Basketball is the most popular sport in Lithuania. During public opinion polls in Lithuania, citizens regularly describe basketball as their priority interest sport. Research in 2015 indicated that nearly 41% of the population in Lithuania watched the EuroBasket 2015 final between Lithuania and Spain. The final became the most watched event of the 21st century in Lithuania. The popularity of basketball among Lithuanians led to it being nicknamed as the "second religion" in Lithuania.
In the 1930s, Lithuanian-American basketball coaches and players helped the Lithuania men's national basketball team win the last EuroBasket tournaments prior to World War II in 1937 and 1939. These events caused an increase in the popularity of basketball in Lithuania.
Following the country's occupation by the Soviet Union during World War II, Lithuanian players frequently competed with the Soviet men's national team. Lithuanian locals supported BC Žalgiris, particularly against Russian teams. After Lithuania's independence from the Soviet Union in 1990, the national team won a bronze medal in the 1992 Olympics. Lithuania has since won two more bronze medals at the Olympics, a bronze medal at the 2010 FIBA World Championship, and five EuroBasket medals, including the country's third title at FIBA EuroBasket 2003 in Sweden.
Professional basketball in Lithuania is governed by the FIBA-affiliated Lithuanian Basketball Federation. The system includes three men's leagues that employ promotion and relegation, most notably the LKL, and a women's league.
The club BC Žalgiris won the EuroLeague in 1999 and the FIBA Saporta Cup in 1998. BC Žalgiris was also the FIBA Intercontinental Cup champion in 1986 under Soviet occupation. BC Lietuvos Rytas of Vilnius won the EuroCup twice in 2005 and 2009.
As of March 2025, the Lithuania men's national basketball team is ranked 10th in the FIBA Men's World Ranking. Previously, in 2015, it was ranked third below the United States' and Spain's men's national basketball teams. As of 2023, a total of 18 Lithuanian basketball players were recognized as the Lithuanian Sportsman of the Year.
While women were the first to start playing basketball in Lithuania, the women's national team has not achieved the same success as the men's national team. However, they have won a title at EuroBasket Women 1997.
The Lithuanian Basketball Player of the Year awards are given annually for men and women, while Jonas Valančiūnas (seven times) and Gintarė Petronytė (seven times) received the most such honors.
History Interwar period (1920–1940)
Basketball was first introduced in Lithuania indirectly through the European variety of netball by the Germans. Lithuanian women athletes started organizing a team in 1919. In 1920–1921, the game was played in public. The female pioneerism of basketball in Lithuania was initiated by Elena Kubiliūnaitė-Garbačiauskienė. She learned about basketball from Riga's football team members, through which she became acquainted with James Naismith's basketball rules. She then brought the rules from Riga to Lithuania's temporary capital Kaunas in 1921 and translated them into the Lithuanian language. Women since 1921 played basketball in a self-made court at the Vytautas Park in Kaunas. Because women were the first to play basketball in Lithuania, basketball's widespread popularity was not very high until the 1930s as it was considered a women's sport. In her memoirs, Garbačiauskienė recalled that "it was not easy to spread the ideals of sports in a war-weary homeland trampled under the boots of foreign armies, and no one thought about physical education, let alone women's sports". In 1922, Karolis Dineika released the book Krepšiasvydis vyrams (English: Basketball for men), and in 1926 Steponas Darius published the first basketball rules in Lithuania. Garbačiauskienė had planned to publish the rules of basketball in Lithuania herself, however, due to the lack of funds and a lack of interest in women's sports, she transferred the authorship to Darius.
Despite the fact that women were the first basketball players in Lithuania, the first official game was played by men. Steponas Darius worked as a basketball instructor in physical education classes in 1922 initially. After that, the first official basketball game was played in Lithuania on 23 April 1922 when Lietuvos Fizinio Lavinimo Sąjunga (English: Lithuanian Physical Education Union) played a game versus the Kaunas team, winning 8–6. That day is regarded as the beginning of basketball in Lithuania. In 1922, the first Lithuanian women's basketball tournament in Lithuania was organized. In 1924, the first Lithuanian men's basketball tournament in Lithuania was organized, featuring two teams from LFLS and one from Lietuvos Dviračių Sąjunga (English: Lithuanian Cycles Union), and a course for basketball referees was held. The first class was taught by Elena Kubiliūnaitė-Garbačiauskienė and Steponas Darius. On 13 December 1925, Lithuania men's national basketball team played its first international game in Riga, where they lost 41–20 to the Latvia men's national basketball team.
From 1926 to 1933, the popularity of basketball became overshadowed by that of football. Basketball was played only during the summer period because there was no suitable indoor arena, and the game was mostly played by players of other sports who allocated little time to it. The number of games played decreased, and the national championship was not contested between 1929 and 1932. The Physical Culture Palace, which opened in Kaunas on 10 October 1934, had a hall that was built for tennis which had cork flooring; since the flooring was suitable for indoor basketball, the Hall hosted its first game on 16 November 1934 and soon became a main center for basketball events.
In 1935, Lithuania decided to hold a World Lithuanian Congress in the temporary capital of Kaunas. The Lithuanian American community of Chicago sponsored a team of athletes to participate in this Congress, including a basketball team. After the three-week congress, Juozas Žukas and Konstantinas Savickas stayed to teach basketball to Lithuanians. Savickus, in particular, became a player-coach to the national team, which was recently defeated by Latvia 123–10 in an exhibition game. One year later, with Savickus leading the team and exploiting stalling techniques, Lithuania scored 14–7 at halftime before losing 31–10. The Lithuanian press declared it a moral victory.
Also, in 1936, the Lithuania Ball Game Union Basketball Committee applied to become a member of the FIBA in order to participate in international tournaments, including EuroBasket 1937, and was granted a FIBA membership in 1936. While basketball became an Olympic sport at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Lithuania decided not to take part in the tournament in favor of preparing for the following year. During the Olympics, one of the gold medalists, Frank Lubin, was of Lithuanian heritage, and was invited to visit the Baltic nation by a Lithuanian official in attendance. Going by the Lithuanian name Pranas Lubinas, he spent six months in Lithuania as a basketball coach. Filling in for Savickus, who had returned to Chicago, Lubinas led Lithuania to its first victory over Latvia, 36–25.
The preparations for EuroBasket 1937 started slowly, with players training only 4 hours a week. At first, it was decided that the national team at the tournament would not include any Lithuanian Americans; however, the decision was reversed with only one month remaining once the Latvian newspaper Sporto pasaule printed an article which considered Lithuania to be the weakest of all contestants. Lithuanian basketball player Leonas Baltrūnas, along with journalist Jonas Narbutas, used a translated version of the article to request the inclusion of Lithuanian Americans to Vytautas Augustauskas, the director of the Physical Culture Palace. Augustauskas finished reading the presented article and asked whether two Lithuanian American players would be enough, to which Baltrūnas replied, "we only need a center and one good guard". After a telegram was sent to the United States, Pranas Talzūnas and Feliksas Kriaučiūnas arrived one month prior to the tournament, the latter of whom was designated as a player-coach. To keep the secret on how Lithuanian Americans were strengthening the team's performance, all preparation games were cancelled and practices were held in private. Once the reinforcements were made public, opponents were skeptical, with Talzūnas later remembering that other teams felt that he and Kriaučiūnas were not the best players as "everyone thought that a good player must be tall, raising his hand and dunking into the basket." In 1937, Lithuania became the champions of Europe for the first time (finished undefeated with a record 5–0), with Talzūnas being picked as the tournament's most valuable player.
The 1937 Lithuania men's national team was congratulated by thousands of people in each Lithuanian train station they passed through and upon arrival in Kaunas by the Lithuanian government at the Physical Culture Palace, including by Prime Minister Juozas Tūbelis and President Antanas Smetona. The 1937 Lithuania men's national team members were the first Lithuanian sportsmen awarded with the state medals and orders of Lithuania (medals and orders of Vytautas the Great) personally by Smetona. Furthermore, as a result of the success in EuroBasket 1937, basketball's popularity increased in Lithuania.
Kriaučiūnas also coached the Lithuania women's national basketball team, which in 1938 played its first international game versus the Estonia women's national basketball team (won 15–7) and later was successful in the first European women's basketball championship, the EuroBasket 1938 Women, which was organized in Rome, Italy. With three victories in four games, Lithuania finished second behind Italy, who hosted the tournament. Furthermore, Lithuania defeated the upcoming European champions Italy 23–21, but lost a decisive game to Poland 24–21, and due to the same amount of victories between the three teams, the European champion was named by calculating the differences between the points in games where they competed. Italy's largest sports newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport announced elections of the best 1938 European women basketball player, and 1938 Lithuania women's national team member Genovaitė Miuleraitė was selected for this title, while four other Lithuanians from the 1938 team were also selected to the top ten.