Warriors make NBA history, sign Marciulionis
This story was originally published in 1989.
Three days before the NBA draft, the Warriors announced they’ve signed their own lottery pick. And they made history doing it.
He is Sarunas Marciulionis, the Lithuanian star of the Soviet National basketball team. This is the same 6-foot-5 guard whose name had been spelled Sharunas Marchulenis by most newsgathering agencies in the United States until Saturday. According to some Lithuanian-Americans,
that is the phonetic spelling, and incorrect.
But no matter how he spells it, the muscular Marciulionis, 25, brings a vast array of backcourt skills to the United States as the first Soviet to sign an NBA contract.
“Marciulionis will be an impact player,” coach and general manager Don Nelson declared Saturday at a news conference at the Coliseum Arena. “We would rate him the past two years as a lottery pick. He might not have gone in the top three, but he would have been up there.”
Whether Marciulionis will replace Winston Garland in the starting lineup alongside rookie of the year Mitch Richmond was something Nelson couldn’t, or wouldn’t, say. But sources say Marciulionis’ contract will be the secondhighest on the Warriors next to Ralph Sampson’s, pending a new agreement with Chris Mullin, a restricted free agent.
The Warriors announced Marciulionis had signed a three-year contract. Money figures weren’t released. A Lithuanian-language newspaper in Chicago, however, cited Eastern bloc sources and said the contract will cost the club $1 million a year, three-fourths of which must be paid to various Lithuanian and Soviet teams and sports associations for the right to sign him.
The Warriors obviously think Marciulionis is worth the salary, plus all the recruiting expenses over the past 2 1/2 years. The Warriors drafted him in the sixth round in 1987 as the 127th player chosen, but the selection was voided because Marciulionis had passed his 22nd birthday, making him ineligible under NBA rules. He was a free agent eligible to sign with any NBA club.
Marciulionis was the leading scorer for the 1988
Olympic gold medalists, averaging 18.1 points over the eight games in Seoul, South Korea. He played Saturday in the European Championships Zagreb, Yugoslavia, fouling out with 12 minutes, 1 second left as the Soviets were eliminated by Greece 81-80 in the semifinals.
Marciulionis won’t be the first NBA player from behind the Iron Curtain. Bulgarian forward Georgi Glouchkov played for Phoenix in 1985-86. Unlike Glouchkov, who brought his coach with him, Marciulionis won’t need a chaperone, Nelson said.
Nelson said he didn’t know when Marciulionis will be brought out to meet Bay Area media and fans.
Marciulionis is expected to take part in the Warriors’ rookie and free-agent camp, which will be held in early August in the unusual locale of Henniker, New Hampshire. That’s where Nelson and former Boston Celtics teammate Tom Sanders have conducted a summer basketball school for the past 21 years on the campus of New England College.
When Marciulionis, his wife, Inga, and their daughter, Krista, 2, eventually make it to this coast, they probably will live in a townhouse Nelson has scouted for them near where he lives in Alameda. Assistant coach Garry St. Jean and center Manute Bol also live nearby in what’s turning into a Warriors
compound. Bol is partially represented by Marc Fleisher and the International Management Group, which also is Marciulionis’ agent.
An article in Sportus, a Lithuanian newspaper, said a delegation of Atlanta Hawks executives and Soviet sports authorities visited Marciulionis on June 8 in his hometown of Vilnius. They tried to pressure Marciulionis into signing with the Hawks, whose owner, Ted Turner, has close ties with the Soviets.
Marciulionis resisted because of his friendship with Donn Nelson, the 27-year-old son of the coach and a Warriors scout even before his father joined the franchise.
The younger Nelson, who was a member of the Athletes in Action team after graduating from Wheaton College, first met Marciulionis five years ago when they
played against each other in Europe and the United States.
“He spent a lot of time with him,” Don Nelson said about his son and Marciulionis. “He introduced him to McDonald’s and places like that. They speak English to each other. Donnie doesn’t know Lithuanian.
“Donnie has been living in his house in Vilnius for the better part of a half-year. With all due respect to Vilnius, there isn’t much to do there.”
Well, you always can go to school. Marciulionis went to Vilnius State there and has a degree in journalism. When not playing for the Soviet national team, Marciulionis competes for Team Statyba Vilnius. Marciulionis will not miss any time with the Warriors because of commitments to the Soviet national team, Nelson said.