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Looking for new basketball worlds to conquer, Sarunas Jasikevicius has signed a three-year contract with the NBA’s Indiana Pacers.

Jasikevicius has been the Euroleague’s most significant player over the past three years, leading B.C. Barcelona (2003) and Maccabi Tel Aviv (2004-05) to championships in each of those seasons. The 6'4" Lithuanian point guard basically replaced Manu Ginobili as the dominant player in Europe after Manu joined the San Antonio Spurs.

Most comparasions between Manu and Sharas (as Jasikevicius is nicknamed) should be cast aside. Ginobili is a superior athlete, dominant on both ends of the court, who has shone on the world basketball stage at the highest levels, includng the NBA Finals and the Olympics.

Sharas is a deadly, three-point sharp-shooter and tremendous money-time player as he demonstrated against the U.S. in the Athens Olympics. But, he also has serious shortcomings. Sharas is slow-footed, a notoriously weak defender and prone to occcasionally playing out of control.

In short, Ginobili can take any team he’s playing for to great heights. Jasikevicius figures to be an excellent role player in Indiana who can explode to carry the team for stretches with his shooting.

The intriguing part of Sharas’ game are the intangibles he brings to the table. He is a fiery, creative, determined leader. In one Euroleague game this season, he went a woeful 0-15 from beyond the arc. Undeterred, he fired another long range bomb at the final buzzer that won the game.

The Pacers and Sharas seem like a good fit. Indiana plays smart, intense, team-oriented basketball, so Jasikevicius’ background in European ball should serve him well.

Jasikevicius' choice of the Pacers is indictative of his priorities. He passed up other offers of more money and playing time in order to play for a team with a shot at an NBA title.

Perhaps Larry Bird is enamored of Sharas because he reminds him a little of himself; a slow, unathletic, audaious gambler who isn’t satisfied until he takes the whole pot. In signing Sharas, the Pacers and Bird might just have dealt themselves a winning hand.

Jerry Mittleman is a foreign based basketball journalist. Comments can be sent to jerrymittleman@yahoo.com and are most welcome.