Latvian national basketball team

World championships
Latvia Latvija
Latvia
Association	LBS
FIBA member since	1935/1992
FIBA world rankings	15th
Technical sponsor	Adidas
Trainer	Ainars Bagatskis
Participation in the finals	0
Best results	-
Olympic games
Participation in the finals	1
Best results	15th place ( 1936 )
Continental championships
championship	European Championship
Participation in the finals	14th
Best results	Gold ( 1935 ), silver ( 1939 )
Homepage	basket.lv
(As of January 8, 2019)

The Latvian national basketball team represents Latvia in men's international basketball matches. Her greatest success is winning the first European basketball championship in 1935 .

history

As in Lithuania , basketball was an early sport in Latvia. Before the Second World War, the Latvian team was one of the most successful in Europe and won the European Championship in 1935 and silver at the EM in 1939. During the first years of the Soviet Union , ASK Riga won the national championship cup three times in a row, players of the club like the 2.18 m tall Jānis Krūmiņš , Valdis Muižnieks and Maigonis Valdmanis were also among the most important pillars in the Soviet national team . Other important Latvian players in the Soviet era were the 1982 world champion Valdis Valters and the 1988 Olympic champion Igors Miglinieks , who, like Gundars Vētra, was also a member of the United Team in 1992.

Without Miglinieks and Vētra, who played briefly in the NBA, the Latvian national team tried to build on their old successes. She qualified in 1993 for the first European championship since regaining independence and reached the intermediate round. At the EM 2001 they made it to the quarter-finals after Latvia had surprisingly beaten Lithuania in the intermediate round. Since then she has been able to qualify for every further European championship, but then retired after the preliminary round. After the NBA player Andris Biedriņš was part of the team in 2007 and 2009, the team started in 2011 with mostly young and internationally inexperienced players.

Squad

Latvia's squad at the 2017 European Championship

player
No.	Surname	birth	size	info	Calls	society
		Guards ( PG , SG )
9	Dairis Bertāns	09/09/1989	1.92			Italy EA7 Armani Milan
7th	Jānis Blūms	04/20/1982	1.91	(C)		Spain Tecynconta Saragossa
12	Kristaps Janičenoks	03/14/1983	1.95			BK Ventspils
13	Jānis Strēlnieks	09/01/1989	1.91			Greece Olympiacos Piraeus
21st	Aigars Šķēle	04/12/1992	1.92			BK Ventspils
		Forwards ( SF , PF )
8th	Dāvis Bertāns	11/12/1992	2.08			United States San Antonio Spurs
10	Jānis Timma	07/02/1992	2.01			Russia Zenit St. Petersburg
11	Rolands Šmits	06/25/1995	2.07			Spain Montakit Fuenlabrada
24	Andrejs Gražulis	07/21/1993	2.02			BK Ventspils
31	Žanis Peiners	08/02/1990	2.04			Greece PAOK Thessaloniki
		Center ( C )
6th	Kristaps Porziņģis	02/02/1995	2.17			United States New York Knicks
33	Mārtiņš Meiers	03/30/1991	2.11			Russia UNICS Kazan