Shar named what could lead to victory in the Euroleague and admitted that he started training more patiently

48-year-old Šarūnas Jasikevičius testified in the EuroLeague video before these confrontations that he became more patient over the years and had a completely different way of imagining communication with the players.

“Basketball is everyone’s work 24 hours a day. Everything is important in basketball, just like in life: it is important to take care of yourself, your body. Now I understand that the most important thing is that everyone in the team can and is able to sacrifice for the well-being of the team.

Sh. Jasikevičius also remembered his career as a coach in “Žalgiris” Kaunas, when he took over the helm from Gintaras Krapikus in 2016 and led the team for four years.

“Now I understand that I took a lot of things for granted at the beginning of my career. First of all, I thought that everything that is obvious to me, easy and simple, should also be understandable to the players. But it wasn’t like that.

Over the years, I started to train a little more patiently, without prejudices or positions that it is elementary”, explained the Lithuanian coach.

“The game is getting faster, there are more three-pointers, but the most important things remain – you have to defend well, not to allow cheap points to be scored.

In European basketball, the teams are very similar and everything is determined by cheap or so-called quick points, offensive rebounds.

But at the end of the game, everything should be decided by the best players in the team. I remember that in Kaunas I had the experienced Paulias Jankūnas and such defenders as Vasilje Micičius and Kevin Pangos. At the most important moments, I used the simplest combinations, wanting the ball to be in the hands of the best players,” Sharas explained his vision of victory.

The Lithuanian coach has made it to the final four of the Euroleague three times with Barcelona recently, but he was unable to win the tournament. With “Žalgiris” Kaunas, Sharas won bronze in the final round in Belgrade in 2019.