The Latvian Women’s National Basketball team represents the country of Latvia in international competition.
The team is managed by the Latvian Basketball Association. The team has joined the Eurobasket Women for three times and once in the Olympic Games.
Some of the Latvia Womens Basketball players are: Elina Babkina is one of the palyer in the Latvian Women’s basketball team and is also a current player for Lotos VBW Clima Gdynia (Poland). She signed a contract with the SK Cesis (Latvia) in September 2008 and played until 2010.
At the age of 16 she was already offered to play in the Russian Superleague team. She has been a member of the TTT/Riga (Latvia) in 2004 to 2008. Babkina is also one of the players who represent Latvia in the Summer Olympics in 2008.
Another player of the Latvian Women’s Basketball is Zane Tamane. She is presently playing with the NadezdaOrenburg and Latvia Womens National Basketball Team. Tamane’s career is considered to be successful since she already played for different teams not only in Latvia but also abroad.
She played with RTU/Klondaika Riga in 1999 to 2003. In 2003, Tamane played with Western Illinois USA-NCAA until 2006. She then started playing in the team of UniversitatF.C.Barcelona in the 2006 and 2007 season of Spain-LFB then transferred to Hondarribia-Irun still in Spain-LF at seasons 2007 to 2008. Nadezhda Orenburg is now Tamane’s current team and participating in 2008 Russia-Superleague up to this date.
She is a good rebounder and she can also shoot from the mid-range. Tamane became a Washington Mystics roster in 2006 which made her the first Latvian player in the WNBA.
Gunta Basko is a Latvia national and is a player of the national team. She is quick and aggressive. She also has good shooting skills and can play point guard to power forward. Bascos average for her points and assist per game helped Halconavenida (her team) be qualified in the Euroleague and LigaFemina both for the finals.
Basco’s Career: She played with RTU/Klondaika Riga in 1995 to 1998 season of Latvia-LSBL. The following year, she played with Siena in season 1999 to 2003 USA-NCAA. She then played with team Ramat Hasharon in 2003 to 2004 season Israel-D1. She later on flew to France and played with Tarbes Gespe Basket in 2004 to 2006 season France-LFB then transferred to Lattes-Maurin Montpellier, another French team in 2006 and played with them until 2008. Basko became a player in HalconAvenida in 2008 to 2009 season Spain-LFB.
Leva Kublina is a player in the Latvia Women’s National Basketball Team. She is one of the participants of the Summer Olympics in 2008 where they loss South Korea.
Uļjana Semjonova is a very well-known Soviet Latvian retired basketball player. She became more popular for having the largest feet in the history of women’s basketball since she was wearing a men’s size 21 (US) shoe.
She played for TTT Riga for her entire career in basketball. The TTT Riga is a part of Daugava Voluntary Sport Society. They won 15 championships for both the Soviet Union and the European Champion’s cup. While playing with the USSR in 1976 and 1980, Semjonova won two Olympic Gold Medals and never lost in the official international competition.
In 1976 she received an award, the Order of the Red Banner of Labour. She was also the first woman basketball player who is a non-US citizen, who was enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame. In the class of 1999 she became an inaugural member of the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.
She was also enshrined in the FIBA Hall of Fame in 2007 and also in the year 2007 she received the Lifetime Contribution to Sport award from Latvian Sports personality of the year ceremony.
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