Darius Maskoliūnas

Darius Maskoliūnas
	Maskoliūnas in 2022
Personal information
Born	6 January 1971 (age 53); Jonava, Lithuania,
Nationality	Lithuanian
Listed height	6 ft 5 in (1.96 m)
Listed weight	198 lb (90 kg)
Career information
Playing career	1992–2005
Position	Point guard
Coaching career	2007–present
Career history
As player:
1992–1999	Žalgiris Kaunas
1999–2003	Prokom Trefl Sopot
2003	Ilysiakos
2003–2005	Prokom Trefl Sopot
As coach:
2007–2009	Žalgiris Kaunas (assistant)
2009–2010	Žalgiris Kaunas
2010	KK Kaunas
2010–2011	Lietuvos rytas Vilnius (assistant)
2011	Lietuvos rytas Vilnius
2011–2012	Lietuvos rytas Vilnius (assistant)
2012–2013	Lietuvos rytas Vilnius
2013–2015	Trefl Sopot
2015–2020	Žalgiris Kaunas (assistant)
2019–2021	Lithuania
2020–2022	FC Barcelona (assistant)
Career highlights and awards
	As a player: EuroLeague champion (1999); FIBA European Cup champion (1998); 7× Lithuanian Champion: (1993–1999); 2× Polish Cup winner (2000, 2001); Polish Supercup winner (2001); 2× Polish League champion (2004, 2005); North European League champion (1999); As head coach: Baltic League champion (2010); As assistant coach: 2× Spanish Cup winner (2021, 2022); Liga ACB champion (2021); 6× Lithuanian League champion (2008, 2016–2020); 3× King Mindaugas Cup winner (2017, 2018, 2020); Lithuanian Cup champion (2008);
Men's Basketball
Representing Lithuania
Summer Olympics

Darius Maskoliūnas (born 6 January 1971) is a Lithuanian professional basketball coach, former player, and politician.

Early life

Maskoliūnas graduated from the first secondary school, in Jonava.

Professional career

During his pro club playing career, Maskoliūnas won the championship of Europe's secondary level competition, the FIBA European Cup (FIBA Saporta Cup), in the 1997-98 season), and the championship of Europe's primary level competition, the EuroLeague, in the 1998-99 season. He won both championships while a member of the Lithuanian League (LKL) club Žalgiris Kaunas.

National team career

Maskoliūnas was a member of the senior Lithuanian national team that won the bronze medal at the 2000 Summer Olympic Games. With Lithuania, he also played at the 1997 EuroBasket, the 1998 FIBA World Cup, and the 1999 EuroBasket.^[1]

Coaching career

After his basketball playing career ended, Maskoliūnas started a career working as a basketball coach. During his coaching career, Maskoliūnas has been the head coach of the Lithuanian League (LKL) club Žalgiris Kaunas. While at Žalgiris, he was replaced under controversy, as he was fired during the 2010 LKL Finals series, by the club's then owner, Vladimir Romanov.

He has also worked as both an assistant and head coach with Žalgiris Kaunas' arch-rivals, Lietuvos rytas. He signed with Lietuvos Rytas the next season, and worked in the club first as an assistant; but he became the club's head coach in April 2011, after its then head coach Aleksandar Trifunović was fired. After the season, he once again became an assistant, that time to Aleksandar Džikić. In October 2012, after Džikić was fired, he became the team's head coach again, but he was then shockingly fired by Lietuvos rytas in March 2013.

Personal life

Darius Maskoliūnas has an old nickname "Švarcas", which he gained during his tenure with Kaunas Žalgiris as a player. When he joined Žalgiris, he was an extremely skinny point guard, and due to his second name Maskoliūnas, which is a little bit similar to the English word "Muscles", he got the nickname of "Švarcas" (Arnold Schwarzenegger).^[2] More recently, a growing number of online Lithuanian basketball community members have dubbed him ‘’makaluotojas’’ (Eng. one who beats or does something hurriedly, usually without much regard to quality) after his use of the word in an exhibition game to encourage his players to beat defenders with trick moves.