Adelaide's own 'The other Dream Team' member

In 1990 Basketballer Romas Brazdauskas came to work and live in Adelaide with his wife, Rasa and son, Lukas.  Romas had come to Australia previously and had attended the Australian Lithuanian scports festival in Melbourne.   He came to Adelaide to play with West Adelaide.

The Other Dream Team, 1992 bronze medal winners in Barcelona. Romas is far right.  

Romas was born on 20 February 1964 in Kretinga.  At 204cm tall, he wasn’t someone to miss.  Previous to coming to Australia he  played for Panevėžys "Lietkabelis", Vilnius "Statyba",. Ryga "ASK" (Latvia), Vilniaus "Statyba", and Kaunas"Žalgiris".  He was awarded the ‘All Stars Five’ medal here and had a 76% shooting rate.  

In 1992, while still in Australia, Romas was selected to play for basketball for Lithuania at the Barcelona Olympics.  This was the first time Lithuania had a national team since the restoration of independence in 1990.  The team went on to win a bronze medal, defeated by Croatia and the American ‘Dream team’.  Wearing their ti-dyed, yellow green and red t-shirts the Lithuanian team included some of the greatest Lithuanian players Valdemaras Chomičius, Rimas Kurtinaitis, Arvydas Sabonis, Šarūnas Marčiulionis.  Upon his return to Adelaide, Romas was proud to show off his medal at Lithuanian House.  He even made a special appearance at the Saturday school where all the children wanted to be included in a photo with Romas and his medal.

Romas and family lived in the caretakers house on Grey street.  He also took care of the Lithuanian hall.  Romas also played for the Adelaide Lithuanian team ‘Vytis’ and on Saturday would coach the younger team.  Another son was born while in Adelaide, Tadas. 

On his return to Lithuania he played for Plungė Olimpas, then a year in Slovakija with Inter.  He finished his basketball career playing for Kaunas ‘Atletas’ in 2001.  

With a basketballer father it is no surprise that Lukas is following in his father’s footsteps.   A centimetre taller than his father, Lukas is now playing for Alytaus ‘Dziūkija’.