Valdas Vasylius (born 3 September 1983) is a Lithuanian

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. He played collegiately at Old Dominion University. He also represented the

Lithuanian national basketball team The Lithuania men's national basketball team ( lt, Lietuvos nacionalinė vyrų krepšinio rinktinė) represents Lithuania in international basketball competitions. They are controlled by the Lithuanian Basketball Federation, the governing body ...

at the

2007 Summer Universiade The 2007 Summer Universiade officially known as the XXIV Summer Universiade and commonly known as Bangkok Universiade, was an international Multi-sport event, multi-sport for university athletes that took place from 8 to 18 August 2007 in Bangkok, ...

. Growing up in Lithuania, Vasylius learned to speak Lithuanian, Russian and German before learning English.

College career

Vasylius began as the sixth man on the ODU squad, but was the star player by his senior year, being named to the All-

CAA CAA may refer to: Law * Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 of India ** Citizenship Amendment Act protests, Protests regarding the Citizenship (Amendment) Act * Copyright transfer agreement, Copyright assignment agreement, to transfer copyright to ...

First team. He also led his team to the

NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, branded as NCAA March Madness and commonly called March Madness, is a single-elimination tournament played each spring in the United States, currently featuring 68 college basketball teams from ...

his

sophomore In the United States, a sophomore ( or ) is a person in the second year at an educational institution; usually at a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational institutions. In ...

and

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

years.

Professional career

After graduating with a degree in international business, Vasylius returned to Europe to play with Polish team

Anwil Włocławek Anwil is a municipality in the district of Sissach in the canton of Basel-Country in Switzerland. History Anwil is first mentioned in 1276. Geography Anwil has an area, , of . Of this area, or 63.6% is used for agricultural purposes, whil ...

, signing a one-year deal with the club. He left Polish team due to lack of playing time and joined

Rethymno BC Rethymno Cretan Kings B.C., or simply Cretan Kings (Greek: Ρέθυμνο Κρητικοί Βασιλιάδες K.A.E.), is a Greek formerly professional sports basketball club that was founded on the Greek island of Crete, in Rethymno, Greece, ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

and later

BC Nevėžis BC Nevėžis ( lt, Krepšinio klubas Nevėžis), commonly known as Nevėžis Kėdainiai, also known as Nevėžis-OPTIBET due to sponsorship reasons, is a professional basketball club based in Kėdainiai, Lithuania. The club currently competes in ...

in Lithuania. In summer he signed with his hometown team

BC Neptūnas Basketball Club Neptūnas ( lt, Krepšinio klubas Neptūnas), commonly known as Neptūnas or Neptūnas Klaipėda, is a Lithuanian professional basketball team based in Klaipėda, Lithuania. The club participates in the Lithuanian Basketball League ...

. While a talented offensive player, his lack of athleticism hurt his chances of catching on with an

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

team. He also played for BC Siauliai during the 2011–2012 season. Vasylius started the 2019–2020 season with

BC Šilutė BC Šilutė is a professional Šilutė, Lithuania basketball club, currently playing in National Basketball League. BC Šilutė was founded in 1990 and currently is the oldest participant in NKL. From 1993 to 1999 seasons, BC Šilutė played in ...

in the

NKL The National Basketball League (NKL) (), also known as 7bet-NKL for sponsorship reasons, is the second-tier basketball minor league in Lithuania. It is placed below the top division Lietuvos krepšinio lyga (LKL). The competition currently consis ...

where he averaged 17.8 points and 8.3 rebounds in 4 games. He played his last game with Šilutė on 12 October 2019 and three days later he signed with

Grindavík Grindavík () is a fishing town on the Southern Peninsula (Iceland), Southern Peninsula of Iceland not far from the tuya Þorbjörn (mountain), Þorbjörn. It is one of the few cities with a harbour on this coast. Most of the inhabitants work in ...

of the Icelandic Úrvalsdeild karla. In his Grindavík debut, Vasylius posted a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds in Grindavík's narrow loss against Haukar. He helped Grindavík to the Icelandic Cup Finals in February 2020 where it lost to Stjarnan. After two years with

, he returned to Grindavík in August 2022.

Euroleague career statistics

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2014–15 , style="text-align:left;", Neptūnas , 10 , , 1 , , 14.8 , , .464 , , .261 , , .556 , , 2.6 , , .8 , , .2 , , .1 , , 6.8 , , 5.9 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:left;", Career , style="text-align:left;", , 10 , , 1 , , 14.8 , , .464 , , .261 , , .556 , , 2.6 , , .8 , , .2 , , .1 , , 6.8 , , 5.9

References

External links

Valdas Vasylius
at espn.com
Valdas Vasylius
at euroleague.net

at odusports.cstv.com

at nklyga.lt 1983 births Living people BC Krasnye Krylia players BC Lietkabelis players BC Neptūnas players Grindavík men's basketball players KK Włocławek players Lithuanian expatriate basketball people in the United States Lithuanian men's basketball players Old Dominion Monarchs men's basketball players Rethymno B.C. players Small forwards Basketball players from Klaipėda Úrvalsdeild karla (basketball) players {{Lithuania-basketball-bio-stub