Kemzura: New face of Lithuanian basketball?
Is the search for Team Lithuania head coach nearly over?
Lithuanian news service LITA is today reporting that the candidates for the position vacated by Ramunas Butautas after his team’s extremely disappointing performance in Eurobasket 2009 currently number three: Lithuanian citizen and former Team Latvia coach Kestutis Kemzura, current Team Greece coach Jonas Kazlauskas, and Lietuvos Rytas head coach Rimas Kurtinaitis.
Kemzura is thought to be the leading candidate for the job. Before taking the Latvia job in 2008, the coach of teams such as Lietuvos Rytas, Benetton Treviso and Dynamo St. Petersburg, had been wooed by Polish basketball and other national programs.
Kemzura was last heard from in the news blasting several of his players from his Latvian national team, claiming several of them were too fond of drinking over practicing; Kemzura singled out team co-captain Kristaps Valters as “irresponsible” and “afraid to admit he made a mistake.”
Despite this, Kemzura claims he’s still considering a contract-extension offer from Latvia. Said offer expires on Thursday.
