Shar’s return accents: emotions, Motiejūnas screams, and yearning for attention / news

It was like coming home to a loved one for Christmas. Son, father, brother or uncle is not that important. It is not so important that the houses were practically empty, and due to the demands of the pandemic, you could not even say hello to people you had not seen for a long time.

Šarūnas Jasikevičius visited the Žalgiris Arena one night and everyone’s eyes were on him again. It was strange that his alumni did not listen to the instructions they were given, the photographers traditionally captured every emotion, and even Martin Schiller observed the opponent at the same time in the first half of the match, turning back and frozen for a few seconds.

Shar could only be glad he didn’t have to drop the basket because his hands would really be shaking.

“If there were so many emotions without the fans, it would have been much worse with them,” Jasikevičius commented after the match.

After returning to Kaunas for the first time as a player, Jasikevičius scored a double-double against Žalgiris in 1999 and after winning a duel he triumphed in the center of the Sports Center, tapping his finger on the parquet and shouting “Here is my place”.

This time he didn’t have to prove anything. Jasikevičius, who managed Žalgiris from early 2016 to March 2020, earned a universal love he did not have as a player in his hometown. In 2018, his team reached the final of the Euroleague final, his defeated players rose to a higher level, and due to their emotions, the spectators swept the entrances for the home games.

This time there were no spectators, but Jasikevičius still received more attention on the floor than any other guest coach received from the spectators.

For the first time, Šaras received a dressing room for the guest team’s coaches at the Žalgiris Arena, but it is located right next to the host team’s dressing room. It was difficult for Jasikevičius to avoid the memories of the past when she walked to the parquet. With COVID-19 changing the movement in the hallways of the arena this season, guests even enter the plaza through the same hallway as the hosts.

Thus, Jasikevičius, traditionally 13 minutes before kick-off, entered the Žalgiris Arena spotlight through the same door that he had opened since 2013, when he returned to Žalgiris as a player. To get to the Barça bench that has been dedicated to him, the coach had to go through the Žalgiris bench, where at that time the only doctor on the team was Vytautas Kailius, who received a cordial greeting from Jasikevičius.

Passing through the secretariat, Jasikevičius was already preparing to traditionally shake hands with all his employees when he recalled that this was not being done now. Shar then simply saluted.

Although he paid no more tribute to Jasikevičius (leaving it for next year, when there will be spectators in the stands), “Žalgiris” showed a report on the video cube with the best moments of Jasikevičius’s career in “Žalgiris” before the match.

It was obvious that he excited not only Jasikevičius, but also his staff members: Darius Maskoliūnas, Tomas Masiulis, and Justinas Grainis.

What happened next is a match that you will want to forget. “Žalgiris” did not score three points in three quarters and only stopped this hunger in the fourth quarter, after 11 consecutive shots without a goal. Barcelona lost 24 balls and Žalgiris lost 19.

Barcelona led most of the duel, save for a short break in the first half, and finally achieved the ninth victory of the season.

When such a match, a match hailaitu he became the voice of Paulius Motiejūnas in the third quarter. Seeing that his team fell into the pit and that the bench, which had been actively reacting to the events until then, also fell silent, the president of “Žalgiris” began to cheer on the basketball players of his team from the hostel.

“Come on, green, let’s go” (“Go ahead, green, go ahead”), “Good job, Thomas” Similar shouts sounded from the second floor of the arena and under normal conditions they would not be heard, but in an empty arena, everyone heard Motiejūnas.

“A few days ago, the whole team had a meeting where it was emphasized that we need to support each other more,” Rokas Jokubaitis said after the duel. – That’s what it felt like today when everyone stood up to support you and Paul really listened to you. Such things add encouragement, keep your head down, and encourage you to keep going. “

“Paul is the president, but above all the fans,” said Jasikevičius.

Perhaps those screams helped Žalgiris to climb and reduce the deficit to 3 points in the fourth quarter, but they still failed to break the match.

After the final siren sounded, the cameras turned to Jasikevičius, who greeted the former students one by one, and spoke with Marek Blaževičius for the longest time. In summer, after a personal interview, Sharas encouraged Blaževičius to move from Vilnius to Kaunas, but he soon signed a contract with Barcelona and did not have the opportunity to work with young talents.

“When we met Marek, we talked. He knew it could be, but he wanted to say a few words to her, Jasikevičius said. – I feel a little bad in this situation. I didn’t do anything wrong, but I feel bad. And it is a pity that only the child does not break. Marek is similar to Rokas Jokubaitis, he is much older in his mind than his passport shows. I don’t think it will break. “

After the match, Jasikevičius revealed that he had spoken with Martin Schiller on the phone over the summer, and the current “Žalgiris” coach soon called it a “classic ride”.

Overall, the press conference with Shar was another long-awaited attribute of the party – journalists, spectators, and the hero himself.

As soon as he walked into the conference room and declared that there was a “familiar smell” here, Shar sat for almost fifteen minutes and spoke much more about the former than the current team, the former rather than the current players.

“Žalgiriukas”, “my team”, Jokubaitis, Marius Grigonis, all these topics were covered.

After all, Jasikevičius doesn’t always have the opportunity to speak like this in Spain.

“I work in a soccer club. There are exactly zero journalists after every ACB game, Shar told a news conference. – Nobody writes articles on every change of mine, on every cover, every swear word. I really knew you would miss, I really miss you. That attention to Lithuanian basketball is a huge driving force, and it should be. “

It was a conversation of candid observations, jokes, and deeper insights into basketball, which Shar has gotten used to all of us in Kaunas during those years.

Traditionally, at the end of the press conference, Jasikevičius had saved a one-line joke and asked Žalgiris spokesperson Almantas Kiveris to shave his beard.

Shar’s return was expected and did not disappoint, but without spectators it was not complete. Hopefully next year the house will accept the prodigal son in full swing.