(This story was originally published in 1989)
Three days before the NBA draft, the Warriors announced they’ve signed their own lottery pick. And they made history doing it.
He is Sarunas Marciulionis, the Lithuanian star of the Soviet National basketball team. This is the same 6-foot-5 guard whose name had been spelled Sharunas Marchulenis by most news-gathering agencies in the United States until Saturday. According to some Lithuanian-Americans, that is the phonetic spelling, and incorrect.
But no matter how he spells it, the muscular Marciulionis, 25, brings a vast array of backcourt skills to the United States as the first Soviet to sign an NBA contract.