When you least expect it, something happens in your daily life that partially or totally changes what you had experienced up until the day before.
Falling in love, or “fall in love” as the Americans say, has happened to everyone. Love blossoms when two poles magically attract each other and decide to share their daily lives together, something they previously experienced alone.
It happened to me too — to “fall in love,” those first sentimental feelings toward the opposite sex came around the age of 14-15. Or the love for my favorite team, which has remained steadfast to this day, my Roma Calcio. But even before my first romantic flirt with a girl from Brescia during a vacation in San Benedetto del Tronto back in 1978, I had fallen in love with something else: the sport that became my profession for almost 40 years and bit less as a professional — Basketball.
I started playing basketball by chance at the age of 12, thanks to an uncle by marriage, a former youth player in Rome and later one of the best fundamentals instructors I’ve ever known: Claudio Massacesi.
During a family lunch, he asked if I would like to come to a practice at a historic Roman college where he was teaching, Marcantonio Colonna. And that’s where my basketball story began.
I won’t bore you with my history as a player. I’ll just say that at the age of 17, in an article published by Superbasket, I was described as a “tenacious and combative guard.” A polite way to say, “You’re not very talented, but you have great character!”
Realizing that I wasn’t going to become the Michael Jordan of my neighborhood, I hung up my shoes and began my journey as an instructor. Like most coaches starting their path, I worked with minibasket and youth teams.—my early years also included a stint in the women’s division of Cus Roma, serving as an assistant coach for the first team in Serie B and later A2.
I quickly understood that women’s basketball was different, so I shifted to men’s basketball. A pivotal milestone for me was the Blue Star team of Maurizio Flamminii and the aforementioned Claudio Massacesi. During those years with that group of players, I learned that you work not only on technical skills and fundamentals but also on managing a team competing at a high-level Junior Championship. It was truly formative and opened my eyes to the future.
The experiences that followed were numerous, both in Rome and beyond, in the many championships that took me across Italy, in all categories and at all levels, with many satisfactions and few regrets.
I consider myself privileged to have had so many basketball mentors such as Corradini, Massacesi, Flamminii, Cipriani, Di Fonzo, Bianchini, Caja, Pancotto, and Lardo—men and coaches with whom I worked, each of whom, to varying degrees, contributed something that helped shape me as an instructor and coach.
People often ask, “Which team is dearest to your heart? Which achievement are you most attached to?” It’s hard to rank for someone who has been coaching since 1981 and a professional since 1990. However, there is undoubtedly a team and an achievement that remain close to my heart—and it couldn’t be otherwise.
The years in Rome with Messaggero Basket, the victories in Montecatini, Pesaro and Orzinuovi, the experience at Loyola University in Chicago, the incredible season in Reggio Calabria, the salvation season in Chieti, and many others—each different but always engaging. But the one that will always stay in my mind is the season with Virtus Roma, “The Team That Wasn’t There.”
In 2013, Virtus Roma reached the championship final with a team that, during the summer market and at the start of the season, was only expected to avoid relegation as soon as possible.
We reached the Italian Cup semi-final, spent most of the championship at the top of the standings, and played an unforgettable series of quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals that reignited the Roman public’s passion for the team after years of absence. There were long queues at the ticket booths, an event that recalled the glory days of Roman basketball, which had been lost over the years.
A final that saw us lose the championship to Montepaschi Siena—a title that was later revoked due to well-known events.
For once, the unlikely had happened: being a prophet in one’s own land.
Thinking that the team I had cheered for from the stands of PalaEur, rooting for Valerio Bianchini and Larry Wright, became the team I coached and led to the championship final—well, that doesn’t happen often.
A love so great, born by chance, and one that, even today, fills me with passion as if it were the first day.
Ad (my) majora!
