Lithuanian basketball player

Mantas Kalnietis (born 6 September 1986) is a Lithuanian professional basketball player for Žalgiris Kaunas of the Lithuanian Basketball League (LKL) and the EuroLeague. He is also a member of the Lithuanian national basketball team. He prefers the point guard position, but can play shooting guard as well.

Contents

• 1 Early years
• 2 Professional career
• 3 National team career
• 4 Career statistics
  • 4.1 EuroLeague
  • 4.2 EuroCup
• 5 References
• 6 External links

Early years

Kalnietis spent two and a half seasons with the LKKA-Žalgiris. He averaged 17.7 points and 4.3 *ists in his second season.

Professional career

Kalnietis made his pro debut in February 2006 with the Žalgiris Kaunas. He averaged 6.8 points on 65 percent shooting in the EuroLeague.

Kalnietis helped Žalgiris win a Baltic League *le in 2008, two Lithuanian League *les in 2007 and 2008 and two Lithuanian Cups in 2007 and 2008. He also led the team to a 2007 ULEB Summer League *le, where he was named MVP.

He competed at the Reebok Eurocamp in Treviso in 2006 and 2008.

Kalnietis had a breakout season in 2008–09, when he averaged 11.3 points in the Lithuanian League and 8.5 points and 3.0 *ists in the EuroLeague. He scored a career-high 20 points in a loss against the Montepaschi Siena on 10 December 2008.

Kalnietis signed a three-year contract with the Benetton Treviso in June 2009. However, because he had another one-year contract with Žalgiris Kaunas, FIBA arbiter's decided that he belonged to Žalgiris. On 27 December 2010, he signed a three-year extension with his hometown club Žalgiris Kaunas. In October 2012, however, he announced that he's interested in playing abroad for the first time in Russia's Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar. On 5 October, he signed a three-year contract with the team. On 18 December 2013, Kalnietis was named Lithuania Basketball Player of the Year. On 27 April 2015, he parted ways with Lokomotiv.

In July 2015, he joined the Indiana Pacers for the 2015 NBA Summer League. On 17 July 2015, he returned to Žalgiris Kaunas, signing a one-year contract. On 23 January 2016, he left Žalgiris and signed a 1.5-year contract with Olimpia Milano.

On 24 July 2018, Kalnietis signed a one-year contract with ASVEL of the French LNB Pro A.

In 2019, Kalnietis returned to the PBC Lokomotiv Kuban. On 25 October 2020, Kalnietis scored 11 points, grabbed 4 rebounds, dished out 17 *ists and broke the VTB United League's all-time record of *ists in a single game.

On 21 June 2021, he has signed a two-year contract with Žalgiris Kaunas, where his career has started.

National team career

Kalnietis started at point guard for the Lithuanian national basketball team that finished seventh in the 2006 FIBA World Championship. He averaged 6.0 points and 2.8 *ists. He also played at the 2010 FIBA World Championship, as a starter, and won a bronze medal. He played in seven games for Lithuania at the 2012 Summer Olympics, averaging 5.5 points. He led the Lithuanian national team during EuroBasket 2013 to silver medals, averaging 12.1 points and 5 *ists per game (the tournament's *ist leader). He missed the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup, due to a clavicular dislocation, but returned to the national team at EuroBasket 2015. During the same championship, on 7 September, versus the Belgian national team, he achieved the EuroBasket's all-time single-game record of 13 *ists, only to be tied days later for the same record by Miloš Teodosić. The Lithuanian national team won their second straight silver medal in 2015, and Kalnietis was once again the tournament's *ists leader, with an average of 7.8 *ists per game. Furthermore, he dished out 70 *ists in total, which is the all-time record of *ists for a single EuroBasket. Kalnietis also remained *ists leader in EuroBasket 2017, averaging 7.2 per game.

Career statistics

EuroLeague

EuroCup

References

External links

• Euroleague.net profile
• FIBA profile