If Vaidas Kariniauskas was trying to get under Austin Reaves’ skin, it unfortunately did not work.
During a media scrum at the FIBA World Cup on Monday, the Los Angeles Lakers swingman Reaves was asked about being trolled by the Lithuania guard Kariniauskas during Team USA’s upset loss to Lithuania over the weekend. To his credit, Reaves offered a very mature response.
“It’s basketball,” said Reaves, per Nicole Ganglani of Silver Screen and Roll. “He’s competing, I’m competing. I don’t feel no type of way about him doing that … There’s been many times in my career where people looked at me sideways [or] done stuff, so it’s basketball and at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter.
“He played a really good game,” Reaves added of Kariniauskas. “They played a good game as a unit and beat us, to say the least. So we’ll bounce back.”
Kariniauskas and Lithuania stunned the basketball world by beating the United States 110-104 in Sunday’s (non-elimination) game. Lithuania led by as many as 17 during the contest, and Kariniauskas provided the moment of the game when he stuck his tongue out at Reaves after scoring on an “and-one” (see the video here).
But that is a very on-brand response for Reaves, who needed to have that kind of mentality to make it this far as an undrafted player that many might not have thought much of at first glance. It probably helps too knowing what Kariniauskas said about Reaves after Sunday’s game.
