LTU - Jasikevicius hopes for wild card

VILNIUS (2010 FIBA World Championship) - Lithuania talisman Sarunas Jasikevicius believes his national team deserves a wild card for the 2010 FIBA World Championship in Turkey.
 
The veteran guard, who didn’t play at the EuroBasket in Poland because of a knee injury and minor surgery, suffered with the rest of his country’s basketball fans as Lithuania won just one game and crashed out of the competition before the Quarter-Finals.
 
"If you just look at the basketball tradition in Lithuania and what we have achieved during the last 17 years as an independent country, we have played in all five Olympics since 1992 and were among the top four basketball nations in the world each time,” he said.
 
“We were on the Olympic podium three times, took European silver in 1995 and gold in 2003.
 
“There were a couple of set-back years, but overall we always have been among the elite teams. In my opinion it would be a huge injustice should we not be in Turkey in 2010."
 
Jasikevicius, whose remarks were published on the Lithuanian Basketball Federation website, was the MVP of EuroBasket 2003 and shone for his country at the 2004 Olympics.
 
He didn’t play for Lithuania at EuroBasket 2005, or at the 2006 FIBA World Championship, but returned for EuroBasket 2007 in Spain and also competed at the Beijing Games where he served as the flag bearer for his country at the Opening Ceremonies.
 
"Today it is hard to predict what may happen by the summer of 2010," he said.
 
"But if my body is ready and if we get a ticket to Turkey from FIBA, I am thinking about putting the green and white jersey on again. I am still on the "active list" for the national team.”
 
FIBA will announce which four countries are to receive wild cards for next year’s big event in Turkey at the Central Board meeting in Geneva in December.
 
FIBA