Gintaras Krapikas

Gintaras Krapikas
Nanjing Monkey King
Personal information
Born	July 6, 1961 (age 62); Kretinga, Lithuanian SSR, Soviet Union
Nationality	Lithuanian
Listed height	6 ft 5 in (1.96 m)
Career information
Playing career	1985–1999
Career history
As player:
1985–1990	Žalgiris Kaunas
1995–1999	Tus Iserlohn (Germany)
As coach:
2000–2006	Žalgiris Kaunas (assistant)
2006–2008	Unics Kazan (assistant)
2008	Žalgiris (assistant)
2008–2009	Žalgiris
2010–2011	Nevėžis Kėdainiai
2011–2012	Azovmash Mariupol
2012	Unics Kazan (assistant)
2013–2014	Žalgiris (assistant)
2014–2016	Žalgiris
2018-present	Nanjing Monkey King
Career highlights and awards
	Soviet Union champion (1987); 6× LKL champion (2001, 2003–2005, 2014, 2015); BBL champion (2005); LKF Cup (2015);
Men's Basketball
Representing Lithuania
Olympic Games
EuroBasket

Gintaras "Vytas" Krapikas (born July 6, 1961 in Kretinga, Lithuanian SSR, USSR) is a retired Lithuanian basketball player. He was a member of the Lithuanian national team that won a bronze medal in Barcelona's 1992 Summer Olympics.

Playing career

During the 1980s, while playing for Žalgiris, Krapikas' jersey number was 9, and his position was small forward.

Coaching career

In 2000, Krapikas took a position as assistant basketball coach for Žalgiris Kaunas; together with the head coach, Antanas Sireika, he stepped down from this position in 2006, when the coaching team was re-organized. From 2002 to 2005, he was an assistant coach for the Lithuanian national team. From 2006 until 2008, he was an assistant basketball coach for UNICS Kazan.

In 2008, he was the head coach of Žalgiris Kaunas, to very little success, and on December 18, 2009, he resigned from Žalgiris Kaunas' head coach post. He also coached Nevėžis for a short time in the 2010-2011 season, and was the assistant and head coach for Azovmash in 2011-2012. He returned to UNICS Kazan in 2012. Before the 2013-2014 season, he came back to Žalgiris Kaunas as an assistant coach. He became head coach in April. This time, he was much more success - under Krapikas, Žalgiris played great defence - and had a solid season in the Euroleague in 2014-2015, making the Top16 phase. Žalgiris also won the LKF Cup in 2015, as well as the 2014 and 2015 LKL titles. The team dominated in matches with biggest rival BC Lietuvos rytas. By the 2015-2016 season, however, the magic had worn off - the results were poor, especially in the Euroleague, and Krapikas resigned under much pressure in January, 2016. He was replaced by Šarūnas Jasikevičius.

Awards and achievements

USSR League Champion - 1985, 1986, 1987
Intercontinental W. Jones Cup winner - 1986
Olympic Bronze medalist - 1992
European championship Silver medalist - 1995

Nickname

Gintaras Krapikas has an old nickname, which appeared during his tenure with Kaunas Žalgiris as a player. The nickname appeared due to his second name "Krapikas", which is a little bit similar to Lithuanian word "Krapai" (English: Dill) and at that time, there was a famous dill farmer, Vytas, from Petrašiūnai.^[1]

References

^ Europos čempionato dienoraštis (6): apie Kalną, Delną ir kodėl tik J.Kazlauskas neturi pravardės Archived 2013-11-03 at the Wayback Machine Template:Lt icon

Template:Lt icon [1]. Gintaras Krapikas. Lietuvos Krepšinio Lyga.
Template:Lt icon [2]. G. Krapikas: „Žalgiris“ – mano gyvenimas. Balsas.lt.

External links

Euroleague.net Coach Profile

[1] Europos čempionato dienoraštis (6): apie Kalną, Delną ir kodėl tik J.Kazlauskas neturi pravardės Archived 2013-11-03 at the Wayback Machine Template:Lt icon

[1]