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<\/a><\/p>\n13\/Jul\/26 11:43<\/p>\n
Eurohoops.net<\/p>\n
The Lithuanian center is leaving NBA for the powerhouse of his native Lithuania<\/p>\n By Aris Barkas\/ barkas@eurohoops.net<\/a><\/p>\n One year after the soap opera about his transfer to Panathinaikos<\/a>, which was never completed despite his arrival in Athens<\/a>, Jonas Valanciunas has finally signed a two-year deal with Zalgiris<\/a> Kaunas, according to Jonas Leksas of Lithuanian outlet \u201cKrepsinis.net\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n This is the end of an era for one of the most solid European big men of his generation in the NBA.<\/p>\n It was already reported that Zalgiris<\/a> had an offer on the table for Valanciunas<\/a>, and with him finally clearing waivers from the Nuggets<\/a>, he was able to complete the deal.<\/p>\n Valanciunas started his career with Zalgiris\u2019 biggest rival, Lietuvos Rytas, where he played until 2012.<\/p>\n After that, he moved to the NBA, where he spent seven years with the Toronto Raptors<\/a>. He has also played for the Memphis Grizzlies<\/a>, New Orleans Pelicans<\/a>, Washington Wizards<\/a>, and Sacramento Kings<\/a>.<\/p>\n Last season, he wore the Denver Nuggets<\/a> jersey, and their playoff run ended with a loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves<\/a> in the first round (4-2).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"2026-07-13T11:43:04+00:00 2026-07-13T11:43:04+00:00 2026-07-13T11:44:47+00:00. Aris Barkas 13\/Jul\/26 11:43 Eurohoops.net Aris Barkas FIBA The Lithuanian center is leaving NBA for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":797516,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-797515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=797515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/797516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=797515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=797515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=797515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\n Aris Barkas <\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1b7d71af-valanciunas-lithuania-great-britain.jpg\")
FIBA<\/p>\n