Why is EuroBasket the right place and time to win for Danilo Gallinari? / News - Basketnews.com

Credit: FIBA.com Credit FIBA.com

Despite producing multiple NBA players, the last 15 years weren't exactly a positive period for Italian basketball, especially when it comes to results in international competitions. Only last year Italy returned to the Olympic Games after a drought that lasted 17 years.

Danilo Gallinari

Position:PF, SFAge:34Height:208 cmWeight:102 kgBirth place:Sant'Angelo Lodigiano, ItalyProfileNewsStatistics

During that time, Italy had a No.1 pick in the NBA Draft (Andrea Bargnani) and sent to the best league in the world other two players, who had pretty long and successful careers in the league, Danilo Gallinari and Marco Belinelli, in addition to the brief experiences of players like Gigi Datome and Nicolo Melli.

This group of players, which has been improperly referred to as the 'golden generation', has never won a medal with the national team.

Gallinari, 34, has always been the top player of the Italian movement, the crown jewel. Until a few weeks ago, he was also the only Italian player left in the NBA. Now, the No.1 pick in this year's draft, Paolo Banchero, joined him.

But Gallinari's relationship with the national team hasn't always been perfect. A combination of injuries and other incidents led often to critics and doubts about his commitment to the national team.

The Italian forward missed EuroBasket 2007 because of an injury during the training camp. Italy failed to qualify for EuroBasket 2009, so Gallinari returned to the national team only in 2011 for the EuroBasket hosted by Lithuania.

That tournament, though, ended up being a complete disaster for Italy. Gallinari and his teammates won only one game and in the last match of their group, a loss against Israel after overtime, coach Simone Pianigiani completely exploded during a timeout, accusing the team of playing without a soul.

"We need to play with some kind of dignity", Pianigiani said during that infamous timeout. "There's no one who at least tries to make a foul when the ball is available. At least let's try to fight! What the f**k do you guys have inside?"

Gallinari averaged 15.2 points and 6.4 rebounds per game during that tournament, but at times, his presence felt almost impalpable, in what was probably one of the lowest points reached by the Italian national team in the recent past.

The Italian star was forced to miss EuroBasket 2013 because of a knee injury and returned to represent the NT at EuroBasket 2015.

Italy ended up getting eliminated in the quarterfinals by Lithuania, just like it had happened in 2013, and after that game, Gallinari expressed all his frustration in an interview with Sky Sport.

"We had an opportunity but in the end, we couldn't make it happen", Gallinari said. "If this loss will be useful for the future? I don't think so, I'm sick and tired of losing."

The following summer Italy hosted one of the Pre-Olympic qualifying tournaments in Turin. With coach Messina at the helm and with the home advantage, many felt that was finally the moment that Italy could have returned to the Olympic games.

But Italy lost in the final of the tournament against Croatia, failing once again to qualify for the Olympics. Bojan Bogdanovic had 26 points in that game, and Gallinari finished with 12 and 8 rebounds.

In the summer of 2017, during the preparation for EuroBasket 2017, Gallinari and the national team reached the lowest point in their relationship.

During an exhibition game against the Netherlands, Gallinari received an elbow from Jito Kok and reacted violently, landing a punch in the Dutchman's face. Gallinari got ejected from the game but most importantly he suffered a fracture in his right hand, which forced him to miss EuroBasket.

After the episode, coach Ettore Messina, who was still the head coach of the national team at that time, sharply criticized Gallinari's gesture, expressing his disappointment at such a lack of responsibility.

"He was mortified after what happened, he apologized but I didn't want to talk to him," Messina said. "It's hard to explain to 30-year-old man concepts such as loyalty and responsibility."

The bitter feeling between Gallinari and the national team continued for a while. After his injury, Gallinari said in an interview that he didn't like the fact that almost no one reached out to him.

"I was expecting someone to reach out, I would have behaved in a different way," Gallinari stated. "Everyone knows that I made a mistake. Only Belinelli called me."

The president of the Italian Basketball Federation, Gianni Petrucci, replied some days after, saying that he would have expected silence from Gallinari in that circumstance.

When Romeo Sacchetti was named as the new bench boss of the national team after EuroBasket 2017, the relationship with Gallinari didn't start in the best possible way.

The Italian forward had stated to several newspapers that in September of 2018 he would have been available for the squad, but coach Sacchetti had a different version of the story when asked about Gallinari's availability.

"I spoke to him and he told me that he couldn't come because of the issues to his hand and that in September he needed to train with the Clippers," the NT coach said.

Gallinari then became part of the roster who traveled to China for the FIBA World Cup in China in 2019 despite having surgery just a few weeks before the tournament. Italy failed to earn a spot in the Olympic Games but secured a place in a pre-Olympic tournament to have an extra chance to get into the Olympics.

But because of Covid, the tournament that was supposed to take place in Belgrade in June of 2020, was postponed to the following year.

During the 2020-21 season, Gallinari reached the Eastern Conference finals with the Atlanta Hawks, becoming a key factor for the team coming off the bench. Because of the conflict in the schedule, Gallinari was unable to play in the pre-Olympic tournament in Belgrade.

But Italy pulled off an impressive upset against Serbia and for the first time in 17 years gained a spot in the Olympics. The Italian forward re-joined the team in Tokyo, despite not being in the best physical condition due to a knee injury.

Italy reached the quarter-finals of the Olympics, where they suffered a defeat against France. Once again, the possibility of winning a medal with his national team couldn't materialize for Gallinari but finally, he and the team looked on the same path and on the right way after years of difficulties and doubts.

Now, with a new head coach at the helm, former Italian star Gianmarco Pozzecco, Danilo Gallinari will have yet another chance to achieve what has so far always eluded him in his career: winning a medal with the national team.

"Before I call it quits with the national team, I want to get something important," Gallinari said in a recent interview. "EuroBasket is the most difficult competition out there, it's not only my opinion.

When I was playing with the Clippers, Teodosic told me the same thing: there's no such thing as EuroBasket. The level is always extremely high and there's almost no room for mistakes."

Even in the NBA, this is gonna be a crucial season for Gallinari. During free agency, he signed a two-year deal with the Boston Celtics, one of the main contenders for the NBA title. The Italian athlete grew up idolizing the Celtics, because his father Vittorio, a former player himself, showed him a lot of clips of Larry Bird.

"In this moment of my career, you only think about winning the title," Gallinari said. "It's a fixed thought that I have every day. Now that I'm 34 I only want to win and I work every day for this reason."

Recently married to his wife Eleonora Boi and with a daughter, who's gonna be two years old in December, this is a decisive moment in Danilo Gallinari's career.

He has already built something really important, becoming one of the most important international players in the NBA, but to elevate to a different level now he needs to accomplish something even bigger.

Italy will host one of the groups of the next EuroBasket in September. Milan it's the place where he grew up and began his pro career, it would be the perfect scenario for Danilo to reach what, so far, he has only dreamt about it.

At the end of the day, dreams do come true sometimes, right?

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