In 1945, Soviet officials tried to defeat Lithuania's ideas of independence by defeating Lithuania in a basketball game. In order to ensure the achievement of the goal, the predecessor of the famous team Kaunas BC-Kaunas Greenwoods players were threatened by the Soviet side before the game. However, they refused to implement the Soviet order: deliberately lose to CSKA Moscow.
After the game, the entire Kaunas Greenwoods team, including the coach, were tried and sent to the Gulag for "participating in an anti-Soviet organization". Juozas Butrimas, a Lithuanian athlete who was imprisoned at the time, recalled: “The entire sports organization was accused of participating in the anti-Soviet Lithuanian independent organization. We built a basketball court in Siberia. It is basketball that allows us to live with dignity and keep us sober. Thanks to basketball, otherwise. I will definitely be buried there."
After experiencing this incident, the Kaunas Greenwoods team continued to express their resistance in different ways until Lithuania gained independence.
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