Lietuvos Rytas

BC Rytas

BC Rytas is one of the best clubs in the history of Lithuania. Also, this organization has one of the most interesting stories in basketball. In 1963, a new team was founded in Lithuania and this one was named Statyba. Over its 34 year history, this club was very successful as it managed to win 6 Lithuanian SSR Championships (1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1981, 1984).

However, in 1997, Statyba was going through some financial difficulties so Lietuvos rytas, a newspaper, decided to invest in the club. The interesting part is that the new owners didn’t want to keep the team’s history so they renamed the team Statyba-Lietuvos rytas, and then it remained just Lietuvos rytas.

Since 1997, Lietuvos rytas managed to win 5 league titles (2000, 2002, 2006, 2009, and 2010), 3 Lithuanian Cups (1998, 2009, 2010), 2 Mindaugas Cups (2016, 2019), 2 EuroCups (2005, 2009), 1 North European Basketball League (2002), and 3 Baltic Basketball Leagues (2006, 2007, 2009).

Right now, BC Rytas is on the 3rd place in the Lithuanian League, having won 19 games. They also played this season in EuroCup but they were eliminated in the playoffs by Valencia. They are based in Vilnius, the capital city of Lithuania, and the home games are played in Siemens Arena (11.000 seats) and in Lietuvos rytas Arena (2500).

The president of BC Rytas is Antanas Guoga, the manager is Julius Sarapinas, and the coach is Dainius Adomaitis. Rytas’ roster has the following players: Eimantas Bendzius, Marek Blazevic, Arnas Butkevicius, Martynas Echodas, Mindaugas Girdziunas, Evaldas Kairys, Chris Kramer, Lukas Kveradavicius, Derek Needham, Margiris Normantas, Artsiom Parakhouski, Aistis Pilauskas, D.J. Seeley, Deividas Sirvydis, Rok Stipcevic, Einaras Tubutis.

Over time, BC Rytas has had some great players like Tyrese Rice, Nicolas Laprovittola, Arturas Gudaitis, Sarunas Jasikevicius, Robertas Javtokas, Aron Baynes, Arvydas Macijauskas, and so on.

David Istrate

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