The only two current Lithuanian NBA players, Domantas Sabonis and Jonas Valanciunas, plan to represent their country at the upcoming EuroBasket 2022 Qualifiers.
“I’m excited that both Domantas Sabonis, both Jonas Valanciunas have expressed their interest in joining the national team,” Lithuania coach Darius Maskoliunas said. “Everything is now in the hands of Federation officials, who are formalizing things with the Indiana Pacers and the Memphis Grizzlies, respectively. I’m hopeful they will be able to help our team again.”
Sabonis and Valanciunas last represented Lithuania at the 2019 FIBA World Cup where the team finished ninth place.
Lithuania’s full 25-man preliminary roster for FIBA EuroBasket 2022 Qualifiers:
| Laurynas Beliauskas | Eimantas Bendzius | Laurynas Birutis | Marek Blazevic | Arnas Butkevicius |
| Tomas Dimsa | Martynas Echodas | Deividas Gailius | Dovydas Giedraitis | Zygimantas Janavicius |
| Adas Juskevicius | Evaldas Kairys | Mantas Kalnietis | Arnoldas Kulboka | Mindaugas Kuzminskas |
| Jonas Maciulis | Augustas Marciulionis | Gytis Masiulis | Domantas Sabonis | Deivydas Sirvydis |
| Jonas Valanciunas | Paulius Valinskas | Sarunas Vasiliauskas | Arnas Velicka | Eigirdas Zukauskas |
The 2021 EuroBasket, which was scheduled to take place from Sept. 2-19, was moved to 2022 due to the coronavirus pandemic and will now take place from Sept. 1-18, 2022.
Each group of the EuroBasket 2022 Qualifiers will now play the second window of games at a single venue from Nov. 23-Dec. 1, 2020.
The list of where each group will play:
- Group A: Valencia, Spain
- Group B: Tallinn, Estonia
- Group C: Vilnius, Lithuania
- Group D: Istanbul, Turkey
- Group E: Espoo, Finland
- Group F: Ljubljana, Slovenia
- Group G: Pau, France
- Group H: Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
After the first window of EuroBasket qualifiers back in February, Lithuania is second in Group C with a record of 1-1 behind Belgium who is 2-0.
Sabonis and Valanciunas were not with the team for the first two qualifying games, as it overlapped with the NBA season.
Lithuania will take on Belgium and Denmark (0-2) in their next two qualifying games.
