2 euro Lithuania 2022 – 100th anniversary of basketball in Lithuania

The first basketball competition in Lithuania and the beginning of national basketball as a whole is considered to be the match between the Lithuanian Union of Athletes (LUPT) and the team of the Provisional Capital (Kaunas) on April 23, 1922, in which LUPT won with a score of 8:6.

In Lithuania, basketball has always been an important part of culture, a special social phenomenon and a part of politics. On the eve of World War II, Lithuanian men’s basketball teams became European champions twice (1937 and 1939), in 1938 Lithuanian women’s basketball teams were second on the continent. In the camps for displaced persons for refugees from World War II, basketball was a way to keep the memory of the motherland, Lithuania. Valdas Adamkus, who became the second president of Lithuania after the restoration of its independence, was also in one of these camps.

In Soviet times, being Lithuanian was also inseparable from basketball. Although Lithuanian talents could not compete under their own flag, over time basketball became one of the reasons for the national renaissance, when the victories of Kaunas Žalgiris against CSKA Moscow in the 1980s were perceived by the nation as victories won by Lithuania itself. During the Soviet era, Lithuania managed to maintain its identity despite oppression and finally regained its independence. As an independent state, it pursued the goal of making the name of Lithuania known all over the world again. In 1992 in Barcelona, at the first Olympic Games after the fall of the Iron Curtain, the Lithuanian men’s basketball team gained international recognition, won one of the two Olympic medals and was named the “Other Dream Team”. Lithuanian basketball players, already world-famous for their successful careers, played for the national team of the Soviet Union, doing much more than just demonstrating their talents on the basketball court. The bronze medal they won against the Unified Team made up of post-Soviet states served as a message to the world that Lithuania was back on the map. Subsequently, the Lithuanian national basketball team has won two additional Olympic medals, one medal at the FIBA World Championships and five at the European Basketball Championships. The Lithuanian women’s basketball team won the EuroBasket in 1997, and the men’s team won the EuroBasket for the third time in 2003. Lithuanian basketball clubs have also repeatedly demonstrated the country’s exceptional basketball prowess in international tournaments. The outstanding achievements of national basketball teams are inextricably linked to the special place that basketball holds in the hearts of people from all walks of life.

Denomination: 2 euro
Quality: UNC

Circulation: 750,000 pieces