Modestas Paulauskas
Modestas "Iron Modė" Paulauskas[note 1] (19 March 1945) is a former Lithuanian professional basketball coach and basketball player. As a player, he was the youngest EuroBasket MVP in history, being only 20 years old at the time he won the award. He is known for having been one of the best Lithuanian basketball players of all time, and for having excellent dribbling ability. He was selected as the Lithuanian Sportsman of the Year, a record seven times, in 1965–1967, and 1969–1972.[1] He was a member of the Soviet team that achieved Olympic Gold in 1972 in Munich. In 1991, he was named one of FIBA's 50 Greatest Players. In 2021, he was included into the FIBA Hall of Fame.[2] Club careerPaulauskas spent his whole club career with Lithuanian teams: Neptūnas Klaipėda, Atletas Kaunas, Žalgiris Kaunas, despite getting attention from teams based in Western Europe and the National Basketball Association (NBA). He could not join them due to various reasons, one of such is Lithuania was part of the Soviet Union at that time, and it was very hard to travel abroad USSR. The other reason was he never actually wanted to leave his homeland – Lithuania. He was also asked to join Žalgiris Kaunas's main rival, CSKA Moscow, but he declined.[3][4][5][6] The nicknamed "Iron Modė" would often score half (e.g. over 40) points for his team even before the introduction of the three-point line.[4][7][5] National team careerThen just 20-year-old Paulauskas debuted in the senior Soviet Union men's national basketball team during the EuroBasket 1965, led the Soviet team to a EuroBasket title and was named the FIBA EuroBasket MVP (he is the all-time youngest player to receive this award).[6] Subsequently he won three more EuroBasket titles in the EuroBasket 1967, EuroBasket 1969, EuroBasket 1971, and a bronze medal in the EuroBasket 1973.[6] Paulauskas also was a part of the senior Soviet Union men's national basketball teams that won the bronze medal at the 1968 Summer Olympic Games, and the gold medal at the 1972 Summer Olympic Games.[8][6] Paulauskas became the captain of the senior Soviet national team in 1969.[9][6] Moreover, Paulauskas two-times became a FIBA World Champion in the 1967 FIBA World Championship, 1974 FIBA World Championship, and won a bronze medal in the 1970 FIBA World Championship.[6] Paulauskas is the all-time most titled Lithuanian basketball player of the FIBA championships and Olympic Games.[3][10][11][6] Coaching careerAfter retiring from playing basketball competitions, Paulauskas worked as a coach of the Soviet Union junior national teams from 1977 to 1989. In the early 1990s, he was the head coach of his native club, Žalgiris Kaunas.[12] After that, he coached basketball in schools, both in Lithuania and in Russia.[13] Notes
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Further reading
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