LIT - Ilgauskas wants to play for Lithuania in Beijing

CLEVELAND (Olympics) - One of the most repeated questions in European basketball the past decade has dealt with the Cleveland Cavaliers center Zydrunas Ilgauskas.

It usually goes something like this.

Someone asks, "Lithuania are a really good team, but how good would they be if Ilgauskas played?"

After being unavailable for national team duty for most of his career because of concerns about hurting his surgically-repaired feet, the 32-year-old Ilgauskas has told Lithuania he wants to play for them this summer at the Beijing Games.

"I've always wanted to do it before I get too old," said Ilgauskas to the Akron Beacon.

"I feel like I have a lot of basketball left in me and I can help, and this is probably my last chance."

If 'Z' does play, and that's a big if because the Cavs probably will not be too anxious to see him run onto the floor because of concerns about his feet, the talk in Lithuania is that the world would finally see the Baltic version of the Dream Team .

EuroBasket 2003 MVP Sarunas Jasikevicius would be at the point, Arvydas Macijauskas at shooting guard, CSKA Moscow's Ramunas Siskauskas at small forward, Sydney 2000 standout Darius Songaila at power forward and Ilgauskas in the low post.

In fact, last year's side at the FIBA Europe Championship would require just a little tinkering - don't forget the Lavrinovic brothers Ksistof and Darjus, or Denver Nuggets star Linas Kleiza are also in the mix - and Lithuania would be ready to go for gold.

"I don't think I would be able to play every summer," Ilgauskas said to the Beacon.

"That would put me at a high risk.

"But I've really taken care of my body. I get beat up like everybody else, but I've been able to avoid major injuries.

"It's a two-month commitment in the summer and something that I think if I didn't do it, I would regret it."

If Ilgauskas does play, Cavaliers general manager Danny Ferry will have another reason to travel to Beijing just as he did in 2006 to Japan for the FIBA World Championship.

Ferry was on hand to watch Team USA captain LeBron James and Anderson Varejao, though the latter didn't make it to Saitama for the knockout phase of the tournament.

James will be in Beijing with Team USA and Varejao could be in China as well but only if Brazil claim one of three places still on offer at the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Athens.

FIBA