Jonas Kazlauskas (born 21 November 1954) is a Lithuanian 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 (appro ...

coach and former player. He was most recently the head coach of the Guangdong Southern Tigers in the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA).

Playing career

Kazlauskas played for Statyba Vilnius from 1973 to 1985. He won a

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receives ...

in the former USSR Supreme League in 1979.

Coaching career

Clubs

Kazlauskas is considered to be one of the best coaches from Europe. In the past, he has coached Lithuania's top two pro club basketball teams, Žalgiris Kaunas (1994–2000) and Lietuvos rytas Vilnius (2001–2004). In October 2004, he became the head coach of Olympiacos Piraeus, and later moved to CSKA Moscow during the 2010–11 season. Kazlauskas took a position with the Guangdong Southern Tigers for the latter stage of the 2012–13 Chinese Basketball Association season, serving as "executive coach" to fill the role of experienced mentor for newly appointed head coach Du Feng, and helping guide the team to their record-tying eighth title in the 2013 CBA Finals. He retained his role with Guangdong for the 2013–14 CBA season but the squad lost in the semi-finals of the 2014 CBA Playoffs. Kazlauskas returned to the Southern Tigers as head coach for the 2017–18 CBA season, while Du was serving as head coach with the "China Blue" version of the country's national team, and led a rebuilding side to third place with 28 wins in 38 regular season games before the youthful squad were eliminated in the semi-finals of the 2018 CBA Playoffs. He handed the head coaching job back to Du after the season.

National teams

In 1997, Kazlauskas became the head coach of the Lithuanian national team with whom he won bronze medals at

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, officially branded as Sydney 2000, and also known as the Games of the New Millennium, were an international multi-sport event held from 15 September to 1 October ...

and held that position until the end of EuroBasket 2001. In 2004, he joined the China national team as the assistant coach to Del Harris, and then served as the head coach from 2005 to 2008, winning the 2005 Asian championship. From 2009 to 2010, Kazlauskas served as the head coach of the Greek national team and guided them to bronze medals at EuroBasket 2009. In 2012, he returned to Lithuanian national team and guided them to consecutive silver medals at

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

and 2015 EuroBasket tournaments. In 2016, Kazlauskas left the team for the second time after his 4-year contract expired after the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

Coaching awards and achievements

Club

* 6× LKL champion: 1995–1999, 2002 * Baltic Cup winner: 1998 * FIBA EuroCup champion: 1998 * Euroleague champion:

1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

* 2× NEBL champion: 1999, 2002 * 2× PBL champion:

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

, 2012 * CBA champion:

* 2× LKL Coach of the Year: 2002, 2013 * PBL Coach of the Year: 2012

National team

* Lithuanian national team: **

Summer Olympic Games The Summer Olympic Games, also known as the Summer Olympics or the Games of the Olympiad, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The 1896 Summer Olympics, inaugural Games took place in 1896 in Athens, ...

: 2000 ** 2×

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 ...

, 2015 * China national team: **

FIBA Asia Cup The FIBA Asia Cup (formerly the FIBA Asia Championship and ABC Championship) is an international basketball tournament which takes place every four years between the men's national teams of Asia and Oceania. Through the 2015 edition, the t ...

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

Asian Games The Asian Games, also known as Asiad, is a continental multi-sport event held every four years for athletes of Asia. The Games were regulated by Asian Games Federation from the 1951 Asian Games, first Games in New Delhi, India in 1951, until ...

: 2006 * Greek national team: **

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

Personal life

Kazlauskas and his wife have two daughters. He likes

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

, crosswords and computer games.Jonas Kazlauskas Krepsinis.net profile
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Coaching record

EuroLeague

, - , align="left" rowspan=2, Žalgiris , - ! style="background:#FDE910;" , align="left", 1998–99 , 22 , , 18 , , 4 , , , , align="center", Won EuroLeague Championship , - , align="left", Žalgiris , align="left", 1999-00 , 16 , , 4 , , 12 , , , , align="center", Eliminated in qualification round , - , align="left", Olympiacos , align="left", 2004–05 , 14 , , 4 , , 10 , , , , align="center", Eliminated in regular season , - , align="left", Olympiacos , align="left", 2005–06 , 23 , , 12 , , 11 , , , , align="center", Eliminated in quarterfinals , - , align="left", CSKA , align="left", 2011–12 , 22 , , 19 , , 3 , , , , align="center", Lost in the final game , -class="sortbottom" , align="center" colspan=2, Career, , 97, , 57, , 40, , , ,

References

External links

Euroleague.net Coach ProfileEuroleague.net InterviewFIBA 2006 World Championship Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kazlauskas, Jonas 1954 births Living people BC Rytas coaches BC Statyba players BC Žalgiris coaches EuroLeague–winning coaches Lithuanian expatriate basketball people in China Lithuanian expatriate basketball people in Greece Lithuanian expatriate basketball people in Russia Greece national basketball team coaches Lithuanian basketball coaches Lithuanian men's basketball players Lithuanian expatriate sportspeople in China Lithuanian expatriate sportspeople in Greece Lithuanian expatriate sportspeople in Russia Olympiacos B.C. coaches PBC CSKA Moscow coaches Sportspeople from Panevėžys Soviet men's basketball players Shooting guards Olympic coaches for Lithuania Olympic coaches for China