Modestas "Iron Modė"Paulauskas[note 1] (19 March 1945) is a Lithuanian former professionalbasketball player and coach.
As a player, he was the youngestEuroBasket MVP in history, being only 20 years old at the time he won the award. He is known for having been one of the best Lithuanian basketball players of all time, and for having excellent dribbling ability. He was selected as theLithuanian Sportsman of the Year, a record seven times, in 1965–1967, and 1969–1972.[1] He was a member of theSoviet Union team that won gold medal at the1972 Summer Olympics.
In 1991, he was named one ofFIBA's 50 Greatest Players.
In 2021, he was included into theFIBA Hall of Fame.[2]
Paulauskas spent his wholeclub career with Lithuanian teams:Neptūnas Klaipėda,Atletas Kaunas,Žalgiris Kaunas, despite getting attention from teams based in Western Europe and theNational Basketball Association (NBA). He could not join them due to various reasons, one of such isLithuania was part of theSoviet Union at that time, and it was very hard to travel abroad USSR. The other reason was he never actually wanted to leave his homeland –Lithuania. He was also asked to join Žalgiris Kaunas's main rival,CSKA Moscow, but he declined.[3][4][5][6]
Paulauskas, nicknamed "Iron Modė", would often score half points for his team even before the introduction of thethree-point line.[4][7][5]
Then just 20-year-old Paulauskas debuted in the seniorSoviet Union men's national basketball team during theEuroBasket 1965, led the Soviet team to a EuroBasket title and was named theFIBA EuroBasket MVP (he is the all-time youngest player to receive this award).[6] Subsequently he won three more EuroBasket titles in theEuroBasket 1967,EuroBasket 1969,EuroBasket 1971, and a bronze medal in theEuroBasket 1973.[6]
Paulauskas also was a part of the senior Soviet Union men's national basketball teams that won the bronze medal at the1968 Summer Olympic Games, and the gold medal at the1972 Summer Olympic Games.[8][6] Paulauskas became thecaptain of the senior Soviet national team in 1969.[9][6]
Moreover, Paulauskas two-times became aFIBA World Champion in the1967 FIBA World Championship,1974 FIBA World Championship, and won a bronze medal in the1970 FIBA World Championship.[6]
Paulauskas is the all-time most titled Lithuanian basketball player of theFIBA championships andOlympic Games.[3][10][11][6]
After retiring from playing basketball competitions, Paulauskas worked as acoach of the Soviet Union junior national teams from 1977 to 1989. In the early 1990s, he was thehead coach of his native club,Žalgiris Kaunas.[12] After that, he coached basketball in schools, both inLithuania and inRussia.[13]
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