Sunday’s game against Lithuania will be special for two of the Canadian national team members. Team Canada’s coach Leo Rautins and his son Andy both have Lithuanian roots which bring some spice and even more intrigue into the game.
“I think it is going to be special,” Leo Rautins said. “A lot of times people say they’re all the same, it doesn’t matter, but I think it is special. There was talk many years ago about me playing for Lithuania in 1992. So Lithuania is always a special place.”
Rautins didn’t end up wearing the Lithuanian national team jersey as he already played for Canada – the coach who spent time in the NBA and Europe as a player was brought up by Lithuanian tradition and was taught to speak Lithuanian by his mother who immigrated to Toronto from Lithuanian.
“I don’t speak Lithuanian well,” Rautins said in Lithuanian. “If I had an opportunity to speak every day, it would come back. Years ago, when I was playing in Spain Valdemaras Chomicius was working out with us. We used to run every day for a month and my Lithuanian kept getting better.”
His son Andy Rautins knows even less Lithuanian, but he’s still proud of his roots and even has a tattoo of his name in Lithuanian saying ‘Andrius’.
“I know ‘Labas’ – hello, the simple ones. But it’s something I’d want to get into one day. My grandma says Lithuanian prayers all the time and it’s part of my culture and I’m proud of who I am,” Andy tells.“It will mean a lot to me. I’m sure my grandparents will be watching, they’re going to leave the whole situation – I’m going to play Lithuania, me being Lithuanian. It will be a special game for me.”
Lithuania will face Canada in the second game of the World Championship.
