Lithuanian basketball player
Mindaugas Kuzminskas
(born 19 October 1989) is a Lithuanian professional
basketball
player who last played for
AEK Athens
of the
Greek Basket League
. He also represents the
Lithuanian national team
. He is 2.05 m (6'8
3
⁄
4
") tall, and he can play both the
small forward
and
power forward
positions.
Professional career
[
edit
]
Europe
[
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]
Kuzminskas started his basketball career in 2006 with
Sakalai
where he played for one season. For the 2007?08 season, he moved to
Perlas
. In the summer of 2008, he signed with
?iauliai
.
[
citation needed
]
In September 2009, Kuzminskas signed with
?algiris
, but he stayed one more season on loan with ?iauliai.
[1]
In 2010, he joined ?algiris and stayed with the team for three seasons.
[
citation needed
]
In June 2013, Kuzminskas signed a contract with the Spanish team
Unicaja
.
[2]
On 22 October 2015, Kuzminskas scored his
EuroLeague
career-high 23 points and led his team to triumph versus the
Maccabi Tel Aviv
93?82 in
Tel Aviv
.
[3]
Then on 13 November, Kuzminskas played his most efficient EuroLeague game of 30
PIR points
(22 points (2FG: 6/7, 3FG: 3/5, FT: 1/1), 4 rebounds, 3 steals) and led Unicaja to another outstanding away-game victory, this time against
CSKA Moscow
, winning 86?78.
[4]
[5]
[6]
In 36
league
games for Unicaja in 2015?16, he averaged 10.3 points, 3.0 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game.
[
citation needed
]
On 9 July 2016, Kuzminskas signed with the
New York Knicks
.
[7]
[8]
[9]
On 25 October 2016, he made his debut for the Knicks in their season opener, scoring seven points in nine minutes off the bench in a 117?88 loss to the
Cleveland Cavaliers
.
[10]
On 12 January 2017, he scored a season-high 19 points in a 104?89 win over the
Chicago Bulls
.
[11]
On 12 November 2017, Kuzminskas was waived by the Knicks to make room for the return of the suspended
Joakim Noah
.
[12]
He appeared in 68 games during his rookie season, but just one game to begin his second season.
[13]
Return to Europe
[
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]
On 1 January 2018, Kuzminskas signed with the Italian club
Olimpia Milano
.
[14]
On 1 July 2019, Kuzminskas parted ways with Olimpia Milano after a season and a half playing for them and winning one Italian championship.
[
citation needed
]
On 22 July 2019, Kuzminskas signed a two-year contract with Greek club
Olympiacos
.
[15]
On 9 November 2019, with playing time declining since October, Kuzminskas was released from the Greek club.
On 11 November 2019, Kuzminskas signed a
€
1.5 million deal with
Lokomotiv Kuban
.
[16]
[17]
Kuzminskas was selected to the
2020 VTB United League All-Star Game
where he scored 14 points, grabbed 1 rebound and dished out 4 assists.
[18]
During the 2020-21 season, Kuzminskas averaged 13 points και 4.5 rebounds in 40 games in the
VTB United League
and the
EuroCup
.
[
citation needed
]
On 5 July 2021 he signed with the Russian team
Zenit Saint Petersburg
of the
VTB United League
and the
EuroLeague
.
[19]
He left the team after the
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
.
[20]
On 21 September 2022 he signed with
Pınar Kar?ıyaka
of the
Basketbol Super Ligi
(BSL).
[21]
Career statistics
[
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]
EuroLeague
[
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]
Eurocup
[
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]
Regular season
[
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]
Personal life
[
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]
Both of Kuzminskas' parents were professional athletes, his father, Vladas, played
table tennis
, while his mother, Zita, was a professional basketball player.
[22]
He also has an older brother, Saulius, who was also a professional basketball player between 1999 and 2015.
[23]
When Kuzminskas was 13 he visited
Canada
. During his trip to Canada, he toured the
Toronto Raptors
' arena
[24]
and went to Kretinga, a Lithuanian Youth Summer Camp in
Wasaga Beach, Ontario
.
[25]
In 2017, after 6 years of dating, he married Lithuanian ballet dancer Egl? Andreikait?. The couple announced their separation in 2019.
[26]
Don't Snooze On Kuz
[
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]
While in the NBA, a fan-made Instagram account entitled "
dontsnoozeonkuz
" gained popularity through various satirical and serious postings about Kuzminskas. The account mainly focused on promoting Kuzminskas as a basketball player, and frequently requested his then-current team, the
New York Knicks
, to increase his playing time. Kuzminskas followed "dontsnoozeonkuz," which has amassed over 1,200 followers as of 29 June 2017. "Dontsnoozeonkuz" is still active today despite the end of Kuzminskas' NBA tenure.
References
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]
External links
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]
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