History of Zalgiris Kaunas

TROPHY CASE

  • Euroleague1999
  • European Cup Winner's Cup1998
  • Intercontinental Cup1986
  • Soviet Union gold medals1947, 1951, 1985, 1986, 1987
  • Baltic Basketball League (BBL)2005, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012
  • Lithuanian League (LKL)1994-1999, 2001, 2003, 2004-2005, 2007, 2008, 2011-2021
  • Lithuanian Cup2007, 2008, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023

1

Euroleague


1

European Cup Winner's Cup


1

Intercontinental Cup


5

Soviet Union gold medals


5

Baltic Basketball League (BBL)


23

Lithuanian League (LKL)


11

Lithuanian Cup

  • 1944 Zalgiris Kaunas basketball club was established
  • 1947 Zalgiris won the first gold in Soviet Union championship
  • 1951 Zalgiris won the second gold in Soviet Union championship
  • 1952 Zalgiris players Stepas Butautas, Justinas Lagunavicius, Kazimieras Petkevicius became Olympic champions
  • 1953-56 Zalgiris won bronze medals in Soviet Union championship for 4 years in a row
  • 1962 Zalgiris has got a new coach Vytautas Bimba, who started to recruit a young and ambitious team
  • 1971 After the break of 15 years Zalgiris won bronze medals in Soviet Union championship
  • 1972 Zalgiris player Modestas Paulauskas became Olympic champion
  • 1981 Zalgiris made debut in European Cup tournaments
  • 1985-87 Arvydas Sabonis led Zalgiris to becoming champions of the Soviet Union three times in a row
  • 1986 Zalgiris won the Intercontinental William Jones Cup
  • 1993 Zalgiris players became champions of newly founded Lithuanian Basketball League (LKL)
  • 1998 Zalgiris won the European Cup Winners’ Cup and received the right to play in the Euroleague
  • 1999 Zalgiris team – the Champions of the Euroleague!
  • 2005 Zalgiris players became champions of newly established Baltic Basketball League (BBL)
  • 2007 Lithuanian Cup competition was rebuilt and since then Zalgiris has won the Cup 5 times
  • 2007 Zalgiris was invited to the NBA Europe Live project and went to USA to play three games with NBA teams
  • 2011 The Euroleague season opening match took part in the newly opened Zalgirio arena
  • 2014 Arvydas Sabonis jersey was raised to the rafters of Zalgirio arena during Zalgiris 70th anniversary celebration
  • 2018 Zalgiris advanced to the EuroLeague playoffs, made it to the Final Four and won the third place in the EuroLeague
  • 2019 Zalgiris became the highest-attended team in EuroLeague history averaging 14,737 fans each night in Zalgirio Arena
  • 2023 A record broken - 16 of 17 of Zalgiris’ EuroLeague games were sold out