Antanas Kavaliauskas
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| No. 44 – Žalgiris Kaunas | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Position | Power forward / Center | ||||||||||||||||||
| League |
Lithuanian Basketball League Euroleague |
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| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||
| Born |
19 September 1984 Vilnius, Lithuanian SSR, Soviet Union |
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| Nationality | Lithuanian | ||||||||||||||||||
| Listed height | 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Listed weight | 250 lb (113 kg) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||||||||||||
| College | |||||||||||||||||||
| NBA draft | 2007 / Undrafted | ||||||||||||||||||
| Playing career | 2007–present | ||||||||||||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||||||||||||
| 2007–2008 | Panionios BC | ||||||||||||||||||
| 2008–2009 | Kavala BC | ||||||||||||||||||
| 2009–2010 | Juvecaserta Basket | ||||||||||||||||||
| 2010–2011 | Societa Veroli Basket | ||||||||||||||||||
| 2011–2013 | VEF Rīga | ||||||||||||||||||
| 2013–2014 | Bilbao Basket | ||||||||||||||||||
| 2014–2016 | Lietuvos rytas Vilnius | ||||||||||||||||||
| 2016–present | Žalgiris Kaunas | ||||||||||||||||||
| Career highlights and awards | |||||||||||||||||||
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Medals
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Antanas Kavaliauskas (born 19 September 1984) is a Lithuanian professional basketball player for Žalgiris Kaunas of the Lithuanian Basketball League (LKL). In college Kavaliauskas played for Texas A&M University.
Antanas Kavaliauskas was born in Vilnius to Birutė Kavaliauskienė. After his parents divorced when he was eleven, Kavaliauskas lived with his mother, grandmother, and younger sister Eglė in a small apartment in Vilnius. His mother is a former volleyball player who spent years working as a hairdresser before supporting her family with a job as a security guard. When Lithuania declared its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Birutė Kavaliauskienė sent her son away for several weeks to protect him from the Soviet troops who were occupying the city. Once the situation became safer, Antanas returned home, but remembers seeing Soviet troops for several more months before they finally left the country.
Despite the fact that he was neither a very good student nor an exceptional basketball player (averaging only 5 minutes per game for his club team), Kavaliauskas's height (2.08 m (6 ft 10 in)) brought him to the attention of a scout, who recommended him to the coach of the basketball team at Barton County Community College in Great Bend, Kansas, United States.
Kavaliauskas entered the U.S. on September 4, 2003 knowing only three words of English: Yes, no, and okay. A fellow international teammate, Brazilian J. P. Batista, became Kavaliauskas's mentor. Within three months Kavaliauskas was fluent in English, his fourth language (after Lithuanian, German, and Russian). During his first year at school he gained 45 pounds eating McDonald's double cheeseburgers, bringing his weight to a more athletic 245 pounds.
In his second year at the school, he earned first-team all-region and all-conference honors for averaging 17.6 points per game. He led the region in rebounds (10 per game), and offensive rebounding (3.9 per game). In his sophomore season he completed 50.9 percent of his attempts from the field, leading his team and ranking fifth in the region, and also led the team in blocked shots (29). His career field goal percentage (58) ranks second in the history of Barton County Community College.
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