Kestutis Kemzura officially signed 3-year contract with Lithuanian Basketball Federation (LKF) to become a head coach of Lithuanian national team. 39-year-old coach will also be in charge of team during Eurobasket 2011 which will be held in Lithuania. Expectations will be high but Kemzura said that if he did not believe in himself he wouldn't have taken the job.
The contract has a clause which allows Kemzura to coach a club while he is in charge of the national team. Kemzura asked LKF for this clause to be included and was happy that it eventually was in the contract.
Kemzura expressed the hope that his work will be judged by the way the team plays and not only on the final position. He mentioned Turkey and France as examples in Eurobasket 2009.
When asked about whether he is going to pick young players in the national team Kemzura told that age should not be a criteria when picking players. The best players at the time should called up despite their age.
The new coach of Lithuana refused to reveal who will be chosen as his assistants only saying that he has some names in his mind and wants to speak to those people first of all.
It's still not clear whether Lithuania will be playing any official games next summer as the team hasn't qualified for the World Championship in Turkey. According to LKF, there are some well known companies interested in paying the money to make a bid for the wild card and the negotiations are still taking place.
