Vaidas Kariniauskas is explaining why he decided to troll America’s golden boy.
The Lithuanian guard was the talk of the town on Sunday during his team’s stunning upset victory over the United States at the FIBA World Cup.
Lithuania jumped out to an early 17-point lead in the first half, and ultimately held off a late U.S. rally to win 110-104. While it was not an elimination game, the loss was the first of the competition for the U.S. and illustrated that they are no lock to win it all this year.
Kariniauskas rubbed some salt in the wound too with his antics on Sunday. After scoring on Austin Reaves in the post on an “and-one” during the first quarter, Kariniauskas stuck his tongue out at the L.A. Lakers fan favorite.
After Lithaunia’s win, Kariniauskas explained his troll of Reaves.
“I played with his brother [Spencer] last year,” said Kariniauskas of Reaves, per BasketNews. “I talked with [Spencer] before the game, and he said, ‘Give [Austin] a trash talk.’ So I gave him that.”
Spencer is Austin’s older brother who is also a professional basketball player (albeit in Europe). Spencer now plays for SC Rasta Vechta in Germany but played last season for another German team in Brose Bamberg, where he was briefly teammates with Kariniauskas.
While that context makes Kariniauskas’ troll job seem a bit friendlier, he did also clown the United States team as a whole by wearing a USA Basketball hat in the locker room after the upset victory.
Austin has been playing very well otherwise at the FIBA World Cup this year, and it seems that his hype continues to build with each passing day. But Kariniauskas made sure to take advantage of his opportunity on Sunday to bring Austin back to earth a little bit.
More must-reads: