101 Greats of European Basketball

The man who made
9 of 9 triples
What do Arvydas Macijauskas,
Saulius Stombergas, Tomas Delininkaitis,
Arturas Karnisovas
and Eurelijus Zukauskas all have
in common? Sounds like an easy
question, right? Any mediocre
basketball connoisseur would say that they are all
Lithuanian. That is correct, but they have one more
thing in common: all of them were born in the town of
Klaipeda, Lithuania’s most important port.
When we talk about Lithuanian basketball, Kaunas
and Vilnius are first in line, but Klaipeda, a town of
180,000 inhabitants on the coast of the Baltic Sea, is
also very important for basketball in that country. Saulius
Stombergas, one of those five great players from
Klaipeda, was born on December 14, 1973, but he spent
most of his career away from his hometown. As a great
young talent, he landed early in Kaunas to sign with Zalgiris
during the 1992-93 season. However, even though
he stayed in Kaunas, he spent the first three seasons
there playing with Atletas. By 1995, he had made his
debut with the national team at the EuroBasket in Athens.
He was part of a great team with some of his idols:
Arvydas Sabonis, Sarunas Marculionis, Rimas Kurtinaitis,
Valdemaras Chomicius and Karnisovas. Stombergas
made a symbolic contribution, 2.9 points per game,
but he came back with the first important medal of his
career, a silver one after losing the final to Yugoslavia,
96-90. In 14 minutes in the final, he scored 2 points on
free throws, but he pulled down 6 rebounds, 4 of them
on offense. A year later, at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta,
he won the bronze medal.
After three years at Atletas, Stombergas made what
was then a bold career move to play for Vostok Shanghai
in China, becoming an immediate sensation in the
national league there, and enough to impress a young
local player named Yao Ming for a long time afterward.
“The year before I started my career, actually, we had
a Lithuanian player, Saulius Stombergas, in the CBA,”
Yao told Euroleague.net in an interview back in 2007. “I
think that until now he remains one of the best players
to come from Europe or even America to play in China –
the best one, really, in CBA history.”
From China, Stombergas returned to Europe to
play at the 1997 EuroBasket, where Lithuania fell in the
quarterfinals, again against Yugoslavia (75-60). But by
then Stombergas was already a key player, averaging
10.8 points, behind Karnisovas (14.2) and Sabonis
(13.3). Having risen to star status and become known
as a three-pointer specialist, he returned to Zalgiris in
1997.
Two Euro trophies in two years
Going back to Zalgiris would be the best decision of
his career. On April 14, 1998, Stombergas won his first
trophy at the club level. In the title game of the Saporta
Cup, played at the legendary Pionir Arena in Belgrade,
Zalgiris defeated Olimpia Milano 82-67. The MVP of the
game, you ask? Well, after he scored 35 points, it was
only fair that the award was given to Stombergas. It was
his night. He made 7 of 8 two-pointers, 1 of 2 threes
and 18 of 23 free throws. He also had 2 rebounds and
5 assists. A star was born. By the end of the season,
Zalgiris won the Lithuanian league and began preparing
101 greats of european basketball
Saulius Stombergas
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