Sarunas Marciulionis

Born in Lithuania of the USSR, Sarunas Marciulionis began a successful professional basketball career Statyba of the USSR League before being drafted by the Golden State Warriors in the 1987 NBA Draft. In the mid-90’s he became one of the first European players to hold a steady starting position in the NBA after finishing runner-up for the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year Award in both 1992 and 1993. In 1988, Marciulionis won an Olympic gold medal as a member of the Soviet Union national team but following the independence of Lithuania in 1990 he single-handily brought back the Lithuanian team to compete in the 1992 Olympic Games. He helped lead the Lithuanians to the bronze medal in both ’92 and ’96 and a silver medal in the ’95 FIBA EuroBasket Championships. In 1999, following his playing career, Marciulionis started the North European Basketball League and shortly after became the commissioner. He has been named as a 4x Lithuanian Sportsman of the Year and in 2014 was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.