Former Lietuvos Rytas coach Tomas Pacecas has hit out at the Greek and Lithuanian basketball federations in a stunning rant.
Pacecas has said that Greece point guard Nick Calathes is a true head coach of the national side after steering his side to the Eurobasket quarter-finals, where they play Russia on Wednesday.
“What did I say? I said that Missas come from women’s basketball and junior national teams, and I thought that Dainius Adomaitis will have an advantage with his experience,” Pacecas told 15min.lt.
“I don’t take my words back. I only think that on that game Nick Calathes was the head coach.”
Pacecas didn’t stop there. Following Lithuania’s disappointing second round exit of Eurobasket at the hands of Greece, he called on Lithuanian Basketball Federation president Arvydas Sabonis to resign.
“He is our symbol,” Pacecas said about Sabonis.
“Everyone is hiding behind his back. And that’s very bad. The executive committee is some kind of a joke. Now there is a bad result for the team. And it’s impossible to conceal it. The federation is making us a team that will be happy to be in the quarter-finals. This is what basketball country we are? We are old fashioned.
“Sarunas Jasikevicius and Rimas Kurtinaitis are the two best coaches in Lithuania. There are no other coaches at this level. Arvydas Sabonis, when he appointed Dainius Adomaitis, said that he was taking responsibility. We all know what this means.”
