I think it is fair to say, without even a hint of hyperbole, that Mindaugas Kuzminskas is the most popular basketball player in the history of the world. Certain the MSG faithful have taken young Cheese under their wing, chanting “KUUUUUUUUUUUUUUZ” in unison whenever the Lithuanian string bean launches a shot.
It might surprise you, however, to learn just how popular Kuzminskas is in the exclusive community of chess grandmasters. Recently the world’s No. 1 chess player, Magnus Carlsen, defeated Sergey Karjakin in the World Championships in New York. Carlsen’s coach, fellow grandmaster Peter Heine Nielsen, took advantage of his time in the Big Apple as any true chess pro would, by finding someone to sell him a “Kuzminskas” jersey, per an interview with a Lithuanian TV station:
(The following is roughly translated from Lithuanian):
Magnus is a basketball fan who wore the legendary Barcelona Olympics Lithuanian National Team T-shirt with the skull at the last Chess World Cup in Sochi.