Lithuanian Alvydas Pazdrazdis, a player of the Lithuanian national team at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, became one of the architects of the “Knicks” victory.
He took the position of a scout in the New York team and became the first Lithuanian to have two NBA championship rings. He got his first ring while working with the Dallas Mavericks.
It is true that A. Pazdrazdis was stripped of his Lithuanian citizenship this year. This was reported by the news portal 15min.lt in April.
The member of the legendary national team accepted US citizenship in 2014, but did not inform the Lithuanian authorities about this fact, so his citizenship of our country was revoked by a special order.
Lithuanian laws allow dual citizenship only in extremely exceptional cases. One of the options that could allow A. Pazdrazdzis to retain his Lithuanian citizenship is the recognition of special merits for the Lithuanian state.
If it is determined that a person who has acquired the citizenship of another country has special merits for our country, the Lithuanian citizenship can be returned.
A similar fate befell Žydrūnas Ilgauskas more than a decade ago, who also lost his Lithuanian passport after taking US citizenship.
A referendum on dual citizenship was even held twice in Lithuania, but both times, despite the majority of those who voted in favor of it, the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania was not changed due to the low total number of those who voted positively.
