Tautvydas Sabonis retires from basketball and starts his coaching career in Zalgiris-2 0

As the Zalgiris youth team gets to work in preparation for the upcoming season, a fresh face will be joining the team’s coaching staff.

While the head coaching reigns were given to Arvydas Gronskis, he will have Tautvydas Sabonis at his side. The 27-year-old Sabonis starts a new stage in his career and will be the first member of the Sabonis family to take on coaching.

He talked to Zalgiris.lt about his decision to put an end to his basketball career and turn to another route.

“I’ve been considering hanging up the boots for these last couple of years, but I finally came to this decision this summer. I talked to my family a lot and we came to a decision that it’s time to try something new. I’m happy Zalgiris trusted me and took me into the organization with open arms. Playing in Spain, I felt kind of lonely, since my wife lives in Poland, while the family is in Lithuania. I wanted to be closer to my family and decided to come back here and start my coaching career. While I’ve never played for Zalgiris before, I can feel that I’ve got green-and-white blood running through my veins.”

Zalgiris-2 will be seeing quite a few changes in the line-up, but will retain both Vytautas Pliauga and Darius Sirtautas, who will continue carrying out their roles in the coaching staff. The team’s athletic trainer Domantas Tautkus, doctor Andrius Aukstakalnis and masseur Romas Petraitis will all be back with the team next season.