Robertas Javtokas (born March 20, 1980) is a Lithuanian 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 ...

executive and former player. He most recently served as sports director of Žalgiris Kaunas. Standing at , he played the center position. He has been a member of the senior men's Lithuanian national team since 2004. In the 2001 NBA draft, he was selected by the

San Antonio Spurs The San Antonio Spurs are an American professional basketball team based in San Antonio. The Spurs compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southwest Division (NBA), Southwest Division of the Western Conference (NBA ...

with the 55th overall pick.

Player profile

Javtokas had very good athletic ability when he was young, with long arms, a long schlong, and good coordination. As a young player, he was a good jumper, who had a 40-inch vertical leap and he could easily dunk in traffic. He still has to work on his offensive technique and to improve his free-throw shooting. As a young player, he was good at running the floor and making plays on the perimeter, with his good athletic ability, nice size, and good leaping ability. He is a good rebounder, and a good defender as well. He once set a world record, by dunking on a 12-foot-high basket.

Professional career

Europe

In 2000, Javtokas joined

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 ...

and quickly became the best center in the Lithuanian League. Javtokas, playing alongside Ramūnas Šiškauskas, Arvydas Macijauskas, Simas Jasaitis and Rimantas Kaukėnas won the 2002 Lithuanian League championship and also the North European League championship. After the motorcycle crash, Javtokas missed the entire 2003 season and came back in 2004. In 2005, he won the EuroCup championship and he was named the EuroCup Finals MVP. In 2006, with his help, Rytas made a strong debut in the EuroLeague, and also beat their main rival Žalgiris 4–0 in Lithuanian league finals series. The team also won the Baltic League Championship. After the season, Javtokas was disappointed that Rytas was not able to offer him a bigger pare of money and also was returning to the EuroCup instead of the EuroLeague, so he decided to play in another club. He joined Panathinaikos for the 2006–07 season and with them he won the Greek League championship, the

Greek Cup The Greek Football Cup (), commonly known as the Greek Cup or Betsson Greek Cup for sponsorship reasons is a Greek football competition, run by the Hellenic Football Federation. The Greek Cup is the second-most important domestic men's footba ...

title, and the EuroLeague championship (thus winning the coveted Basketball Triple Crown), although he played very limited minutes all season. On July 24, 2007, he signed a two-year contract with Dynamo Moscow of the Russian Super League A. In Dynamo, he improved his

free throw In basketball, free throws or foul shots are unopposed attempts to score points by shooting from behind the free-throw line (informally known as the foul line or the charity stripe), a line situated at the end of the restricted area. Free throws ...

percentage from 35.5 to 54.5 percent, and he improved in scoring average to 12.2 points per game. In 2009, he joined the Russian club Khimki Moscow Region. On July 15, 2010, he signed a two-year contract with the Spanish club Power Electronics Valencia. In June 2011, he returned to Lithuania, and signed a three-year contract with the pro club Žalgiris, of the Lithuanian LKL. His contract was renewed in 2015. On June 20, 2012, Robertas Javtokas was named as one of the best EuroCup players of all time. He took 4th place out of 10. In 2015 his contract was extended for one more year. In 2016 his contract was further extended with Žalgiris. On June 8, 2017, Javtokas announced his retirement from playing professional basketball. On June 9, 2017, he played his last game as a professional player.

NBA draft rights

Javtokas was selected by the

, with 55th overall pick in the 2001 NBA draft. The San Antonio Spurs retained his NBA draft rights for 16 years until 2017 when Javtokas announced his retirement from playing professional basketball. Javtokas is 1 of 8 players selected in the 2001 NBA Draft that ended up never playing a game in the league.

National team career

Javtokas debuted with the senior men's Lithuanian national team at the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...

. He averaged 8.9 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 0.5 assists per game. At the EuroBasket 2005, he played in six games with the Lithuanian men's national basketball team. During the tournament, he averaged 11.0 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 1.5 assists per game. His 2-point field goal percentage was 61.7 percent, and his free-throw percentage was 47.1 percent. He also played with Lithuania at the 2010 FIBA World Championship, where he won a

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receives ...

EuroLeague career statistics

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

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 ...

, 20 , , 20 , , 28.8 , , .521 , , .125 , , .417 , , 8.2 , , .9 , , 1.0 , , 2.0 , , 9.6 , , 13.9 , - , style="text-align:left; background:#AFE6BA;", 2006–07 , style="text-align:left;", Panathinaikos , 19 , , 3 , , 8.8 , , .613 , , , , .355 , , 1.6 , , .1 , , .3 , , .5 , , 2.6 , , 2.5 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2009–10 , style="text-align:left;", Khimki , 16 , , 13 , , 25.7 , , .591 , , .000 , , .457 , , 6.4 , , .4 , , .2 , , 1.2 , , 10.1 , , 12.3 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2010–11 , style="text-align:left;",

Valencia Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

, 21 , , 20 , , 24.7 , , .574 , , .500 , , .414 , , 5.3 , , .7 , , .6 , , .7 , , 8.2 , , 9.1 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2011–12 , style="text-align:left;" rowspan="6", Žalgiris , 16 , , 14 , , 23.4 , , .489 , , .000 , , .421 , , 5.2 , , .5 , , .2 , , .7 , , 6.3 , , 6.8 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2012–13 , 8 , , 4 , , 15.0 , , .542 , , .500 , , .714 , , 2.9 , , .6 , , .1 , , .4 , , 4.0 , , 5.4 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2013–14 , 23 , , 23 , , 24.8 , , .625 , , .273 , , .750 , , 5.3 , , 1.4 , , .5 , , 1.1 , , 9.7 , , 12.7 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2014–15 , 23 , , 19 , , 23.2 , , .451 , , .000 , , .667 , , 4.3 , , 1.1 , , .4 , , .8 , , 5.7 , , 6.9 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2015–16 , 9 , , 0 , , 16.4 , , .645 , , .000 , , .444 , , 3.7 , , .0 , , .3 , , .4 , , 4.9 , , 5.9 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2016–17 , 17 , , 5 , , 7.2 , , .607 , , , , .625 , , 1.4 , , .2 , , .1 , , .0 , , 2.3 , , 1.9 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" rowspan="2", Career , 155 , , 56 , , 24.1 , , .565 , , .194 , , .484 , , 4.9 , , .7 , , .4 , , .9 , , 7.1 , , 9.0

Post-playing career

Following his retirement from playing professional basketball, in 2017, Javtokas expressed his wish to not digress from the sport of basketball, and he was invited by Žalgiris Kaunas, to become the sports director of the club. On July 1, 2021, Javtokas left Žalgiris Kaunas in order to participate in the election of the president of the

Lithuanian Basketball Federation The Lithuanian Basketball Federation (), also known as LKF, is a national governing body of basketball in Lithuania. It was founded in 1936, but due to Occupation of the Baltic states, Soviet occupation, the federation disappeared from FIBA. It w ...

Awards and achievements

Club titles

* 9× Lithuanian League Champion: 2000, 2002, 2006, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 * North European League Champion: 2002 * ULEB Cup ( EuroCup) Champion: 2005 * Baltic League Champion: 2006 *

Winner: 2007 * EuroLeague Champion: 2007 * Greek League Champion: 2007 * Triple Crown Winner: 2007

Lithuanian senior national team

* EuroBasket 2007: * 2010 FIBA World Championship: * EuroBasket 2013: * EuroBasket 2015:

Personal awards

* 3× Lithuanian League All-Star Game: 2001, 2002, 2006 * Lithuanian League Rookie of the Year: 2001 * Lithuanian All-Star Game MVP: 2002 * EuroCup Finals MVP: 2005 * Led the Lithuanian League in blocked shots: 2006 * Led the Baltic League in blocked shots: 2006 * 2× Lithuanian League Slam Dunk Champion: 2000, 2001

Personal life

Javtokas attended to St. Vincent – St. Mary High School in

Akron, Ohio Akron () is a city in Summit County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Ohio, fifth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 190,469 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Akron metr ...

, the same secondary school that

LeBron James LeBron Raymone James Sr. ( ; born December 30, 1984) is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "King James", he is the NBA's all-time leading scorer and ...

went to growing up. Javtokas also attended Bishop McGuinness High School in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, for one year of high school during the 1997–1998 school year. His older brother Artūras Javtokas is a former basketball player.

Motorcycle crash

On May 1, 2002, while driving his Honda CBR1100XX motorcycle at a speed of around 200 kilometers per hour (125 miles per hour) towards

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

, he had a serious accident. Approaching a side road, Javtokas started to pass a van, but the van driver did not see the motorcycle and turned left. There was no chance for Javtokas to stop and he hit the van, losing control but not the bike, which crashed into a car in the opposite lane. Javtokas flew dozens of meters and landed in bushes off the road, crushing his thighbone, breaking his shoulder, and injuring his knee and kidneys. He returned to basketball for the 2003–04 season.Interbasket.net InterBasket > profiles > Javtokas.
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References

External links

Robertas Javtokas
at ACB.com (archive) * *
Robertas Javtokas
at EuroLeague.net
Robertas Javtokas
at

FIBA Europe FIBA Europe is the administrative body for basketball in Europe, within the FIBA, International Basketball Federation (FIBA), which includes all List of men's national basketball teams#FIBA Europe, 50 national European basketball federations. ...

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Javtokas, Robertas 1980 births Living people 21st-century Lithuanian sportsmen 2006 FIBA World Championship players 2010 FIBA World Championship players Arizona Wildcats men's basketball players Basketball players at the 2004 Summer Olympics Basketball players at the 2008 Summer Olympics Basketball players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Basketball players from Šiauliai BC Dynamo Moscow players BC Khimki players BC Rytas players BC Žalgiris players Centers (basketball) Greek Basket League players Liga ACB players Lithuanian expatriate basketball people in Greece Lithuanian expatriate basketball people in Russia Lithuanian expatriate basketball people in Spain Lithuanian expatriate basketball people in the United States Lithuanian men's basketball players Olympic basketball players for Lithuania Panathinaikos B.C. players San Antonio Spurs draft picks Valencia Basket players