Antanas Kavaliauskas

Antanas Kavaliauskas was born in Vilnius to Birutė Kavaliauskienė. Despite the fact that he was neither a very good student nor an exceptional basketball player (averaging only 5 minutes per game for his club team), Kavaliauskas's height () brought him to the attention of a scout, who recommended him to the coach of the basketball team at Barton County Community College in Great Bend, Kansas, United States. ==College career==

Barton County Community College Kavaliauskas entered the U.S. on September 4, 2003, knowing only three words of English: Yes, no, and okay. A fellow international teammate, Brazilian J. P. Batista, became Kavaliauskas's mentor. Within three months Kavaliauskas was fluent in English, his fourth language (after Lithuanian, German, and Russian). During his first year at school he gained 45 pounds eating McDonald's double cheeseburgers, bringing his weight to a more athletic 245 pounds. After being recruited by South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia Tech, Kavaliauskas chose to attend Texas A&M University to play under coach Billy Gillispie. He also earned a spot on the media Big 12 All-Newcomer Team. He played in 30 games during the season, During the tournament, Kavaliauskas averaged 10.5 points and 4.0 rebounds. The team had their best start since opening 16–2 in the 1959–1960 season, as well as their best conference opening since the inception of the Big 12. In a historic moment on February 3, 2007, the Aggies became the first Big 12 South team (in 32 attempts) to ever beat the then-Number 6 Kansas Jayhawks at Allen Fieldhouse. Less than two days later the team beat then-Number 25 Texas, their twenty-first straight home win, making them the sole leader of the Big 12. After a Dallas Morning News article profiled Kavaliauskas, mentioning that he had only seen his mother twice since he moved to the USA, many Texas A&M fans inquired about raising money to reunite the family temporarily. Texas A&M discovered that the NCAA-financed Student-Athlete Opportunity Fund could be used, and paid for Birute Kavaliauskiene to travel to the US for the first time to see her son play in his last home game for A&M. In the Aggies' 94–78 win over Missouri, Kavaliauskas, whose mother traveled all the way from Lithuania to see him play, scored a career-high 26 points on 11-of-12 shooting. The win assured the Aggies of a second-place finish in the Big 12 regular season, the highest the team has ever finished in this conference. For the season Kavaliauskas ranks first in the Big 12 in field goal percentage (58.0). He has averaged 12.5 points per game, and was awarded second-team All Big 12 honors. Although the Aggies were the number two seed for the Big 12 Conference Tournament, they played poorly in their first game in the quarterfinals of the tournament and were eliminated in a loss to Oklahoma State. On Selection Sunday, however, the Aggies were rewarded for their regular-season play with a Number 3 seed in the South region of the 2007 NCAA Tournament. The team's 72–69 victory over Louisville earned them a berth in the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1980. ==Professional career==

in 2014. In 2007, Kavaliauskas started his pro career in Greece, playing there for two seasons. In 2009, he moved to Italy where he played next two seasons. In July 2011 he signed a one-year contract with BK VEF Rīga in Latvia. After his successful season in Rīga he received his first ever call-up to Lithuanian National Team. He stayed with VEF for second season, helping club to repeat as Latvian champions and make some noise in Europe. In the 2013 off-season, Kavaliauskas moved to Spain and signed with Bilbao Basket, team that he played against previous season as a player of VEF Riga. Kavaliauskas spent a part of his 2013–2014 season with the Bilbao Basket before joining Lietuvos rytas Vilnius in 2014. After becoming one of the team's primary players next season, he signed a long-term contract extension with the club in the summer of 2015. During the same summer, he also received identical contract offer from the Rytas biggest rivals in Lithuania, Žalgiris Kaunas, but decided to stay loyal to his hometown club. On August 26, 2016, Kavaliauskas signed with Žalgiris. Over the next three seasons, Kavaliauskas became one of the most important figures for Žalgiris in both the EuroLeague, and the LKL, which Kavaliauskas won three consecutive times with Žalgiris. During matches with Rytas, Kavaliauskas was booed heavily by Rytas fans. Kavaliauskas also won the King Mindaugas Cup in 2017 and 2018. ==Post-playing career==

In June 2020, Kavaliauskas joined Wake Forest University's men's basketball team as the director of player development. ==Career statistics==

EuroLeague ==National team career==

in 2016. Before joining the Aggies for the 2005–2006 season, Kavaliauskas spent the summer playing with the Lithuanian junior national team. He qualified into the national team's final roster once again, in 2015, and won a silver medal with the national team. He also represented Lithuania at the 2016 Summer Olympics. ==Nickname==

In 2015, Kavaliauskas received a Jumanji nickname after his drastic beard style change, which reminds Robin Williams staged prominent character Alan Parrish in Jumanji movie, who was trapped in a mystical world for twenty-six years. ==References==