V. Kariniauskas: about the problem of offensive players, competition in the national team and the world championship that changed his career

At the beginning of the summer of last year, Vaidas Kariniauskas, the offensive player of the Lithuanian national team, tied his future to the Mažeikiai “M Basket Delamode” team, but he never put on the shirt of the Žemaitija club. After a good performance at the World Championship, in which the match against the USA team was the most memorable for basketball fans, the basketball player changed his career direction and joined the lineup of Vilnius “Wolves Twinsbet” before the start of the season.

Visiting the “Wolves Podcast” podcast, the player from Aly was asked by journalist Justas Naulicka if he would have stayed in Mažeikiai if not for a solid game in the first round.

“I think I played well throughout the championship. I didn’t score many points, but I led the team well off the bench. I didn’t do some particularly good things, but I did all the little things that the coach asked me to do and I think I helped the team really well. Anyone who understands basketball has seen it. I don’t know if I would have stayed in Mažeikiai. I can’t guess because I can’t imagine”, V. Kariniauskas could not find a clear answer.

Reflecting on the problem of attacking players that has plagued the Lithuanian national team for several years, V. Kariniauskas remembered his first steps in basketball and saw the mistakes of the previously widely applied youth training system at the level of sports schools.

“I have my opinion and I went through it myself, I had to go through it. In Lithuania, you were either not needed because of your height, when they took us to sports schools, or, so to speak, they took us and “cut us off”. They didn’t let your body grow on its own, they gave you a lot of hard training, they thought that through that hard work you have to achieve, you have to win matches. There are a lot of them – I used to play two or three matches a day. It’s just that the bodies of those players can’t take it, and when the time comes when they have to give a result, they’re not there, because we made it so that they don’t exist,” the 30-year-old basketball player shared his youth experience.

When the host of the podcast was considering whether V. Kariniauskas would be among the 3-4 candidates to join the national team fighting for the Olympic ticket in the coming summer, the “Wolves Twinsbet” player himself assured that the most important thing for him would be the good performance of the national team in the selection, and then in the Olympic Games, but not whether he himself will receive an invitation to represent Lithuania.

“It’s not me who decides, but the coach. He will take the ones he needs. And the most important thing is for Lithuania to be at the Olympics, because it was not there in the past. Maybe I gave a banal answer here. But if I am in the national team, I will be happy. If not, my family will be happy because I will be home. It is important that the national team enters and plays there”, V. Kariniauskas smiled.

Speaking about the increased competition in the ranks of the capital club after Latvian Artūras Žagaras returned to the lineup after an injury, he saw only positive things.

“My next vision. If you have three, four, five people who can play pick and roll, drive the ball, make decisions, it’s only better. I would like to have as many players as possible if I were a coach. Maybe if I were 20-year-old Vaid, there would be problems. But now… I’ve been quite lucky in my career, I’ve won a lot of titles, no matter what level I’ve played. Still want to win something. Whoever plays the best that day will play,” said V. Kariniauskas.

“Long break”: Wolves lineup for next season – which players lived up to expectations and who disappointed, who is worth keeping, candidates to strengthen the squad in the summer, the question mark over Pacevičius’ future and the figure of Maksvytis