Sarunas Jasikevicius Reportedly Interviewed for Raptors' Head Coaching Job

The Toronto Raptors reportedly interviewed Zalgris coach Sarunas Jasikevicius for their head-coaching vacancy.

Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reported the news. 

Jasikevicius, 42, has been the coach of the Lithuanian Basketball League outfit since 2016. He's led the club to a 38-40 record, including 22-14 this past season and a third-place finish.

The Raptors fired Dwane Casey last month after a 59-23 season that ended in a sweep by the Cleveland Cavaliers. Casey's tenure ended with 10 straight losses to LeBron James and Co., highlighted by sweeps each of the past two seasons. His peers voted him the NBA Coach of the Year.

Toronto has interviewed Spurs assistants Ettore Messina and Ime Udoka, along with Raptors' G League coach Jerry Stackhouse. None of the coaches interviewed have NBA head coaching experience. Messina is a European coaching legend who joined Gregg Popovich's staff in 2014. 

The list of candidates makes it abundantly clear Toronto general manager Masai Ujiri isn't going the retread route for hiring a coach. Ujiri inherited Casey when he took the job in 2013. For years, it seemed like Casey would be the fall man and that he was just biding time before moving on. But the Raptors unexpectedly became a yearly Eastern Conference contender, extending Casey's stay and leaving Ujiri without the chance to mold the team in his vision.

Should Jasikevicius or Messina get the job, they would become the second European-born NBA coach in history. The Phoenix Suns hired Igor Kokoskov last month, becoming the first NBA coach born outside of North America to earn a head coaching job.