Žalgiris foreign head coach has a bad feeling about the Kaunas team

J. Salumets looked around with satisfaction at the Saku Suurhall arena in Tallinn, as if it were a jubilee.

Basically, this was the case: Estonia celebrated its basketball centenary, and a young and ambitious team presented the best possible gift to itself and to the 71-year-old president of the country’s basketball federation, Lithuania’s true favorite in the Baltic Route Tournament.

Before the game, J. Salumtes firmly shook hands with former Lithuanian national team coach Ramūnas Butautas, who now works for the LKF, and current national team strategist D. Maskoliūnas, whom he coached in 1993-1994.

During the history of “Žalgiris”, the team has been coached by six foreign trainers, if we don’t count Marcus Brown, who led the team in the LKL final series with Dainius Šalenga after Vladimir Romanov overthrew D. Maskoliūnas.

J. Salumtes was the first to arrive in the first year of LKL’s establishment, and is now interested in how Austrian seventh Martin Schiller, who entered the shoes of Šarūnas Jasikevičius, will succeed.

J.Salumets was not only the first foreign coach of “Žalgiris”, but also the first karate champion to train the basketball club: the image of the owner of the black belt helped him control the students and the exceptional details of his career in basketball. managed to come into conflict with two coaches of the USSR national team.

Salumts drew attention to himself when in 1968 he scored 33 points in the final of the European Youth Championship in the Yugoslav basket.

The 19-year-old was invited to Alexander Gomelski’s USSR national team, but refused to go there, saying he was “too young and ready to study.”

A. Gomelskis made that decision personally and no longer invited J. Salumets to the national team. Salumets soon helped the Estonian national team achieve a historic victory against the United States youth team by scoring 25 points against NBA legend Julius Erving.

It was only when A. Gomelski was replaced by Vladimir Kondrashin that the Estonian had a chance and won a bronze medal with the USSR national team at the 1973 European Championship. This was his only trophy in men’s basketball, because J .Salumetsas also had a conflict with V.Kondrašin.

After finishing his career, J. Salumets began training at Kalev in Tallinn.

Salumets raised Kalev of Tallinn in the USSR championship, and in 1991 the Estonian team even unexpectedly won the last Soviet championship, when excellent snipers played on the team: Tiitas Sokas, Aivaras Kuusmaa, Gert Kullamae.

In 1993, the latter became the first legionary in Kaunas “Žalgiris”, where two Estonians helped win the first LKL champion title.

After the season in Kaunas, J. Salumets continued working for the Estonian national team and returned to Kalev, and after the end of his career he had tasted the bread of a politician.

He is now the president of the Estonian Basketball Federation, who openly traveled into the wild when he trained Kaunas “Žalgiris” and shared his thoughts on the future of “Žalgiris”. According to J. Salumets, there is only one way to go down the mountain.

– Can you remember the moments when “Žalgiris” invited you to coach the team? – 15 minutes J. Salumets asked in Tallinn.

– “Žalgiris” invited me during the European Championship in Germany (J. Salumetsas trained the Estonian national team there, which ranked sixth; this is the Estonian’s greatest achievement after regaining independence).

That’s where we agreed. He also agreed with Gert Kullamae.

– Who negotiated?

– Doctor. Do you know what that is? Yes, Vytautas Vaikšnoras (former Žalgiris team doctor, then briefly led the team).

– What memories remain of the season in Kaunas when you were the first coach of “Žalgiris” abroad?

– Yes, I was the first and I know Vlad Garast was still fighting me for that. Why? Because I was a foreign coach.

– Is it true that at that time the “Žalgiris” players were difficult to control, did they like to visit bars?

– The problem is that when I got to Žalgiris, I found the skeletons of the old team. First of all, what I had to do when I got to Kaunas was to introduce discipline.

Gintaras Einikis, Arūnas Visockas: He drank and fell for two weeks. The first week in the hospital, then again, there were such things.

Visock was very difficult to return to the team because he himself was afraid to attend training. Due to alcohol consumption, he was psychologically weak. But then he worked honorably.

When they played, they played fair, especially in the playoffs. After all, we fought with the athlete throughout the season, in which Žydrūnas Ilgauskas, Saulius Štombergas played and Vladas Garastas trained. We also had to fight the judges.

– And how did you fight against G. Einikis for his interest in drinking?

– When I arrived, I had a brief conversation with him. Then he had just punched someone in the mouth, entered the police and got him out of there.

An agreement has been reached between us. I said, “If that happens again, I’ll take you …” (points to the neck).

It was worth it. Psychologically, he was afraid of those things. They knew that I was also the Estonian karate champion in the heavyweight category.

I threatened, “Einiki, I will break your mouth because the whole team is suffering for you.”

After that conversation, I didn’t have a problem with Einik until the end of the season.

– Why did you forbid players to talk about basketball before the decisive game?

– You know, I had that habit. Not only in Žalgiris, but also in Kalev in Tallinn.

During responsible competitions, the additional talks about basketball are just an unnecessary waste of nerves. We play a very serious game, we need to relax, get away from our basketball.

I know that if you think too much about basketball, it bothers you.

– Do you remember that match with Efes Pilsen from Istanbul? Did this prevent the judges from overcoming the selection barrier and entering the Euroleague?

– I remember perfectly. After the game, the president of Efes Pilsen came and apologized to me: he said he needed more to win this game than Žalgiris.

We led in Istanbul and the Italy referees whistled neatly for 35 minutes before making two important whistles at the end of the match. Through them I started the game.

– Did Žalgiris offer to stay after the season?

– Nerd.

I don’t know why, but Žalgiris had financial problems.

At the time I was a coach, Virbickas was like this: He was soon shot (Vydas Virbickas, who ran the Kaunas Basketball Sports School and the Lithuanian and Baltic Women’s Basketball Leagues, was found with a gunshot wound to the head in the the forest of the Kaišiadorys district in 1998).

And then, as far as I heard, he killed another person, through which the money traveled to Žalgiris. They killed him in the following way: he knocked on the door, opened it, and then: how much. They shot him.

After that, the money disappeared immediately. I have heard that.

– Now Šarūnas Jasikevičius’s contract with Kaunas “Žalgiris” was around one million euros a year. What was your profit at the club?

– Two thousand dollars. But there were other times.

– Did you want to stay at “Žalgiris” after that one season?

– You know, when the salary is delayed by 2 to 3 months … They did it until the end and they didn’t pay everything.

– When Ainaras Bagatskis came to Žalgiris, you said you needed to raise the team and that you needed to keep it. What is more difficult to lift or hold?

– Keep. Bagatsky got up and I had to keep up. I think Žalgiris did the right thing because I did a great black job.

I was not loved and neither did I have loved ones. I was all the same

– Even Gert Kullamae?

– He too. I talked to him like everyone else, he was not exceptional for me. Some complained, but did not have many friends or acquaintances, it was all the same.

– Did you live alone in Kaunas?

– My wife had come to visit me. But there was no need to leave Estonia, because young children remained there.

– What do you think about the current situation of “Žalgiris”, when Šarūnas Jasikevičius left the club?

– I wonder what will happen now.

I always say: there is a beginning, there is a rise (maximum) and there is a descent.

Jasikevičius has already reached the maximum. He maintained team spirit in Lithuanians who were outdated, like Paulius Jankūnas. They are obsolete or no longer, and they are spiritual players. They need a change, good Lithuanian players.

I think Jasikevičius squeezed the most, he did an amazing job. I liked Jasikevičius.