Translated from an article in Lithuanian newspaper “Lietuvos rytas” (published Aug 7, 2010)

Lithuanian basketball has been looking for an heir to Arvydas Sabonis for almost two decades. Jonas Valanciunas, who has led Lithuanian basketball team to the European U18 Championship title, has emerged as a new candidate to take the Sabas’ throne.

J.Valanciunas is experiencing a new-found fame both at home and abroad after the recent triumph at the European juniors. He received his MVP trophy from the hands of the former President of Lithuania Valdas Adamkus, and took his champions’ medal from Sabonis himself. The 18-year-old basketball prodigy from a small Lithuanian town of Utena didn’t reveal to anyone yet what his basketball idol told him on the winners’ podium.

“I haven’t told anyone, and I’m not going to. You should try calling Sabonis, maybe he’d tell you”, smiles J.Valanciunas. “It’s really flattering to be compared to such legendary players as Sabonis, but I think it’s too early to say that about me.”

Valanciunas was just twelve when Sabonis ended his basketball career. The new European youth champion was born in a different country than the brightest Lithuanian basketball star. Jonas still remembers the time, though, when Sabas has returned to play for BC Zalgiris Kaunas in Lithuania and won the Euroleague MVP award in his farewell season in 2003-04.

“He was definitely my favorite player then”, says Valanciunas. “I didn’t see him play in person, but I used to watch his games on TV. I still watch some of those old games once in a while.”

Valanciunas says he found videos of Sabonis’ earlier career games on YouTube. He watched the videos with Sabas playing for Portland Trail Blazers in the NBA, representing Lithuania in the Olympic Games in 1992 and 1996, as well as Sabonis’ games for Zalgiris Kaunas in the USSR basketball championships from the 80s.

“I saw videos of Sabas when he was still very young. His passing impressed me the most”, admits Valanciunas. “Everything was important in his game: his finishing skills, positioning under the basket, but his assists were just amazing.”

It’s not that surprising today when this 18 year-old grabs a rebound with his right hand and palms it “a la Sabonis”, or tries to find a teammate with a familiar behind-the-back pass. Especially since Valanciunas had a unique opportunity to learn Sabonis’ secrets from more than just old grainy videos. Both during European U16 championships in Italy, and now in Euro U18 in Lithuania, he shared the hotel room with Tautvydas Sabonis – one of three sons of Arvydas Sabonis.

“Tautvydas is a great guy. We are good friends, and we used to talk about everything. We were also learning together watching basketball videos, including the ones where his father is making those passes.”, says Valanciunas. “Sometimes his dad would give him advice, and Tautvydas would share it with me. Both of us learned valuable details about the game that way.”

Looks like these indirect lessons from Sabas proved to be useful. The young Lithuanian center already made his mark in European youth basketball history. Valanciunas is the first and only player to receive two of the most important award in the European competitions. He was named the Most Valuable Player of the European U16 basketball championships in 2008, and received the same honors in the European U18 championships this year.

“Let’s be honest – Lithuanian U18 team would not have won the European title without him”, says Kestutis Kemzura, the head coach of Lithuanian mens basketball team.

“He’s using not only his size, but his quickness as well. His wrist is magic. It’s easy to miss short jumpers around the basket, but the basket seems to literally suck his shots in”, Arvydas Sabonis says about Valanciunas. “He’s great in defence, and he knows how to avoid fouls. Jonas is a center, so he has to clean up everybody else’s mistakes. It takes skill to play clean in this position and avoid picking fouls. He just has to keep his head on his shoulders, and he’ll standing on many more podiums.”

“Jonas Valanciunas is a young and very promising player. He does remind me of Sabonis at a similar age. However, Valanciunas needs to keep working hard and improve his fundamentals to really fulfill his potential.”, says Rimas Kurtinaitis, who has won numerous titles with Sabonis playing for Zalgiris Kaunas and Lithuanian national team. Last year he was the head coach of BC Lietuvos Rytas, Valanciunas’ team in the Lithuanian League.

By winning the MVP award at the European U18 championships, Valanciunas is following the footsteps of another promising Lithuanian player – Donatas Motiejunas. The 7-footer power forward/center received the same award in 2008 after leading Lithuania to the final, averaging 18.2 points and 10.2 rebounds throughout the tournament (Valanciunas averaged 19.4 points, 13.4 rebounds in the same campaign this year). Motiejunas also won the silver medal with Lithuanian U20 team the same year. Now he’s playing for Benetton Treviso club team in Italian League.

“Both Valanciunas and Motiejunas are the future of Lithuanian basketball. Only Motiejunas’ defensive liabilities prevented him from making the roster of Lithuanian mens basketball team this year, though his game made a huge progress this year. I hope both him and Valanciunas will continue working hard”, hopes Lithuanian coach Steponas Kairys.

“Unlike some other young and talented players I’ve coached, Valanciunas is exhibiting good work ethic, and has a great desire to improve.”, stresses Kurtinaitis.

Outside of their native country, Lithuanian basketball prodigies are more often compared with other European basketball stars. Motiejunas is most often compared to Dirk Nowitzki, Tiago Splitter, or Luis Scola, while Valanciunas draws more comparisons to Pau Gasol.

“He might not be the new Tim Duncan, but he’s definitely not going to be another Nikoloz Tskitishvili either”, writes French magazine “Maxi Basket”.

“Valanciunas does remind me more of Pau Gasol rather than Sabonis”, agrees Lithuanian coach Ramunas Butautas.

Pau Gasol actually wasn’t that impressive at a similar age as Valanciunas. Gasol averaged unimpressive 6.4 points and 3.9 rebounds for Spanish U18 team when it won the European title back in 1998.

So do these achievements on the junior level actually mean anything?

“This age is a ‘make it or break it’ time. Some players rise to the occasion, while others slip into the oblivion. It depends on a lot of factors”, says Butautas.

“Jonas Valanciunas is dominating the players in his own age group. He needs to improve quite a few things to become a truly great player on a senior level, though. He needs to make his post up game more consistent, learn to better lock his position in the paint, and to stretch his shooting range to the 3-point line. Then he would be a prototype for a complete player of the future basketball.”, explains Kairys.

Perhaps Sabonis revealed Valanciunas the secret of how to become such a player?..