Lithuania has a proud basketball legacy.
This is not contributing to it.
BC Lietuvos Rytas president Gedvydas Vainauskas said some racist things about the construction of his team:
As translated by Simonas Baranauskas:
Vainauskas later released a statement:
„While talking about the lessons learned during the last season, I had in my mind the situation with foreign players.
The principal position of BC Lietuvos Rytas is that a basketball player first of all is a professional.
Unfortunately, a few our foreigners did not meet expectations of the club.
During the play-offs they acted irresponsibly and that had a great negative impact on our team’s performance. In my interview, I expressed my disappointment about some of the foreign players selected for the season.
I apologize, if I was improperly understood.“
Translation: I didn’t use enough code words initially to describe my concerns about black players, but I still want to express similar sentiments.
This should not fly. Euroleague Basketball is proposing consequences.