September 18, 2021

#9 Antanas Kavaliauskas - Life After Retirement (Player Development / Wake Forest University)

59 minutes

Antanas’ story is a unique one, grindin’ his way up from a small team in Lithuania, through Barton County Community College in the US, finding his way to Texas A&M and coming back to Europe to eventually start his professional career. Antanas started his career in 2007 in Greece before he went on his way to play in Italy, Latvia & Spain. Finally he found his way back to play in Lithuania, having the unique experience to have played for Lietuvos Rytas (now Rytas Vilnius) as well as for Zalgiris Kaunas, where he ended up retiring in 2019. Antanas won 2 Latvian Championships and 1 Latvian Cup title. In addition, 3 Lithuanian Cup as well as League titles. He can pride himself to have had a successful career as a player and now has moved on to become the Director of Player Development at Wake Forest University.

Antanas and me talked today about his journey from Lithuania to the US, how he didn’t know any English and was forced to learn quickly with the help of certain teammates. Antanas also shared his perception of the rivalry between Rytas and Zalgiris and how he personally felt during that transition. We talked about the fear of public speaking and where it originates from.

The core of our conversation revolved around retirement, how he went about making the decision. Whether or not he regrets any of it and how he currently feels about his new life and job in the US.

Topics:

Intro

- Background: Lithuania to US

- Fear of Public Speaking / Culture

- Family / College / Personality

- Transition from Rytas to Zalgiris

- Missing the Locker-room

- Process of Retirement Decision

- Road After Basketball

- Gratification of Coaching

- New Job at Wake Forest

- Lithuanians at Wake Forest

- Retirement Advice for Players

Finding Antanas:

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/antanas44/

Twitter - https://twitter.com/Antanas44

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/antanas.kavaliauskas.944

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#AntanasKavaliauskas #WakeForestBasketball #Zalgiris #Basketball #Retirement

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By Benas Matkevicius

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