Mario Pesquera,
but little by little he started to adapt better and
formed a great duo with center Ricky Brown, a former
European champion with Milano. After beating Estudiantes,
Joventut and Barcelona on the road, with 45
points by Joe against Barça, everyone realized that
the Spanish League had a new star. In his two years in
Malaga, he averaged 21.6 points and in 1990 he moved
to Baskonia. The American coach Herb Brown, the
restless scout Alfonso Salazar and president Josean
Querejeta were the people behind that great signing.
During three years in Vitoria, he averaged 22.0 points.
With Pablo Laso, he formed a great guard-power forward
tandem while the pair of big men was completed
by Ramon Rivas of Puerto Rico. Before the Barcelona
Olympics in 1992, the Lithuanian basketball federation
tried to get Arlauckas to play for the national team because
of his Lithuanian heritage, but he didn’t accept.
However, he would play a bit later with Arvydas Sabonis
in Real Madrid.
In the Korac Cup, Europe discovered a great scorer.
In two duels against Zadar, he scored 79 points (40 and
39). Against Banik of Czechoslovakia, he outdid himself
with 87 points and 32 rebounds in two games. In the
Korac Cup of 1992-93, he finished with an average of
32.0 points and 11.7 rebounds. As good as it gets.
Three great seasons in Vitoria opened the doors
of Real Madrid to Arlauckas, where he would meet his
“fellow countryman” Sabonis. Despite some problems
at the beginning to understand each other, details were
tweaked with a little bit of time. After that, simply put,
they were one of the best combinations of power forward
and center ever in European basketball. For the
1994-95 season, a still-young Zeljko Obradovic landed
on Real Madrid’s bench to become the new coach. He
already had two European crowns with Partizan (1992)
and Joventut (1994). Nowadays, Arlauckas says that
the coach he learned the most from was Obradovic. In
return, the coach only has good words to say about one
of his favorite players ever:
“He was a killer in the most positive sense of the
word,” Zeljko said. “I am very proud of having had him
as a player and as a person. The wins and the points get
forgotten with time, but you never forget about good
people and Joe was one of the best.”
With amazing memory, Obradovic quickly pinpoints
the result against Kinder. He remembers the game as if
it happened yesterday: “I was considered to be a coach
who loved basket-control, low scoring, slow pace... Then,
we had the game in Bologna with a true festival by Joe.
He scored everything with great ease. He was a complete
player, he had it all. He could shoot, rebound, he
was fast, he had the technique, he was courageous... He
was one of the best players I ever coached in my career.”
Zaragoza, 17 years later
That same season of the great night for Joe Arlauckas,
Real Madrid would become the European champion.
The most-awaited title since 1978 arrived on April 13 of
1994 in the Final Four played in Zaragoza. In the semifinals,
Real Madrid got rid of Limoges by 62-49 as Arlauckas
scored 12, while in the title game, Los Blancos
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