Ran the comment: “BallinEurope, you can update your article with the pic i posted: Žalgiris fans showing this during, after anthem.”

Well, yes. BiE will do that.

Since opening day, hometown fans in Kaunas have sung the Lithuanian national anthem “Tautiška giesmė” a cappella (or should that be “le cappelle”?) prior to tipoff of Žalgiris games. This new tradition culminated in a particularly rousing rendition in the leadup to the must-win week 10 match against KK Zagreb. What does 15,000 fans willing their team to homeland-inspired victory sound like? Well, like this:

And if you don’t believe the Tautiška giesmė-as-fight song is the basketball fan’s equivalent of the Haka war dance, BiE can tell you his ears are still ringing from standing amid the locals belting it out preceding Eurobasket 2011 games…

Thanks to reader Augustinas for the tip!

Jonas Valanciunas recently appeared in Vilnius alongside a slightly more infrequent visitor to the Lithuanian city, i.e. Santa Claus. Valanciunas and Claus appeared as part of the festivities closing out the latest term at the Kalėdų Senelio Iššūkį, a.k.a. the Sostines Basketball School.

Naturally the prospective Toronto Raptor was challenged to a game of hoops before the thrilled youngsters, though the Team Lithuania big man was forced to play under similar conditions as ol’ Saint Nick, namely with mittens on. Whatever: Valanciunas still enjoyed home-court advantage, believe BiE.

Who won the game? See below for video…

To wit: Yesterday, the Lietuvos Rytas website ran a report stating that Milovan Rakovic could be heading back from loan to his contracted club Montepaschi Siena in January. Siena would naturally like to bolster up in the middle for a deep run into the Euroleague playoffs in lieu of the injured Ksistof Lavrinovic.

Žalgiris’ prospects for advancement aren’t exactly dim, but they’re currently mired at the bottom of Group B, in a three-way tie with Brose Baskets Bamberg and KK Zagreb at 2-5. Losses vs. Panathinaikos tonight and Bamberg next week would certainly doom the Greens to elimination; even a 2-1 finish by the Lithuanian side might not be enough.

In 49 Euroleague and Italian league games with MPS last season, Rakovic was good for a steady 8.0 points and 3.8 rebounds per outing.

Seemingly a logical move for all parties concerned, perhaps, but Massalski also claims that he has yet to be contacted by Montepaschi Siena officials.

Regardless, if Žalgiris does indeed drop the next two games, Vladimir Romanov will surely have canned Aleksandar Trifunovic by Christmas. Come New Year’s Day, BiE believes Massalski’s mind will surely be elsewhere as he’s out coach-poaching again. Or managing the team himself…

(By the way, did you know that Rakovic has a tattoo of a St. Petersburg scene?

Weems accounted for the final points of the match, blowing past the defenseless Hrvoje Peric for the baseline jam and his game-high 17th and 18th points with about 55 seconds left on the game clock; Weems missed the and-one free throw, but no matter. Žalgiris notched the key win when Kristaps Valters missed field goals on consecutive possessions.

The former NBAer has starred for Žalgiris in 2011 thus far, having amassed 17.9 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 1.4 steals in seven Euroleague games; 10.8 points and a team-high 6.3 boards per in six VTB United League matches; and a line of 10.2 ppg, 6.0 rbg and 2.0 steals in five LKL games.

Video of Weems’ clutch shot runs below.

Wrote Lawson: “I would like to thank the Zalgiris organization and fans for allowing me the opportunity to play for them. I enjoyed the experience.”

And the formerly locked-out Denver Nugget followed this up with: “Time to get this win against Malaga. Then I will be heading home on Thursday.”

Lawson has played 18 games with the Lithuanian club and has been good for 7.0 points and 3.2 rebounds per game for Zalgiris in Euroleague matches; 7.7 points and 1.7 assists in just about 15 minutes per LKL game; and 9.7 ppg, 2.8 rbg and 2.3 apg in the VTB United League.

This morning, Lithuania Basketball has Kleiza quoted as saying that in fact he *will* be returning to play for one of his home country’s two powerhouse clubs – L. Rytas or Žalgiris Kaunas – and that’s it’s merely a matter of time.

Reports Lithuania Basketball, in part: “‘We’ll see how things pan out. I can’t say that the negotiations are intense [...] the situation with Lietuvos Rytas is very clear, but I haven’t heard anything concrete from Žalgiris,’ said Kleiza.

“Lithuanian businessman and professional poker player Antanas Guoga, who is a good friend of Kleiza, is ready to cover both the salary of the player and the insurance-related costs.

“Guoga has confirmed that he has spoken to Žalgiris owner Vladimir Romanov about the opportunity for Kleiza to play in Kaunas, but is waiting for [Romanov] to field an offer…”

So just your standard stuff in the Lithuanian media, then…

BiE said he’d post CSKA Moscow vs. Unicaja Malaga highlights in order to inspect Kirilenko’s statistically odd game a bit more thoroughly, but free throws make a terrible clip…

As for Jankunas, well, reader Euroleague > NBA rightly complained, “Where is the article for Jankunas? Look at this box score!” (BiE’s assuming the exclamation point and may EL>NBA please accept apologies for not writing up Paulius; BiE was watching the CSKA game.)

And, damn, that’s crazy stuff, too. Here’s Jankunas’ line:

Minutes played – 27:53
Points scored – 24
2-pt FG shooting – 6-of-8
3-pt FG shooting – 0-of-1
FT shooting – 12-of-16 on nine fouls drawn
Offensive rebounds – 9 (!)
Defensive rebounds – 2
Total rebounds – 11
Assists – 0
Steals – 2
Turnovers – 0
Blocks – 0
Performance Index Rating – 38, just one point lower than Kirilenko’s that night.

Unfortunately for Jankunas and his Zalgiris Kaunas, the team suffered a historic defeat at the hands of KK Zagreb, who took their first-ever Euroleague win by a score of 80-78. The highlight clip, in which Jankunas is a bit more in evidence than his Russian competitor in the early running for EL Player of the Week award, runs below.

So what do you think thus far, readers? Who had the better game? Still having not seen the Zalgiris-Zagreb game, BiE’s natural inclination is to go for the AK-47, but those nine offensive boards from Jankunas? Whoa…

Yesterday, FIBA was forced to do a bizarre bit of damage control after Lithuanian media – specifically, who else but powerhouse club sponsor Lietuvos Rytas? – reported that two players competing in EuroBasket had tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs; the piece quoted representatives from the Lithuanian Anti-Doping Agency stated abnormalities had been found and that further testing would have to be done by FIBA on the samples of the two players.

FIBA Europe was quick to deny any such claims, however, soon releasing the following tersely-worded statement on the subject:

“FIBA Europe has dismissed media speculations which claim that two of the players participating in the recent EuroBasket in Lithuania returned a positive drug test.

“FIBA Europe has emphasized that any such news reports are without substance.

“FIBA Europe would have been the first to be informed about positive tests for banned substances during EuroBasket 2011, a tournament that has already been trademarked as one of the best and cleanest basketball events ever.

“On Tuesday, news reports sourcing in Lithuania and reproduced around Europe, were referring to two players who have been tested positive for banned performance enhancing substances during the EuroBasket.”

The lifespan of this rumor through the 21st-century hype cycle – from half-baked rumor to re-reportage online as fact to official denial to tapering off of tweets – with the speed of a fruitfly, and in the squall of commentary at least one Macedonian media outlet took quite the aggressive stance toward their Lithuanian counterparts.

In an English-language piece entitled “Lithuanian Media Still Upset over loss to Macedonia,” an unidentified Macedonian International News Agency (MINA) writer reinterpreted the gossip proliferation of yesterday somewhat freely.

The MINA piece, together with snarky comments provided by BallinEurope, follows.

“Lithuanian media, the same media who predicted their nation reaching the final, even printed tickets for the Spain match before their team even played Macedonia, is now claiming there were two basketball players using Steroids during the European championship in Basketball.”

(Wait a minute, Lithuanian media printed tickets?)

“Some people it seems, just can’t take a loss…”

(Oooh, zing.)

“The Lithuanian basketball federation had said nothing, but the media today claimed ‘for sure’ there were two basketball players using steroids. First it was two Macedonians, then [they] corrected themselves and now [it’s] one Macedonian and one Spaniard. Though frankly, Macedonians did request a doping test for Navarro (who couldn’t miss) as well as for the Greek referee who had 92% of his calls go against Macedonia.”

(BiE thinks that last part is meant to be ironic; either that or some people just can’t take a win.)

“FIBA issued a quick press release slamming the Lithuanian media for their speculative reporting because the international body had conducted numerous tests and all came back negative. FIBA went even as far as to say that was the ‘cleanest’ tournament ever.”

(Read the FIBA Europe statement, “…any such news reports are without substance.” Wait a minute … is that a play on words?)

“FIBA on its website refused to speculate which national teams or players the Lithuanian media referred to!”

(Perhaps because they’ve put the matter of Navarro and Bo McCalebb’s seemingly supernatural powers in the tournament into an X-file … incidentally, who ends a news story with an exclamation point?)

BiE believes the best solution in order to prevent a war of words between Macedonian and Lithuanian media/blogophiles would be to get them on the court. In such a venue, certain trash-talking might be more appropriate.

And gee, does BiE hope that the Luol Deng-to-Bizkaia Bilbao Basket story published on Krepsinis.net isn’t “without substance” as well!