Mindaugas Lukauskis locally also known as ''the Legend'' or ''the Iron man'', (born 19 May 1979) is a Lithuanian former professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

player. Lukauskis holds numerous

Lithuanian Basketball League Lithuanian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Lithuania, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe ** Lithuanian language ** Lithuanians, a Baltic ethnic group, native to Lithuania and the immediate geographical region ** L ...

records and is the league's all-time leading scorer.

Professional career

Lukauskis began his basketball career in the Panevežys youth basketball clubs, being the leader there. He got attention from the LKL, and in 2001, he joined Sakalai. In 2002, he signed a one-year contract with

Alytus Alytus () is a city with Town privileges, municipal rights in southern Lithuania. It is the List of cities in Lithuania, sixth-largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, 14th-largest city in the Baltic ...

, and he was the top scorer on the team. In 2003, he joined Lithuanian basketball giant

Lietuvos Rytas ''Lietuvos rytas'' (lit. 'Morning of Lithuania') is a Lithuanian daily newspaper. History and profile "Lietuvos rytas" was established in 1990 on a basis of newspaper "Komjaunimo tiesa". The paper is printed in Vilnius Vilnius ( , ) is ...

. In 2006, Lukauskis improved his game and alongside Tomas Delininkaitis he gave Rytas a strong impact off the bench. In the 2007 season, he became a starting player. In the EuroCup Final 8 on 4 April 2009, Lukauskis made a decisive, game-winning, 10 meters distance three-pointer and that allowed him to become the only player to participate in the EuroCup Final three times in total. He then went on to become the only two-time EuroCup champion. In July 2009, he joined the

French League The French League (: "French League for Purge, purging, mutual aid (politics), mutual aid and European integration, European collaboration") was a Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, collaborationist French movement founded by Pier ...

club

ASVEL ASVEL Basket, currently known as LDLC ASVEL for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional basketball team located in the commune of Villeurbanne, a suburb of Lyon, France. The club, which is the basketball section of the ASVEL multi-sports ...

. In September 2010 he signed with the German EuroCup-Team Baskets Oldenburg. After spending a season with Italy's Barcellona Sigma of

Legadue Serie A2, known for sponsorship reasons as Serie A2 Old Wild West, is a men's basketball league in Italy. It constitutes the second-tier of the Italian league pyramid, below the first division LBA and above the third division Serie B, with ...

, in September 2012 Lukauskis moved to

Valencia Basket Valencia Basket Club Sociedad Anónima Deportiva, S.A.D., commonly known as Valencia Basket (), is a professional basketball team based in Valencia, Spain. The team plays in the Liga ACB and the EuroCup Basketball, EuroCup, and his Valencia Basket ...

of the Liga ACB, replacing the injured

Thomas Kelati Thomas Kelati (born September 27, 1982) is an American former professional basketball player of Eritrean heritage. In 2010, he gained Polish citizenship through his wife and is eligible to play on the Poland national basketball team in internation ...

. On 7 August 2016, Lukauskis signed with his hometown club Lietkabelis Panevėžys. On 19 July 2017, he returned to Lietuvos rytas Vilnius for his ninth season as the club member. During the

2018 Karaliaus Mindaugo taurė Eighteen or 18 may refer to: * 18 (number) * One of the years 18 BC, AD 18, 1918, 2018 Film, television and entertainment * ''18'' (film), a 1993 Taiwanese experimental film based on the short story ''God's Dice'' * ''Eighteen'' (film), a 2 ...

, Lukauskis being 38 years old surprisingly became the LKL Three-point Shootout champion. On 25 August 2018, Lukauskis signed with

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 ...

of the

. On 15 October 2020, Lukauskis signed with

BC Šiauliai BC Šiauliai () is the professional basketball club of Šiauliai, Lithuania. The club competes in the Lithuanian Basketball League. It has won the 3rd place award (behind Lithuanian basketball giants BC Lietuvos Rytas, Lietuvos Rytas and BC Žalgi ...

until the end of the season. On 19 August 2021, Lukauskis signed with Dzūkija Alytus. On 19 September 2021, at 42 years and 123 days of age, Lukauskis became the oldest player to appear in a game in the

history, surpassing the previous record set by Algimantas Pavilonis in 1996. On 6 December 2021, Lukauskis scored a career-high 33 points in a game against Nevėžis Kėdainiai, breaking his previous scoring record set in 2001. He finished the season averaging 11.9 points, 4.1 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.2 steals in 34 LKL games played. On 9 August 2022, Lukauskis signed with BC Wolves of the

. On 25 July 2023, he parted ways with the club.

National team career

Lukauskis was a member of the senior Lithuanian national team at the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

. On 16 August 2008, when Lithuania played against

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

in the Olympics, Lukauskis helped Lithuania to win the game, by scoring 20 points.

Career statistics

EuroLeague

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2005–06 , style="text-align:left;" rowspan="2",

, 19 , , 0 , , 14.4 , , .380 , , .361 , , .652 , , 3.2 , , .8 , , .8 , , .1 , , 4.3 , , 5.1 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2007–08 , 20 , , 18 , , 23.3 , , .423 , , .365 , , .744 , , 2.6 , , 2.1 , , 1.5 , , .1 , , 8.4 , , 8.2 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2009–10 , style="text-align:left;",

, 10 , , 10 , , 30.1 , , .469 , , .273 , , .800 , , 2.0 , , 3.1 , , 2.3 , , .3 , , 8.1 , , 11.1 , -class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 49 , , 28 , , 21.5 , , .423 , , .343 , , .728 , , 2.7 , , 1.8 , , 1.4 , , .1 , , 6.8 , , 7.6

Awards and achievements

Baltic League The Baltic League (officially known as the Triobet Baltic League) was a Baltic men's football club tournament held four times between the top club sides from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Launched in 2007 inspired by the now defunct Scandinavi ...

President's Cup Winner: 2008 * 2×

LKF Cup The LKF Cup was an annual national domestic cup competition for Lithuanian professional basketball teams. It was organised by the Lithuanian Basketball Federation (Lietuvos Krepšinio Federacija - LKF). The competition's full name was Lietuvos Kre ...

Winner: 2009, 2014 * 2×

ULEB Cup EuroCup Basketball, commonly known as the EuroCup and currently called BKT EuroCup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual professional basketball club competition organized by Euroleague Basketball. The league is regarded as Euroleague Basketbal ...

( EuroCup) Champion: 2005, 2009 * 3×

Champion: 2006, 2007, 2009 * 2× LKL League Champion: 2006, 2009 * Match des champions Winner: 2009 * Semaine de As Cup Winner: 2010

References

External links

Euroleague.net Profile

TBLStat.net Profile

Eurobasket.com Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lukauskis, Mindaugas 1979 births Living people ASVEL Basket players Basketball players at the 2008 Summer Olympics BC Dzūkija players BC Lietkabelis players BC Prienai players BC Rytas players BC Šiauliai players BC Wolves players Bilbao Basket players EWE Baskets Oldenburg players Liga ACB players Lithuanian expatriate basketball people in France Lithuanian expatriate basketball people in Germany Lithuanian expatriate basketball people in Spain Lithuanian expatriate basketball people in Turkey Lithuanian men's basketball players 21st-century Lithuanian sportsmen Olympic basketball players for Lithuania Shooting guards Small forwards Sportspeople from Panevėžys Tofaş S.K. players Valencia Basket players