Lietuvos krepšinio lyga

Lietuvos krepšinio lyga (LKL) (English: Lithuanian Basketball League) is the premier professional men's basketball league in Lithuania, composed of 10 teams, and a member of the Lithuanian Basketball Federation. Top LKL clubs are annual participants of the top international competition in Europe, including the Euroleague.

On April 22, 1993, the Lietuvos krepšinio asosiacija (English: Lithuanian Basketball Association) (LKA) was founded. It was the first professional sports organisation in Lithuania. Lietuvos krepšinio lyga was built on the foundation of the LKA. The league's headquarters is located in Vilnius.

History

Foundation and Žalgiris dominance

The Lithuanian Basketball Association was founded in 1993, when eight of the strongest Lithuanian basketball clubs' officials met with representatives of the Šarūnas Marčiulionis basketball fund. The original eight teams were: Žalgiris Kaunas, Atletas Kaunas, Drobė Kaunas, Statyba Vilnius, Olimpas Plungė, BC Šilutė, Lietkabelis Panevėžys and Neptūnas Klaipėda. This association would soon announce their basketball league that would start in the upcoming fall. Later on, before the season started, the LKA and their new league accepted two more teams – Lavera Kaunas and NECA Kaunas. Although there had been early attempts to play club basketball in Lithuania right after restoring independence from the Soviet Union in 1990 with the same clubs that with later form the LKL, Marčiulionis, being the only Lithuanian that has played overseas in the National Basketball Association at the time, brought his experience of how a highest level basketball competition is run back home. For example, the inaugular season featured something used primarily in American sports, a draft, of three rounds. Olimpas went as far as selecting Marčiulionis himself in the second round, though no more drafts were held after that.