{"id":514931,"date":"2026-09-11T14:45:46","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T12:45:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/?p=514931"},"modified":"2026-09-11T14:41:19","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T12:41:19","slug":"mindaugas-balciunas-suspends-duties-as-lithuanian-basketball-federation-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/mindaugas-balciunas-suspends-duties-as-lithuanian-basketball-federation-president\/","title":{"rendered":"Mindaugas Balciunas suspends duties as Lithuanian Basketball Federation president"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Mindaugas Balciunas has announced that he is temporarily suspending his duties as president of the Lithuanian Basketball Federation and transferring his powers to the organization\u2019s senior vice president, in accordance with its statutes.<\/p>\n<p>The decision comes amid growing tensions surrounding Lithuanian basketball, following the men\u2019s national team\u2019s poor performances in the FIBA 2027 World Cup Qualifiers and the controversy involving Rimantas Grigas. The former women\u2019s national team coach received a five-year FIBA suspension after the federation failed to sanction suspected inappropriate sexual behavior toward players.<\/p>\n<p>Balciunas said his decision is intended to reduce public tension and allow the basketball community to refocus on its main goal: winning on the court. He also confirmed that the financial and organizational plan for the current year will be handed over to the Executive Committee. Balciunas has served as federation president since 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The decision comes amid growing tensions over the men\u2019s national team\u2019s poor results and the scandal involving former women\u2019s national team coach Rimantas Grigas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":174,"featured_media":514930,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[271],"tags":[],"rumors":[],"typology":[185],"posizionamento":[],"class_list":["post-514931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lithuania","typology-official"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - 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