Unknown stories from Ž. Ilgauskas: the most sensitive moments, the Lithuanian national team and activities after the NBA

This story is presented through the lips of V. Bulotas.

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How the Lithuanians did not understand the talent of Ž.Ilgauskas. I remember it very differently now than I did then. We didn’t have that much information, there weren’t that many opportunities to see the NBA, to understand how scouts value players. Then we went absolutely green and we all looked at him rudely: what’s in the NBA here, what can you do? What are you talking about? It will not play there in life.

Even his running style did not change: he always ran squirming. Since he was not athletic, the Lithuanians did not evaluate him.

It was incomprehensible to us. But life was so shaped that Cleveland allowed me to work closer to the Cavaliers’ kitchen. Then I realized through the prism that they look at young players.

How is everyone, for example, talking about David Sirvydis these days and saying where he can play here in the NBA? But they look at completely different things that viewers, not even all coaches, understand. And they see the potential of the player, his potential after 2-3 years. The things they can see and deduce are uneven for our understanding.

NBA Žydrūnas was discovered when we took him to the United States to play against NCAA universities. After those few games, interest in him grew brutally. So we didn’t even know who the agents were, but the basketball people made us wonder what Žydrūnas could be.

He had exceptional height, plasticity, understanding, and basketball style. We saw him lame, young, athletic, but he was infinitely hard-working, very clumsy, realizing that this was his path.

How hard he worked, even plastered, during the rehabilitation period … Žydrūnas looked at him with great care and responsibility. He had the will, the stubbornness, and he accomplished what he accomplished.

Diagnosis by palpation. I remember his first visit to Minnesota when he played sports with Kevin McHale with a broken leg. We even have records of that workout when the team’s physical therapist asked why you’re limping. Blue said her foot hurt. He grabbed her and said without any magnet: Listen, brother, she is broken.

Žydrūnas had previously had an x-ray in Kaunas and the x-rays did not show a fracture. Then there were all those adventures. But when he went to the NBA review, he mobilized and showed his character as he could be even in such a condition.

Zigmas Petrauskas contributed a lot to making Žydrūnas play sports and stay in basketball in general. Because it was he who took him to the United States, diagnosed foot problems, organized the treatment, paid a lot and helped a lot.

When, at one point, after another injury, Žydrūnas considered finishing his career, he thanked me for having a certificate because I could enter NCAA University with him. But then I calmed him down and said, If there is at least one percent that surgery will help, use it. He then exploited it and successfully completed his career.

Anger with V. Garast. We observed and consulted with local doctors, they groped, they observed, they did an x-ray. I remember paying a lot of money for that private consultation. The doctors did not say anything terrible, you just have to hold on.

But he could no longer suffer. Those dreams of Garasto that began intoxicating about the NBA, I don’t want to play. We talked to Žydrūnas more than once, sometimes even in sad times, where he said, “Why doesn’t anyone believe me? It really hurts and I can’t play. “

I remember when together with Žydrun we went to Vilnius, to “Respublika”, to write a reply to V. Garast. That moment was very hot. I kept persuading him not to, we didn’t write, but he was very categorical: he wanted everyone to know the truth, not one side. I asked journalist Saulius Ramoška to support the article, not to publish it, maybe Žydrūnas will change his mind. But Žydrūnas did not change his mind.

On the one hand, I understand the coach (V. Garasta, aut.), I said the same to Žydrūnas: if four teachers tell him that everything is fine and that he is not playing, maybe the coach was looking for a reason in you, no in medicine.

Later it turned out that Žydrūnas was right. I think, and Garast realized that this was not the best time. And it came out as he came out.

The twentieth call in the exchange of newcomers and the tears of Ž.Ilgauskas. I remember taking Žydrūnas to the Vilnius airport with Škoda Felicia. LKL then had a sponsorship agreement and each club had received a Škoda Felicia. Žydrūnas somehow snuggled up to her and took him to the airport.

Zigmas Petrauskas had flown to Minnesota with him and knew the NBA level, so when I went to pick up Žydrūnas, he asked me not to drive with Škoda Felicia anymore. He said he would organize a limousine, maybe there were two in Kaunas at the time.

We rented a limo and went to see Žydrūnas’s mother to meet him at the airport. Antanina was a housewife, she ran away with a coach, who is like that here. He saw the car and was in shock. I said there is already such a level in the NBA here (laughs).

He jumped into that car and said: Zydrūnėlis needs to buy flowers. We stopped at a flower market in Vilnius. There weren’t many limousines at the time, so all the merchants looked at that limo.

We went to the airport, Žydrūnas comes out and says, well, here you drove (laughs). It was a very pleasant surprise for him.

A modest Lithuanian in a hectic NBA environment. Ilgauskas has been a very modest man all his life. Easy, easy, it will never jump. If I ask him twice, he will still ask me if you are really wrong or if you wanted to ask me why I don’t want to give you anything.

The blueberry is not without emotion. It does, but its fuse is too high. And to get through it, you have to bury it so it gets mad (smiles).

After the Donatas Motiejūnas newcomer swap, I interacted with Kevin McHale and remembered Žydrūnas. He says: I didn’t really think I could go that far then, but as a person I really liked him then.

That Žydrūnas modesty, not speaking when you don’t need or what you don’t need: he had better speak, be quiet, have that opinion with him. He understood very well who is a Lithuanian in the NBA. There are an infinite number of people like him, the natives, and only works, not languages, can prove what you’re worth. It reminds me of Domantas Sabonis.

When Žydrūnas had not yet bought a house in Cleveland, he lived in an apartment building where Vitaly Potapenko and Bob Sura still lived. We spoke on the phone once and he said to me: I’m going to open the door, because if I don’t open it, he will leave with the frames immediately; I feel like Potapenko and Sura have returned from the club.

Zydrūnas was not one of the participants. But, as he said, how much our Lithuanians were allowed to drink here was a bit of what some NBA players could afford.

Not playing for the Lithuanian national team. Žydrūnas desperately wanted to play for the national team. When the team won the European Championship, medals, I sent him a video of how the players sing, rejoicing. He wrote to me: I won’t even have a kaif like that when I win the NBA because it will be different, I really want to play with that. chebra.

He did his best. He had returned to Vilnius with his wife, Jennifer, and was really looking for ways to play in Beijing. He himself wanted to contribute money to the insurance. They did their best with the agents just to get permission. There were simply no opportunities. I can shake hands and cut off my head that Ilgauskas really wanted to play for the national team. But who will believe me here?

But he understood the club’s position. When the owner invested in his health, operated, cared for and gave everything he had for so many years, he realized that he owed the man and the club an infinite amount to the contrary.

The blueberry is a person with a very sensitive and very good soul. When the politicians stand in the stands and say that they did nothing for Lithuania, how much it helped their good. suffocatesHe financially helped institutions, orphanages, only through such things has he given Lithuania more money than the politicians who shouted out loud against him with their taxes.

This is the only Lithuanian whose jersey is hanging in the NBA arena. When will there be someone else? Give it to God to hang Sabonis or Valančiūnas. But it is not only an evaluation of the sports result, but also an evaluation of it as a personality.

They understand very well that adopting two children and taking them from Lithuania to Cleveland is a very strong decision. How much you helped the Kaunas basketball school in Lithuania … I remember that we wanted to repair the hall. He asked us if the wardrobe was as it was in its day. I say, Žydrūnai, that wardrobe was like that in my time. He asked her to count everything, both the hallway and the dressing room. I sent him a quote and he asks: here in litas or dollars? I say, in litas. He asked him to add more, to add. But he never announced it. I didn’t need it. How much more did you help people I don’t know?

The same two adoptive brothers, a room for rebuilding a million children’s homes … And then they tell him that you will not be a Lithuanian citizen … Žydrūnas is a great person, but he also has a great heart. No one will surely erase that Lithuania from their hearts.

But you must have a Lithuanian passport. We must return the people to Lithuania. At least one passport, at least one passport …

Cleveland Award for Merit in Life. I felt Žydrūnas’ magic and power while in Cleveland. Just as Sabonis cannot pass in Lithuania at Laisvės alley, Ilgauskas cannot pass in Cleveland.

I remember there was a time when Žydrūnas no longer had a contract with the Cavaliers, the owners, the managers, the coach changed at the club, and even after the last game he pulled his card out of the locker in the locker room, people walked by. the street and almost knelt on the road. Z would stay in Cleveland.

Žydrūnas was eager for that call, only to call him and offer him a new contract (according to NBA rules, clubs could communicate with free agents and negotiate only as of July 1). He called him from the first minute after midnight and he stayed in Cleveland.

As a person, personality and player, Žydrūnas is highly valued in Cleveland.

Fraternal relationship with LeBron James. Žydrūnas replied very well. It wasn’t like he was a star here. Žydrūnas had a very natural human relationship with him.

One of those indicators, when Martynas Andriuškevičius was already in Cleveland. I once asked Martin to order a LeBron signature shirt. And he says, are you kidding me? The only person who can ask here and can get a signature is just Žydrūnas (smiles).

But, I think Žydrūnas found out after that, because once for Christmas I received a LeBron shirt with his and the team’s signatures. I think it shows their connection and mutual respect.

Long life after the basket. In addition to what he experienced, Žydrūnas had a brutally long career. He always played a lot of sports in the summers, starting with weights, and in recent seasons he even worked in the boxing hall, karate.

From what I can see in his photos, what he sends with the kids, hunting, golf, he takes care of himself: he is not overweight. Knowing the situation standing up, he knows how to behave.

He stopped working at the Cavaliers club because he wanted to spend more time with the children so that they could sit at the computer as little as possible. He led them from one sport to another to be as tech savvy as possible: playing real sports instead of using the keyboard keys.

He also went to school to work as an assistant coach, but his main activity was raising children and living. Although, as they said, employment is really enough (smiles).

He now spends most of his time in Cleveland, but has not severed ties with Lithuania. Here he has many friends and people who love and respect him.

Hear more interesting stories from V. bullets about Ž.Ilgauskas and the basketball scenes that accompanied his career. 15min urBONUS basketball podcast.