Pallacanestro Olimpia EA7 Emporio Armani Milano agreed on terms with the Lithuanian player, Mantas Kalnietis coming from Zalgiris Kaunas. Kalnietis will join the team on Monday and will play the rest of the Eurocup season with Olimpia Milano. He signed a two-year contract. He will wear number 9.

WHO’S KALNIETIS? – Mantas Kalnietis was born on September 6, 1986, in Kaunas. He’s a 1.95 point guar . He began to play at the Arvydas Sabonis Basketball Academy in kaunas and eventually moved to the Zalgiris youth teams. he made his first-team debut in 2003 and stayed with Zalgiris up until 2012. During his stay, Zalgiris won four times the Baltic League, the Lithuanian league and the Lithuanian Cup. In 2012 he moved to Russia to play for Lokomotiv Kuban, where he stayed until 2015. In Kuban he won the Eurocup in 2013, averaging 13.4 points per game and 5.0 assists. Last summer he competed in the NBA summer league with the Indiana Pacers and then returned to Kaunas (7.2 points per game and 4.1 assists per game in the Euroleague). During the last European Championship, he had 14 points and 11 assists in a 40-minute effort against Italy in the quarterfinals; 12 points and 9 assists in a win over Serbia in the semifinals and 13 points plus 6 assists during a loss to Spain in the gold-medal game.

NOTES – Kalnietis played the World Championship in 2006 when he was still 19 with the Lithuanian National team. Eventually he led the team during the 2009, 2011, 2013 and 2015 European Championships. In 2013 he averaged 12.1 points and 5.0 assists per game while winning the silver medal. In 2015 he led Lithuania to a silver medal while scoring 10.6 points per game with 7.8 assists. He also won the bronze at the 2010 World Championship. He didn’t play in the 2014 World Championship because of a shoulder injury that plagued his last season in Kuban. He won the gold medal at the 2007 University Games, the silver medal at the Under 20 European Championship in 2005.