Darius Sirtautas (born July 14, 1970 in

Šilutė Šilutė (, previously ''Šilokarčiama'', german: link=no, Heydekrug), is a city in the south of the Klaipėda County, Lithuania. The city was part of the Klaipėda Region and ethnographic Lithuania Minor. Šilutė was the interwar capital of ...

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

) is a former

n professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player, and

basketball coach Basketball coaching is the act of directing and strategizing the behavior of a basketball team or individual basketball player. Basketball coaching typically encompasses the improvement of individual and team offensive and defensive skills, as wel ...

. During his playing career, he was a 6'4" (1.93m) tall

shooting guard The shooting guard (SG), also known as the two, two guard or off guard,Shooting guards are 6'3"–6'7"BBC Sports academy URL last accessed 2006-09-09. is one of the five traditional positions in a regulation basketball game. A shooting guard's m ...

Playing career

Sirtautas started his professional career in

Atletas Kaunas FK Atletas Kaunas (former:LKKA ir Teledema) was a Lithuanian football club from the city of Kaunas. The majority of the players was recruited from the Lithuanian Academy of Physical Education. LKKA ir Teledema earned promotion to the A Lyga, L ...

, in 1989. After a few seasons with the team, he became a team leader, and while playing alongside

Saulius Štombergas Saulius Štombergas (born December 14, 1973) is a retired Lithuanian professional basketball player, basketball coach and businessman. Štombergas is one of the greatest Lithuanian basketball players of all time, and he was also considered to be ...

and

Žydrūnas Ilgauskas Zydrunas Ilgauskas ( lt, link=no, Žydrūnas Ilgauskas; ; born June 5, 1975) is a Lithuanian-born American former professional basketball player who played the center position. The 7'3" Ilgauskas played for the Cleveland Cavaliers of the Nationa ...

, managed to lead the team to the LKL Finals twice. During his last season with the team, he averaged 15 points per game. After that successful season, Lithuania national team coaches invited Sirtautas to the training camp for the upcoming

EuroBasket EuroBasket, also commonly referred to as the European Basketball Championship, is the main international basketball competition that is contested quadrennially, by the senior men's national teams that are governed by FIBA Europe, which is the E ...

, but he did not make it onto the final roster. In 1995, he moved to his former rival team, Žalgiris Kaunas. He was one of the main contributors to the team, averaging more than 10 points per game, over the next three seasons, despite having to share his minutes with stars like

Rimas Kurtinaitis Rimas Kurtinaitis (born May 15, 1960) is a Lithuanian professional basketball coach, and a retired professional basketball player, who was a member of the senior Soviet and Lithuanian national basketball teams during his playing career. He won ...

Darius Lukminas Darius Lukminas (born February 9, 1968) is a Lithuanian former basketball player for the Lithuanian national basketball team and Žalgiris Kaunas. He was a shooting guard; his weight was listed as 90 kilograms and his height as 195 centimeters. ...

, and

Ennis Whatley Ennis Whatley (born August 11, 1962) is a retired American professional basketball player who was selected by the Kansas City Kings in the first round (13th overall) of the 1983 NBA draft. Whatley played in ten NBA seasons. A 6'3" (1.90 m) and ...

. While playing for Žalgiris, he participated in the

LKL Slam Dunk Contest The LKL Slam Dunk Contest was an annual Lithuanian Basketball League (LKL) competition, that was originally held during the LKL All-Star Day, and later during the King Mindaugas Cup. The contest has been held almost every year, from the first A ...

, and he won the

slam dunk A slam dunk, also simply known as dunk, is a type of basketball shot that is performed when a player jumps in the air, controls the ball above the horizontal plane of the rim, and scores by shoving the ball directly through the basket with one ...

title three times in a row. In 1998, Sirtautas moved to

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

, where he played with Slovakofarma Pezinok, in the

FIBA Saporta Cup The FIBA Saporta Cup was the name of the second-tier level European-wide professional club basketball competition, where the domestic National Cup winners, from all over Europe, played against each other. The competition was organized by FIBA E ...

. He recorded 7.8 points and 1.2 steals per game in that tournament. Returning to Lithuania the following season, Sirtautas signed with Suvalkija Marijampolė. However, the team went bankrupt at the end of the season, and he was forced to look for a club elsewhere. In 2000, he moved to China, and signed with Junan Jinan, of the

Chinese Basketball Association The Chinese Basketball Association (), often abbreviated as the CBA, is the first-tier professional men's basketball league in China. The league is commonly known by fans as the CBA, and this acronym is even used in Chinese on a regular basis ...

(CBA). During the 2001–02 season, he played alongside fellow Lithuanians

Rolandas Urkis Rolandas is a masculine Lithuanian given name and may refer to: *Rolandas Alijevas (born 1985), Lithuanian basketball player * Rolandas Baravykas (born 1995), Lithuanian footballer * Rolandas Bernatonis (born 1987), Lithuanian handball player * Ro ...

and Martynas Purlys. In March 2002, Sirtautas moved back to Lithuania, and he finished the season with Alita Alytus. Sirtautas played for the Estonian club Audentes Tallinn, during the 2002–03 season. In April, he once again moved back to Lithuania, and after playing two more seasons, he retired in 2005.

Coaching career

Sirtautas coached

, for the 2006–07 season. He was also the

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manager", as in assoc ...

of the Lithuanian Under-16 national team, which participated in the 2011 FIBA Europe Under-16 Championship. He recently coached at the Arvydas Sabonis Basketball School, and at BC Nevėžis, of the

Lithuanian Basketball League Lithuanian may refer to: * Lithuanians * Lithuanian language * The country of Lithuania * Grand Duchy of Lithuania * Culture of Lithuania * Lithuanian cuisine * Lithuanian Jews as often called "Lithuanians" (''Lita'im'' or ''Litvaks'') by other Jew ...

References

External links

BasketNews.lt profile

EuroBasket.com profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sirtautas, Darius 1970 births Living people Lithuanian men's basketball players LSU-Atletas basketball players BC Žalgiris players Lithuanian basketball coaches Shooting guards People from Šilutė