Broken relationships and poor timing: behind Italy's decision to move on from coach Sacchetti / News - Basketnews.com

Credit: Petrucci: FIBA Sacchetti: FIBA Pozzecco: Italbasket Credit Petrucci: FIBA Sacchetti: FIBA Pozzecco: Italbasket

Relationships are key aspects of life, in every single environment, including basketball. You know the right person and might get a shot at your dream job. You don't go along particularly well with your boss, and you might end up getting fired. Sometimes, they can even matter more than the results.

That is something that coach Romeo Sacchetti learned recently. At the helm of the Italian national team, Sacchetti, for the first time since 2004, finally brought Italy back to the Olympics last summer.

It was a huge accomplishment for a national team that, in the past few years, had struggled to produce any substantial results in the major competitions. It wasn't enough, though.

On May 31st, the Italian basketball federation officially announced that they had decided to part ways with coach Sacchetti, just a couple of months before the beginning of EuroBasket.

The news itself wasn't that surprising. Anyone around the national team knew that coach Sacchetti's future with Italy wouldn't have gone further than EuroBasket.

His contract wasn't going to be extended, but the general belief was that the federation would have given him the opportunity to coach the team at EuroBasket.

Of course, it didn't happen. In the last few weeks, the relationship between coach Sacchetti and the higher federation ranks, especially with president Gianni Petrucci, had deteriorated, sources have told BasketNews.

The final straw was reached during an event to present the countdown to EuroBasket. During that event in Milan, Petrucci stated that a coach needs to call the best players in every situation, no matter what.

Meanwhile, Sacchetti had maintained his position to continue with the group that had played in Belgrade and Tokyo last summer.

A week later, more or less, Sacchetti was officially out.

One of the main issues between Petrucci and Sacchetti was the presence of the veteran players that didn't join the national team last summer, Gigi Datomeand Marco Belinelli. Datome, 34, and Belinelli, 36, have been a key part of the national team in the last decade, but last summer, after a very long season with their teams and some physical issues, they decided not to join Italy.

Petrucci didn't like that decision at all, criticizing both players harshly. But with Italy hosting one of the groups of EuroBasket, the president of the Italian basketball federation wanted to have all the best players available.

La Gazzetta dello Sport, one of the top Italian sports newspapers, reported that even Daniel Hackett wanted to play again with the national team. Hackett, who's now playing with Virtus Bologna, had decided to retire from the national team back in 2019, right after the FIBA WC in China.

Hackett felt it was the right time to move on and let the younger players have a more stable role inside the team.

So, on paper, everything looked pretty simple: Petrucci had to replace coach Sacchetti to have all his stars back with the national team.

But the reality of the facts wasn't exactly that straightforward. The president of the federation didn't hold any major talks with the players we have mentioned. Despite the reports in several newspapers, many people doubted that all the veterans would have been available for EuroBasket, regardless of the coach.

So, in the last few days, the players decided to speak up. Daniel Hackett stopped all the speculations about his potential return to the national team with a short statement from his agent, in which it was confirmed Hackett's decision not to continue with the national team.

Belinelli didn't speak regarding the matter in the past few days but back in February, in an interview for La Gazzetta dello Sport, he made it clear that the national team wasn't his priority.

"I think this is the time to let the younger players have their role," Belinelli said back in February. "To give them the opportunity to show their talents. The national team is not in my head right now, and I didn't hear from anyone inside the federation."

Datome, the captain of the national team when he was present, also wanted to clarify the situation and made it clear that he had absolutely no issue with coach Sacchetti.

"I've read so many things in the last few days, like the fact that coach Pozzecco was hired to have the veterans back in the national team. We're not a package, we don't move together, every single one of us has his own ambitions and particular history," Datome explained to the Italian newspaper 'La Repubblica'.

"I had spoken with Sacchetti, who I have to thank because he was a pleasure to play for him with the national team, and he had told me that he would have called me for EuroBasket," Datome continued. "Also, coach Pozzecco said that he'd call me, but not because I'm a veteran, I think I have deserved to be a part of the group because of my performances on the court."

"I'm always happy to wear the national team colors when I'm alright physically. Someone tried to send the message that I didn't play last summer because I wanted to rest. It's not true, I wasn't able to play."

The timing of the decision just looks off. The federation could have decided to part ways with Sacchetti back in March, after the last FIBA WC qualifier window. There would have been the time to plan everything accordingly.

Instead, despite a poor relationship with the head coach, they waited until the beginning of June to move in another direction. In a tweet that he posted right after the federation's decision, Sacchetti specified that the decision blindsided him.

"It wasn't my decision, and I didn't expect it," he posted on his Twitter profile.

As noted before, Petrucci had been looking for a replacement for coach Sacchetti for a while now. Even before the Pre-Olympic tournament last year, there was the feeling that Sacchetti wouldn't have lasted beyond that tournament.

Around the national team environment, there wasn't much hope to win that tournament and go to the Olympics. But Italy surprised many people and beat Serbia, securing a ticket to Tokyo.

Of course, after that success, Sacchetti's contract was extended until EuroBasket 2022. Still, it was clear that the decision was not based on a genuine feeling but more on an obligation to someone who had just achieved an impressive result.

Gianmarco Pozzecco will take over and guide the national team moving forward. He accepted a full-time role, despite having at least a couple of offers from clubs. Petrucci believes that coach Pozzecco is the right man for the job and that he shares his same passion for the national team.

As revealed by Salvatore Trainotti, the general director of the national team, Pozzecco is expected to have a meeting with Italian/American prospect Paolo Banchero over the summer to start planning the future together.

It's highly unlikely that Banchero will join the team for EuroBasket since he's currently busy with the whole draft process. Maybe the 2023 World Cup could be a good time to see Banchero's debut with the national team, but to do that, Italy first needs to do well at EuroBasket.

Only time will tell if the decision to part ways with coach Sacchetti in such a poor fashion was the right one. The hope is that the relationship between Petrucci and Pozzecco will be a good one because we already saw what can happen when somebody doesn't get along that well with the president of the federation.

With a good combination of growing talents and more experienced players, Italy, on paper, has all the tools to become one of the best teams in Europe moving forward, but there must also be a strong lead from the top of the movement.

Hopefully, there'll be less posturing and more honest collaboration between the federation and national team coaching staff in the coming future. It would be a shame that relationship would get in the way of future success for this national team.

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