Sarunas Jasikevicius

Sarunas Jasikevicius was born on 5 March 1976(49 years old) in Lithuania. Sarunas Jasikevicius is Basketball Player, Zodiac sign - Pisces. More detail about Sarunas Jasikevicius given below.

Sarunas Jasikevicius Timeline

• 1982
  

  u0160aru016bnas started going to school in Jonas Jablonskis Middle School in 1982 and attended it till 1987. He had to take the bus to go to school even though the thermometer outside read minus twenty and he knew that the most important thing for his parents was that he spent as little time as possible with the toughest people of Partizanai Street. From 1987 to 1993, he was studying at Kaunas 4th Middle School. His first trip destination was Moscow, which he visited before the tournament. Jasikeviu010diusu0027s greatest youth memory in the city was the opening of the first McDonaldu0027s in Russia. He remembers that his classmates were listening with their mouths gaping when he was narrating about the French fries, bread rolls with minced beef and fizzy drinks. One of his childhood passions was history, especially about the Native Americans, as well as books about basketball as he was capable of reading a book of more than four hundred pages on basketball in two days. He was also curious about politics, especially when Perestroika began, because of which he was able to travel to Berlin with his father and brother, and was amazed by the visit to the Checkpoint Charlie Museum. His childhood favorite Lithuanian player was Arvydas Sabonis, which he admired more than other Lithuanian superstars, such as Rimas Kurtinaitis and Valdemaras Chomiu010dius, due to his passing. However, his idol was Drau017een Petroviu0107, and he wished to be as good as him, watching matches of him over and over again, dozens of times, for hours and hours, and later started imitating him in workouts. After one of his trips, his dad came back with a videocassette recorder, using which he was able to record an NBA All-Star Game with Michael Jordan, Clyde Drexler, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, David Robinson, and later to watch it for couple of years, more than hundred times. Jasikeviu010dius also started to record games of u017dalgiris and Petroviu0107 every time he was able to. Thanks to the video recorder, he discovered the existence of a no-look pass of Magic Johnson. For him, he was the NBA, not Michael Jordan. His unselfishness, imagination and the way he dribbled, passed between his opponentu0027s legs bewitched Jasikeviu010dius. Consequently, his favorite element of basketball quickly became assisting his teammates, and he was trying to do it like Petroviu0107 or Johnson.

• 1986
  

  Jasikeviu010diusu0027s father Linas always was a sports lover and along with him, he followed practically everything, together they cheered for USSR national teams or any athlete who had USSR written across his or her chest. Not surprisingly, his dad took him to the first basketball workout when he was 6 years old. His first coach was Feliksas Mitkeviu010dius in Kaunas basketball school, who was strict and not once was chasing u0160aru016bnas when he was trying to run away from the workouts. According to Mitkeviu010dius, when u0160aru016bnas was 12 years old, he was so sick of basketball that he wished to drop it. He visited his parents, outlined the situation and stated that it would be a huge loss to Lithuania. Following it, his dad had a strong conversation with u0160aru016bnas and forbade to drop basketball, which he wished to replace with tennis. In Kaunas basketball school he met with the future NBA star u017dydru016bnas Ilgauskas with which he was meeting practically every day, at school, in the gym or elsewhere for the next eleven years. Tomas Masiulis was another notable player in his team. Jasikeviu010dius remembers that at first he was seen as the guy who was "talented but lazy" as he was no devotee of the gym; all he did was joke around and try to work as little as possible. Consequently, once his dad stopped him from going on a trip to Minsk with the team, a trip of kind which happens only once a year, as his marks were disastrous and it was a punishment: "No school? So no basketball". Though, his parents were happy to see him venting his hyperactivity in basketball, and this made them urge him on towards the sport, as it also helped him avoid bad company in the area. They played in the gym, and also in the street using scrap metal instead of real baskets, and their favorite pastime was called minus, a kind of forerunner of little game that can be seen today during the NBA All-Star Game called "horse". It was far from ideal, but his parents preferred to see him play with the scrap metal hoops in front of their home rather than down at the pitch, where it would have taken him less than five minutes to pick a fight with the wrong person. His childhood dream was to become a u017dalgiris player about which he was so crazy that he knew everything about every player, even the playersu2019 shoe sizes. Following the u017dalgirisu0027 victory in 1986 Intercontinental Cup, he begged his father to take him to the airport to welcome home the players, where hundreds of people were waiting in the freezing cold. His father knew some of the players, and managed to get signed posters and photos that he used to decorate all the walls of his room.

• 1997
  

  Jasikeviu010dius started his senior national team career in 1997, when he played for Lithuaniau0027s senior national team at the EuroBasket 1997. Jasikeviu010dius was also a member of the senior Lithuanian national team that won the bronze medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics. He averaged 14.0 points and 5.1 assists, and scored a tournament-high 27 points, in a semifinals loss to the United States.

• 2003
  

  Jasikeviu010dius played the next three seasons with FC Barcelona, and won the EuroLeague with them in 2003. He started for the championship team, and averaged 13.4 points and 3.2 assists per game. He also led the team to two Spanish League titles, and two Spanish Kingu0027s Cups.Jasikeviu010dius joined Maccabi Tel Aviv in 2003, and helped them win two EuroLeague titles, two Israeli League crowns, and two Israeli Cups. He was named the 2005 Israeli Basketball Premier League MVP.

• 2005
  

  Jasikeviu010dius signed with the Indiana Pacers in July 2005. The deal was worth $12 million over three years. He played in the NBA with the Pacers in 112 regular season games (16 starts), in one and a half seasons, averaging 7.3 points and 3.0 assists per game.

• 2006
  

  In 2006, Jasikeviu010dius became the first European player to have his own nominal basketball shoes manufactured by Adidas.In 2006, Jasikeviu010dius married Israeli model Linor Abargil, the winner of the Miss World 1998 beauty pageant (as Miss Israel). They divorced in 2008.

• 2007
  

  On 17 January 2007, Jasikeviu010dius was traded to the Golden State Warriors, along with Stephen Jackson, Al Harrington, and Josh Powell, in exchange for Troy Murphy, Mike Dunleavy, Jr., Ike Diogu, and Keith McLeod. He did not become a part of the rotation in Golden State. He averaged 4.3 points and 2.3 assists per game, in 26 games (2 starts) played, in only 11.9 minutes per game. Jasikeviu010dius was bought out by the Warriors on 20 September 2007.On 25 September 2007, Jasikeviu010dius signed with Panathinaikos. The deal reportedly was worth u20ac7 million euros net income over two years (7.7 million including his buyout). With Panathinaikos, he won the EuroLeague again in 2009. Jasikeviu010dius became the only player in basketball history to win the EuroLeague with three different teams. He also won three Greek League titles and three Greek Cups with Panathinaikos. In 2009, he signed a contract extension worth u20ac 3.5 million euros net income with Panathinaikos. He underwent a knee surgery that same year, and after 5 months of rehabilitation, he returned to the court with limited playing time.Jasikeviu010dius also helped Lithuania win the bronze medal at the EuroBasket 2007. He averaged 10.4 points and 5.6 assists per game, and scored a tournament-high 18 points against Turkey, on 3 September 2007.

• 2009
  

  In 2009, he met Anna Douka, in an Athens bar. Currently, the pair have two children: a girl named Aila, who was born in 2010, and a boy named Lukas, who was born in 2012.

• 2010
  

  In November 2010, Jasikeviu010dius signed a one-year contract with Lietuvos rytas of the Lithuanian Basketball League.

• 2011
  

  In January 2011, Fenerbahu00e7e, bought-out Jasikeviu010diusu0027 contract with Lietuvos Rytas, and he signed a one-year contract with them.In September 2011, Jasikeviu010dius signed a new contract with Panathinaikos. At age 36, he was named the Greek Cup Final MVP, as he helped Panathinaikos to victory against Olympiacos, in a game that finished with a score of 71u201370.

• 2012
  

  Despite rumors that Jasikeviu010dius would join u017dalgiris, in July 2012, Jasikeviu010dius signed with his former team, FC Barcelona. During the fifth Spanish Liga ACB finals game against Real Madrid, Jasikeviu010dius scored 23 points, and dished out 2 assists, in 19 minutes of game action. However, it wasnu0027t enough, as Real won the game 79 to 71.As of 2012, he was the only Lithuanian basketball player to participate in the Summer Olympics four times in a row. He retired from the Lithuanian national team following the 2012 Summer Olympics. In his entire career as a senior Lithuania national basketball team member, he averaged 10 points, 2.3 rebounds, and 4.9 assists per game.

• 2013
  

  On 1 July 2013, it was announced that Barcelona had parted ways with Jasikeviu010dius.In September 2013, Jasikeviu010dius returned home to Kaunas, signing with u017dalgiris. On 30 September 2013, he debuted with u017dalgiris, during a game against Unics Kazan, scoring 6 points and dishing out 4 assists. He retired after the season, and joined the u017dalgiris coaching staff.

• 2014
  

  On 29 July 2014, Jasikeviu010dius announced his retirement from playing basketball, and was appointed to an assistant coach position with u017dalgiris. After the firing of head coach Gintaras Krapikas during the 2015u201316 season, Jasikeviu010dius became the teamu0027s interim head coach. On 13 January 2016, it was announced that he was appointed as their new head coach.

• 2015
  

  In 2015, his biographical book Laimu0117ti neuu017etenka (English: To win is not enough) was published in Italian, Greek and Lithuanian languages. An English version was also soon released. Later on, Spanish and Israeli publishing houses also showed interest.

• 2016
  

  On 22 January 2016, he accomplished his first EuroLeague victory as a head coach, when u017dalgiris shockingly crushed the previous seasonu0027s runners-up, Olympiacos, by a score of 75u201355, at u017dalgiris Arena. On 26 October 2016, just before the first game versus his former long-time head coach u017deljko Obradoviu0107, u017deljko said: "I knew that he will be a good coach and in the future - one of the best in Europe". On 13 June 2017, he was named best coach of the 2016u201317 LKL season. After the season, San Antonio Spurs and U.S. national team head coach Gregg Popovich invited him to join his coaching staff during the 2017 NBA Summer League. However, Jasikeviu010dius declined, due to his already early planned summer. Jasikeviu010dius also took third place in the voting for the 2017 Alexander Gomelsky EuroLeague Coach of the Year award.

• 2017
  

  On 21 July 2017, Jasikeviu010dius married the mother of his two children, Anna Douka, after 8 years of relationship. The ceremony was held in Greece. Many famous basketball personalities attended the event, including u017deljko Obradoviu0107, Dimitris Itoudis, Mike Batiste, Paulius Janku016bnas, Darius Songaila, and others.

• 2018
  

  In the 2017u201318 EuroLeague season, Jasikeviu010dius and his u017dalgiris surprised by ending in the sixth place in the regular season. On 26 April 2018, u017dalgiris qualified for the 2018 EuroLeague Final Four by beating Olympiacos in game 4 to clinch a 3u20131 series win. It was achieved by having a second lowest budget in the whole league. During the semi-final, u017dalgiris played Fenerbahu00e7e Dou011fuu015f, unfortunately losing 76u201367. Two days later they faced CSKA Moscow in the bronze medal game, winning that game 77u201379 and finishing third in the season. On 20 June 2018, he was named best coach of the 2017u201318 LKL season after coaching u017dalgiris to yet another Lithuanian League title. On 27 June, Jasikeviu010dius signed one-season contract with u017dalgiris. He was named as a LKL Coach of the Year for the third straight time in 2019.

• 2020
  

  On 2 July 2020, Jasikeviu010dius signed a two-year contract to be FC Barcelona head coach.