Lithuania names Adomaitis as men's national basketball coach
Xinhua, October 26, 2016 Adjust font size:
Dainius Adomaitis is appointed on Tuesday as the head coach of Lithuanian national basketball team following the departure of Jonas Kazlauskas.
Ten of the 14 executive committee members of Lithuanian basketball federation voted for Adomaitis to lead the country's men basketball team.
"He is a good former basketball player and now promising coach from the new generation," the president of the federation Arvydas Sabonis described Adomaitis to the news website delfi.lt.
Adomaitis replaced Kazlauskas, also former head coach of the Chinese national basketball team, who decided to leave when his contract had expired after Rio Olympics.
Sabonis said the federation had tried to persuade Kazlauskas to stay.
Adomaitis, 42, currently is the head coach of club Neptunas Klaipeda. For the last two seasons, he was elected as the best head coach of the country's basketball league LKL. He has also coached Lithuanian students' basketball team.
Adomaitis previously played for the country's top two teams Zalgiris and Lietuvos Rytas and won the bronze medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics as a player.
Lithuania ended its Rio Olympics after losing 90-64 to Australia in the quarter-finals and finished the tournament among the top eight. Endit