Basketball Club Neptūnas (), commonly known as Neptūnas or Neptūnas Klaipėda, is a Lithuanian professional basketball club based in Klaipėda, Lithuania. The club participates in the Lithuanian Basketball League. It was founded in 1962 under the name BC Maistas (English: food) and in 1964, BC Maistas's name was changed to BC Neptūnas. The club carries the name of the Roman sea god Neptune. Neptūnas participated in the 2014–15 EuroLeague season and is only the third Lithuanian club to participate in the premier European basketball league, after Žalgiris and Rytas.
History
First steps (1962–1993) In 1966 Neptūnas won the Žalgiris friendship championship and next year with the same roster became runners-up.
Since 1970 there have been many changes in the team: coaches and players left the team and were replaced with new team members, so the team did not achieve better results. In 1975 Klaipėda's community decided to change the team from its foundations based on people from Klaipėda and the Samogitia region, who also finished studies in the cities of Vilnius and Kaunas. There were young and prospective players, whose energy helped to reach better results in a period of two years, including 3rd place in Lithuanian Spartakiada; in 1981 and 1982 they became runners-up of newspaper Sports championship, and also in 1983 they became champions of the Soviet Union Professional Union championship.
Difficult start in the LKL (1993–1998) The Lithuanian Basketball Association was founded in 1993, when eight of the strongest Lithuanian basketball clubs' officials met with the representatives of the Šarūnas Marčiulionis basketball fund. Neptūnas was among that eight. This association would soon announce their basketball league that would start in the upcoming fall.
During the founding 1993–1994 LKL season, Neptūnas finished last, reaching only 4 victories per 36 games, despite the tireless efforts shown by Gintautas Bendžius, who averaged almost 20 points per game and was the third best scorer in the whole league. In the following season Neptūnas slightly improved, reaching 10 victories and suffering 30 defeats, with the help of a 21-year-old native Eurelijus Žukauskas, who quickly started becoming the star of the team and later was even nicknamed the "Lithuanian king of blocks".
In the 1995–1996 LKL season, Neptūnas progressed even further. With Svajūnas Airošius, Aloyzas Vasiliūnas, and Artūras Jakubauskas averaging double-digits in points and Eurelijus Žukauskas often adding solid double-doubles, the team qualified into the LKL playoffs for the first time with 17 victories as the 7th seed. But they were eliminated by the Lithuanian powerhouse Žalgiris Kaunas 0–2, after failing to guard the Lithuanian star and Olympic champion Rimas Kurtinaitis, who averaged 25.5 points over these games.
Neptūnas continued to show progress in the 1996–1997 season, qualifying for the LKL playoffs again by accomplishing a solid 19–17 record, the first with over 50% victories ratio in the club's LKL history. Despite losing the first series game versus BC Šiauliai 80–69, on April 4, 1997, Neptūnas achieved their first-ever victory in the LKL playoffs in a dominating fashion 88–60. Yet after Šiauliai's 88–73 revenge two days later, the series was lost 1–2. It was the last game for Eurelijus Žukauskas in a Neptūnas jersey, who, after averaging 15.7 points, 9.8 rebounds and 3.1 blocks, joined Žalgiris and soon became a EuroLeague champion and a multiple medalist with the Lithuania men's national basketball team. Another Neptūnas leader Artūras Jakubauskas left the team as well.
Following the loss of two long-term leaders, the team failed to compete with the same form during the 1997–1998 LKL season. Neptūnas finished as the 8th seed during the regular season with a 6–12 record, but after an unsuccessful second round they finished just 9th among 10 teams. The only consolation of the season was notable progress demonstrated by an 18-year-old Arvydas Macijauskas, who would later become one of the primary faces of Lithuanian basketball.