GRE/LTU - Kazlauskas in Athens for talks on Greek job

ATHENS (EuroBasket 2009) - Former Olympiacos boss Jonas Kazlauskas arrived in Athens early Wednesday to continue talks aimed at becoming the new coach of Greece's national team.

Kazlauskas will on Thursday meet with George Vassilakopoulos, who is the FIBA Europe President and the President Emeritus of the Hellenic Basketball Federation (HBF), and members of the HBF board.

Greece have not made an official announcement that Kazlauskas will replace Panagiotis Yannakis, whose second coaching stint with the national team came to an end after the Olympics.

Kazlauskas has also been out of contract since the end of the Beijing Games, where he coached China.

The 54-year-old is well known in European basketball circles after leading Lithuania's national team, and coaching various clubs - including Olympiacos.

After serving as an assistant to Del Harris on the China team at the Athens Games in 2004, he was confirmed as head coach of the Chinese national side in 2005 although he also continued to lead Olympiacos through the 2005-06 campaign.

Kazlauskas coached China at the 2006 FIBA World Championship, where they advanced from the same group as Team USA, Slovenia and Italy to the last 16 before being knocked out by Greece.

The appointment of Kazlauskas would appear to bring some continuity since he worked with Greek players like center Sofoklis Schortsanitis while the coach of Olympiacos.

Kazlauskas coached Zalgiris Kaunas from 1994-2000 and led them to numerous honors, including a FIBA EuroLeague title in 1999. He first worked in the Lithuania national team set-up in 1995 when coaching the juniors.

He served as head coach of Lithuania from 1997-2001 and during his spell, the country narrowly upset the heavily-favored United States in the semi-finals of the Sydney Olympics in 2000 before settling for a bronze medal.

If Kazlauskas does agree to take the Greek job, he will lead them at this summer's EuroBasket in Poland where the national team will compete in Poznan in Group A against the Croatia, the Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia and Israel.

FIBA