Zalgiris among One Team awards winners 0

Zalgiris Kaunas has been named one of the winners of the annual One Team Awards for the club’s outstanding work in support of its local community during the 2017-18 season. The club was presented with the One Team Bronze Award at the climax of the One Team workshop which took place in Vitoria-Gasteiz on Monday and Tuesday, with Unicaja Malaga taking the Gold Award and Olympiacos Piraeus receiving the Silver.

All 40 clubs in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague and 7DAYS EuroCup have been working hard to help vulnerable people in their local communities over the last 12 months as part of the continent-wide social responsibility program One Team, and the awards – which were initiated last year – are designed to champion and celebrate the achievements of the clubs.

The quality and quantity of the activities forced the judges to expand the shortlist of finalists to six teams and to introduce new silver and bronze categories. The shortlisted clubs were Anadolu Efes Istanbul, Hapoel Bank Yahav Jerusalem, Lietkabelis Panevezys, Olympiacos, Unicaja and last year’s winner Zalgiris.

Abi Martin, Director of CSR & Development Projects for Euroleague Basketball, said: “Congratulations to all the clubs because the list of winners could have really been a lot longer, as the quality of the delivery has improved extraordinarily under the ‘we are all one team’ banner. Nonetheless, the judges appreciated that the three winning clubs provided something special on top of the main criteria delivered by every club.”

Akvile Dagilyte, One Team Manager for last season’s winner Zalgiris Kaunas, added: “One Team is not about winning awards, it’s about the very important impact clubs are making in their communities. But it’s a great honor to be among the clubs making the biggest impact and achieving the best results for the second year in a row. We couldn’t do it without our sponsor Ramirent Baltic, who boosted our program to the next level. I believe sharing the best practices in this annual workshop will inspire other clubs to work even harder with their communities, although they are already doing a great job.”

The awards ceremony came at the end of a two-day One Team workshop in 2019 Final Four host city Vitoria-Gasteiz, where clubs were able to exchange ideas and share best practices about an initiative which underpins Euroleague Basketball’s serious commitment to its communities.

Since its founding in 2012, the One Team program – supported by Turkish Airlines as Founding Patron and Special Olympics as Proud Partner – has already helped more than 16,000 participants through its various team-focused projects.