Tragedy sends Songaila on his basketball journey By Joe Davidson -- Bee Staff Writer Published 2:15 a.m. PST Tuesday, March 16, 2004 http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/basketball/kings/story/ 8538482p-9467144c.html Darius Songaila is a comedic brawler. He can crack wise in four languages , he can crack skulls with his elbows, and his brutish yet versatile game may have allowed him to crack the eight-man Kings rotation as the NBA playoffs approach. Songaila is officially listed as a rookie for the Kings, but he's a well -traveled and seasoned 26-year-old, motivated like any second-round draft pick cast aside by another team. And he's forever fueled and humbled by the image of his father writhing in agony in a hospital bed seven years ago, pleading to regain any feeling in his legs. On a veteran roster, Songaila has fit in beautifully, in part because, like some of his Kings teammates, his life experiences have accelerated his personal growth. Songaila averaged 11.9 points and 7.3 rebounds in seven starts in place of a hobbled Brad Miller just after the All-Star break, and Songaila's locker-room persona has been pure Kings, perfectly illustrated when he was served up as so much rookie fodder for Chris Webber's recent birthday. After a practice, Songaila, clad in black spandex, presented the All-Star power forward with a cake. He included a dance, resulting in teammate Doug Christie's fleeing the place shouting, "I love this team!" Songaila sheepishly declined details, but to know the man is to understand it was a no-brainer of a gag, if just because he's too old to be handing out doughnuts to the veterans. "Darius doesn't have a false bone in his body," Kings assistant coach Pete Carril said. "He's having a great time here." But Songaila hurts inside. His father, Ignas, will never walk again. He is in a wheelchair in his native Marijampole, Lithuania, sometimes not dozing off until after the live feed from a Kings game at 4 in the morning . And had Ignas asked his son to stay with him after falling from a third -story construction site in the spring of 1997, breaking his back and paralyzing him from the waist down, the loyal Songaila would have remained at his father's side. Everything would have changed. Perhaps no trip to the United States to play at a prep school, then to Wake Forest for four physical seasons, when rival coaches called him "a mangler" in the truest form of physical flattery, or to Sacramento, where he represents another Geoff Petrie coup. "My dad was a construction worker," Songaila explained. "One day, my mom calls me and tells me I have to get to the hospital right away. Something bad has happened. "I see my dad in bed, helpless, IVs in his body. He's yelling and screaming , not knowing where his legs are or why he can't feel them. He wants to know what's going on. We're trying to calm him down. It was a bad picture. I hope no one has to go through that, ever." Ignas, a bear of a man at 6-foot-5 and heavily muscled from years on the work site, would hold his son's hand and urge him to pursue his basketball dreams. Songaila was torn. Leave the man who raised him, who woke him in the wee hours to go fishing while convincing him it was a good thing, or head to the States, where he didn't know the language or hardly a soul. But who would help his father get around? Songaila was the only one strong enough to lift his father from the bed to the wheelchair, or back again. Ignas wouldn't hear of it. He insisted it was time for the son to make a life of his own, to expand his horizons along with his game. So he did. "It was very hard," Songaila said. "Do I leave my mom to take care of him alone? He told me to go, that he didn't see anything in the future for me there, trying to take care of him, and that it was better for me and maybe better for him in the long run if I went." Songaila returns home most summers, and his mother, Eugenija, tends to Ignas. There are still fishing trips to a nearby lake. "When I visit and when I leave, it's my dad who cries the most," Songaila said. Songaila received an invitation to the United States in 1997 from Lane Odom, then an assistant coach at East Carolina. It was Odom who spotted this versatile forward dominating on the Lithuanian junior team. Songaila played one year at New Hampshire Prep, then, with a choice of 120 schools, picked Wake Forest, coached then by Odom's father, Dave. But it wasn't easy early. There was this matter of trying to crack the language barrier, of making new friends, of fitting in, of dealing with the guilt of leaving his father behind. "It was hard," Songaila said. "There was the whole social issue when I got here. My professors at New Hampshire Prep talked too fast for me at first. It took me awhile to pick it up. Then I started thinking in English. The day when I said my first cuss word in a game, my coach said, 'Yeah, you' re OK.' " He became a folk hero at Wake Forest, averaging 14.3 points and 5.1 rebounds in 130 starts. He overcame chronic foul trouble early in his career, when he hammered away at anyone who dared attack the basket. But he was able to maintain his forceful play while developing other aspects of his craft, prompting Virginia coach Pete Gillen to say in 2001, "He's an absolute assassin. He just kills people in the post. When that kid puts it all together, he's going to be scary good." Songaila was scary good in forging something of a legendary status for the Lithuanian national team, leading it to a gold medal at the 2003 European Championships in Sweden. He helped Lithuania take the bronze medal at the 2000 Olympics, imposing his will with 12 points in a near semifinal upset of the U.S. team. All the while, Songaila started to earn the praise of Lithuanian legends who came before him, from retired NBA stars Arvydas Sabonis and Sarunas Marciulionis to Cleveland Cavaliers center Zydrunas Ilgauskas. Donnie Nelson, the Dallas Mavericks' assistant coach, was an assistant coach on the 2000 Lithuanian team and isn't the least bit surprised by Songaila's impact, then or now. "He was the best," Nelson said. "He was willing to do anything, to take on a lesser role with a team that had some guys with draft status. He was huge in that near upset of the U.S. "I knew he could play. We all did." Still, Songaila slipped to the Boston Celtics in the second round of the 2002 draft, the victim of being a "tweener" at 6-foot-9 and 248 pounds. Is he big enough, tall enough, swift enough? "A lot of people in this league are scared off by the size factor," Nelson said. "A lot of people saw this power forward and his size and thought, gee whiz. But you can't measure his heart. He brings it every single night." He never brought it for Boston, however. Rather than compete for a roster spot that might not be there, Songaila elected to play in Europe, powering CSKA Moscow of the Russian A Superleague to the Euroleague Final Four. Petrie witnessed those games last summer, and the Kings' president of basketball operations offered the Celtics two second-round picks for Songaila. "Petrie did it again," Kings strength and conditioning coach Al Biancani said. "The kid is terrific." Said Petrie: "I saw him play almost every game of that tournament, and he showed the kind of versatility we knew we wanted and needed. We knew Chris (Webber) was going to be out for a lengthy period of time (with his knee injury) and that Lawrence (Funderburke) was having his (Achilles') surgery , so we needed someone who could come in and play our style. He's been great, and he's fearless." And he might not be around next season. His contract expires at the end of this season, but all indications are, from Kings coaches to management, that they would like to have Songaila back. "I want to be here forever," Songaila said. "I am so fortunate to be in a situation where I fit in so well." He has fit in because he isn't a typical rookie. He speaks English, Lithuanian, Polish and Russian. He played four years of college ball and would have played four more if it were legal, he so enjoyed the atmosphere. He's married to his college sweetheart, former Wake Forest tennis star Jackie Houston, and has a degree in communications. Asked in college what would be the first thing he would do if he were president, Songaila said, "Retire." Or what he would call his autobio- graphy: "Don't Try This at Home." Mature, well-spoken, polite, selfless, Songaila is 26 going on 40. "I think Vlade Divac said it best: He's not really a rookie," Kings coach Rick Adelman said. Songaila has also learned from Divac, the Kings' captain and resident father figure. Divac and Kings forward Peja Stojakovic generally dine and keep company with Songaila on road trips, serving as the good-will ambassadors to the newcomer. "You can tell he comes from a great family, how mature he is," Divac said. "I'm sure his dad is proud of him. He raised a great man." Songaila was thrilled to start in place of Miller and he assures he will not grumble now that his minutes have been reduced with the return of Miller and Webber. It's not Songaila's nature, for one thing, an element gleaned from his father. "We're winning, and that's what is important," Songaila said. "I'm very happy here. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be on a team like this. I have no regrets." --

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