One of the most dominant players of the last years left the Euroleague team Zalgiris Kaunas this week. Tanoka Beard, who once made 69 rating points, a still valid Euroleague record, announced on a Press conference on Friday that he will leave his team he played for during more than 5 years and that he will sign in Israel at Hapoel Holon.
During his press conference, Beard stated:
"First of all I would like to thank all the fans in Lithuania for making the last five years, probably the best in my life. I want to thank Zalgiris for giving me an opportunity to resurrect my career five years ago. But most importantly I want to thank all of my teammates that I had over the five years. We have been like a family, we were extremely close and I will have them and Zalgiris in my heart forever. We have achieved a lot of good things together and I can leave with my head held high."
Of course, this sounds very nice and I really do believe him that he had a great time in Kaunas. Not only that he won several championships and made huge games in the Euroleague, he also became a hip-hop star in Lithuania. However, his famous Myspace page seems to have been deleted.
At the end, there has ben some problems as Beard production on court was more and more reduced and coach Grigas was not using Beard anymore like he the Center thought he should be used. This came to the already famous scene where Beard refused to get substituted and then took off his shoes on the bench. Now, they found an agreement, that Beard can leave and this gave the opportunity to super prospects Donatas Motiejunas to get some minutes with Zalgiris. However, the Lithuanian team is looking for a replacement as Motiejunas may not yet be ready for the Euroleague.
But I want to remember also the good things of Tanoka, so here you can find some of his best moves with Zalgiris.
