Jasikevicius: 'We will give everything to play attractive, winning basketball'

Sarunas Jasikevicius has been introduced as the new coach of Barça's basketball team. At noon, in the Auditori 1899, the Lithuanian coach attended the media and talked about the new project. After two stages as a player, this is "a very important challenge" for him. "I am very happy to be part of this great club again. We will give everything to play a good game, and be a successful basketball team. All together we will achieve it. I am really looking forward and I am very excited." 

"I am a demanding person myself, and that is what I want to transmit to my players," he added. Saras also sent a message that he wanted to direct to the fans, who he knows have received him with open arms: "We have to work to the maximum every day and then things will go well for us. My philosophy is the same and it will not change. We will give it everything to achieve our objectives."

Saras arrives at Barça at the age of 44, after a good stage at Zalgiris Kaunas. The experience gained with the Lithuanian team has helped him grow as a coach and now he makes the leap to Barça convinced he'll do well: "I am a young coach, I had to get experience first, but I think that this summer was the right time to take this step."

Thanks to Pesic, Tomic, Ribas and Pangos

The new Barça coach was accompanied by the club's president, Josep Maria Bartomeu, who is also convinced that Jasikevicius "will bring many successes and make us happy." Bartomeu, also wanted to take advantage of being able to thank Pangos, Ribas and captain, Ante Tomic, for their work, as well as Svetislav Pesic. "I want to send you a thank you from all the Catalans, because it brought us joy to the Palau and gave us win two titles in the last two and a half years." Along the same lines, the manager responsible for the section, Joan Bladé, said of Pesic: "We are grateful for the work he did and his arrival was a turning point two years ago."

The presentation ceremony was attended by the director of professional sports, Albert Soler, and the manager of the Barça basketball section, Nacho Rodríguez, who was a team-mate of Jasikevicius at Barça. In fact, Saras himself fondly remembered that stage - with the Euroleague won at the Palau Sant Jordi in 2003 as a high point - and commented that "I'm looking forward to working with him again."