Uvis Helmanis

Uvis Helmanis (born June 10, 1972 in Talsi, Latvian SSR, USSR) is a former Latvian professional basketball player who played power forward position. After retiring he became a coach, and is currently working as a head coach for Valmiera/ORDO.

Experienced and powerful, Helmanis has been a key player for the National Team since the nineties. Some coaches were trying to put this 2.04 m player under the basket but his style tends to draw him away from the hoop. Helmanis can use his big body in the paint, especially on defense, but his most effective weapon is his ability to knock down the three-point shot. He doesn’t look very quick, but he is adept at getting himself open from behind the three-point line. Helmanis has been a National Champion in three different countries in his career: Latvia, Poland and Germany. After four good years at Bamberg, Helmanis came back to Latvia and celebrated his homecoming with "eternal" national champs BK Ventspils and showed all his best assets in the Baltic league and in ULEB Cup games. He is not a vocal leader, but an irreplaceable member of the team. In the summer of 2009 Helmanis became the first Latvian to play in six EuroBaskets.

After winning the Latvian Championship with Barons LMT in 2010 he retired as a player and became a head coach of the team. After unsuccessful results he was fired in midseason and went to Poland to work for the assistant of Dainius Adomaitis, head coach of Czarni Słupsk. After one season Uvis came back to Latvia and joined a coach room of BC VEF Rīga, becoming an assistant of head coach Ramunas Butautas. He became head coach of BK Liepājas Lauvas in 2013.