Georgian fans, specialists and players know former Latvian basketball player and current successful coach Ainars Bagatskis well. He was in the center of the attention as a basketball player. Later, Georgia got to know him better – in February-October 2011 Ainars coached Georgian basketball club “Sokhumi” and continued working for the Latvian national team as a head coach. Former basketball player Arnis Vecvagars is his assistant in the Latvian national team. By the way, Vecvagars also worked for “Sokhumi” with Bagatskis in February-October 2011. They have been working together for the Latvian national team for several years. The Latvian national team has already achieved success at EuroBasket in Slovenia – Latvia gained three wins in the group round. At the second stage of the championship Latvia defeated Ukraine… We met them at Latvia-Ukraine game and press conference. However, after beating Ukraine both of them were surrounded by Latvian, French and Ukrainian journalists. Ainars apologized and told me: Tengiz, you see I am surrounded by journalists. Let us talk later. You know I will not hide from you…

I met Bagatskis and Vecvagars yesterday evening when the Latvian national team did not have a game to play. Today Latvia will play France.

- Ainars! How did you manage to beat Ukraine by such score – 85-51. The Ukrainian colleagues joked – Bagatskis will not be let in Ukraine anymore…

- I understand their jokes and concerns – Ukraine lost by such big score. I have been working in Ukraine for two years and I learnt their basketball well. So, it was not tough for us to play Ukraine: when you know opponent so well, it is easy to prepare for the game… We used a right tactic against Ukraine and we won this important game… However, everybody has a chance of success yet and let us not hurry. We have to hold games against France and Serbia…

- Does Latvia plan to make through to semifinal or is this achievement enough?

- Oh, Tengiz, you take the Latvian national team too far… Our first goal was to go through the next round. It was a tough goal because we had quite strong rivals in the group. We achieved this goal… We won the first game of the second round too… Let us see, what will happen…

- Perhaps, you watched the games of the Georgian national team at EuroBasket. How do you evaluate our play? Do you think our team had a chance of making through to the next round and why could not the Georgian national team do it?

- I watched two games of Georgia on TV. One was the game against Slovenia. The Georgian national team has talented and experienced basketball players. Unfortunately, your team could not go through the next round. I will not start discussing the reasons. But life goes on and you must think that the Georgian national team will achieve more success in future… Say hello to Georgia and everybody who remembers Ainars Bagatskis.

As for Arnis Vecvagars and his son Kaspars Vecvagars, a rising star of Latvian basketball and a player of the Latvian U-20 team, we will provide you with some information about them later.

Tengiz Pachkoria, Ljubljana, specially for www.worldsport.ge

Photos by Khatuna Gabitashvili

EuroBasket-2013 is presented by online bookmaker TBILISIBET.COM and Spanish sports clothing manufacturer Joma