Marius Leonavičius (born August 18, 1984 in

Prienai Prienai () is a city in Lithuania situated on the Nemunas River, south of Kaunas. In 2023, the city had 8,894 inhabitants. The name of the city is a derivative from the surname ''Prienas''. Pociūnai Airport is associated with the city. Histor ...

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

) is a Lithuanian

basketball coach Basketball coaching is the act of directing and strategizing the behavior of a basketball team or individual basketball player. Basketball coaching typically encompasses the improvement of individual and team offensive and defensive skills, as wel ...

who currently serves as an assistant coach for

JL Bourg Jeunesse Laïque de Bourg-en-Bresse, commonly known as JL Bourg or simply Bourg, is a basketball club based in Bourg-en-Bresse, France that plays in the LNB Élite, the national top division. Their home arena is Ekinox, which has a capacity of 3, ...

of the French

LNB Élite The LNB Élite, currently known for sponsorship reasons as Betclic Élite, is a professional basketball league in France and is the highest level of the French basketball system. The competition has existed since 1921. Since 1987, the Ligue Nat ...

and the EuroCup.

Coaching career

After graduating from

Lithuanian Sports University Lithuanian Sports University or LSU is a university in Kaunas, Lithuania, specializing in sports, physical activities, and physiology. It is headquartered in Žaliakalnis neighbourhood, in close proximity to the Kaunas Sports Hall and the S. Dar ...

(Lithuanian Academy of Physical Education at the time) Leonavičius started his coaching career in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

, Ireland coaching for a local basketball club Tolka Rovers. In 2012, he became an assistant coach for the

Trinity College Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Unive ...

men's basketball team. Several months later he was appointed as the head men's basketball coach. In 2013, Leonavičius returned home to Lithuania and started coaching in his hometown of Prienai. He was the head coach of U18 and U16 boys basketball teams.

BC Prienai

At the beginning of the 2014-15 season, Leonavičius was signed as an assistant coach for the

BC Prienai BC Prienai () was a Lithuanian professional basketball club based in Prienai. They played domestically in the Lithuanian Basketball League every year since winning the promotion in 2009. During the 2008–09 season, then called Rūdupis, they be ...

(later on known as Skycop / Vytautas / Labas Gas) of the Lithuanian Basketball League. During his tenure as an assistant, he coached under legendary Lithuanian coach

Virginijus Šeškus Virginijus Šeškus (born February 8, 1967) is a Lithuanian professional basketball coach. He was previously the head coach of M Basket Mažeikiai of the Lithuanian Basketball League (LKL). Career Virginijus Šeškus was born in Prienai, ...

, as well as

Mantas Šernius Mantas Šernius (born 29 June 1983) is a Lithuanian professional basketball coach who is currently an assistant coach for Žalgiris Kaunas of the Lithuanian Basketball League (LKL) and the EuroLeague. He is also an assistant coach of the Lith ...

, who was named Lithuanian Basketball League's Coach of the year in his final season in 2021.
Melo Vytautas

During the 2017-18 season, BC Vytautas signed

LiAngelo LiAngelo Robert Ball (born November 24, 1998), also known by his stage names G3 and GELO, is an American professional basketball player and rapper who last played for the Astros de Jalisco. Ball played for Chino Hills High School in Californi ...

and

LaMelo LaMelo LaFrance Ball ( ; born August 22, 2001) is an American professional basketball player for the Charlotte Hornets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was selected by the Hornets with the third overall pick of the 2020 NBA draf ...

, brothers of

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

(NBA) player

Lonzo Ball Lonzo Anderson Ball (born October 27, 1997) is an American professional basketball player for the Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association (NBA). A point guard, he played college basketball for one season with the UCLA Bruins, earni ...

. Leonavičius and the BC Vytautas team since then was part of the

Ball in the Family ''Ball in the Family'' is an American reality television series that premiered on August 29, 2017 on Facebook Watch. The show documents the personal and professional lives of the Ball family. The sixth season premiered on October 18, 2020. Cast ...

reality show featuring

LaVar Ball LaVar Christopher Ball (born October 23, 1967) is an American businessman. He is the co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of the sports apparel company Big Baller Brand and founder of the now defunct Junior Basketball Association (JBA). ...

, the worldwide known media personality and businessman. During the

2020 NBA draft The 2020 NBA draft was held on November 18, 2020. The draft was originally scheduled to be held at Barclays Center in Brooklyn on June 25, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was instead conducted at ESPN's facilities in Bristol, Connecticut, wi ...

LaMelo Ball was selected with the 3rd overall pick by the

Charlotte Hornets The Charlotte Hornets are an American professional basketball team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Hornets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference. The team ...

.
At the start of the 2021-22 season, after serving as an assistant coach for 7 seasons, Leonavičius was signed as the head coach for the Labas Gas.
During the 2021-22 season, the Labas Gas competed in King Mindaugas Cup and won 4 games out of 8, however, it was not enough to qualify to the next stage of the competition. In the Lithuanian Basketball League the team started the season with a 0-10 record and in late November the club management decided to make a coaching change, offering Leonavičius the opportunity to stay on as an assistant coach. However, after declining the offer he decided to leave the club.

JL Bourg

For the 2022-23 season, he signed with the French powerhouse

to serve as the head coach of the club's youth U18 program and as an assistant coach of the U21 team.
At the beginning of April, he left France to join

BC Wolves Basketball Club Wolves, officially named Wolves Twinsbet for sponsorship reasons, was a professional basketball club based in Vilnius, Lithuania. The team competed in the Lietuvos krepšinio lyga, Lithuanian Basketball League (LKL). The team pla ...

of the Lithuanian basketball league.

BC Wolves

At the end of the 2022-23 season, Leonavicius returned to Lithuania to join the BC Wolves staff as an assistant coach, upon the invitation of legendary Lithuanian basketball coach Kestutis Kemzura. The club finished 3rd in the regular season of the Lithuanian basketball league but failed to advance to the semifinals. In the Northern European Basketball League, they lost in the finals and finished 2nd.
The 2023-24 season was relatively better, with the club again finishing 3rd in the regular season and advancing to the semifinals. However, they ultimately lost to the future champions

BC Rytas Basketball Club Rytas, commonly referred to as Rytas Vilnius, is a professional basketball club based in Vilnius, Lithuania. The club competes in the Lietuvos krepšinio lyga, Lithuanian Basketball League (LKL), the top tier of Basketball in Lit ...

2-3, finishing 4th in the final standings. The club also had its first season playing in the EuroCup, but their 8-10 regular season record was not enough to qualify for the playoffs. The 2024–25 season began with a coaching change, as Italian coach Alessandro Magro took over the team. In their second EuroCup campaign, the club improved its regular season record to 10–8 and, for the first time in its history, qualified for the playoffs. However, they were eliminated in the first round. Domestically, the team reached the Final Four of the King Mindaugas Cup (KMT) but finished fourth after losses in both the semifinal and the third-place game. In the Lithuanian Basketball League, the Wolves ended the regular season in fourth place but once again failed to advance to the semifinals.

Return to JL Bourg

At the beginning of the 2025–26 season, Leonavicius returned to JL Bourg for his second stint in France, following the discontinuation of the BC Wolves project after the club’s funding was abruptly cut by its owner.

Lithuanian youth national teams

Leonavicius served as an assistant coach for several Lithuanian youth national teams in various competitions, including the FIBA U18 Men's European Championship in 2022, the

FIBA U16 Women's European Championship The FIBA U16 Women's EuroBasket is the new name for the FIBA U16 Women's European Championship, originally known as the FIBA European Championship for Cadettes. It's a women's youth basketball competition that was inaugurated with the 1976 edit ...

in 2023, the FIBA U17 Men's World Cup in 2024, and the FIBA U18 Men's EuroBasket.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leonavicius, Marius 1984 births Living people Lithuanian basketball coaches