Gianmarco Pozzecco gives emotional speech about Italy's performance in World Cup / News - Basketnews.com

Gianmarco Pozzecco believes Italy's achievement of reaching the Top 8 in the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 is great because it would have been a joke to think about it 5 years ago.

Credit: FIBA Credit FIBA

Italy national team head coach Gianmarco Pozzecco once again proved how emotional he could be.

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After the defeat against Latvia in the Classification Games, Pozzecco argued why making the quarterfinal in the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 is a great achievement for his country.

"In the last 20 years in Italy, we didn't expect we could achieve playing in this tournament," Pozzecco began. "I just follow basketball, I got nothing else to do on a daily basis. We [didn't believe] that we could even compete at this level. These guys last 3-4 years they showed to themselves and [others] that we can do it."

"To be here, in the Top 8, is something that seemed like a joke 5 years ago. Of course, everyone can have a different point of view, but this is the truth. When I was out of the Italian federation, the national team couldn't achieve something like this.

We didn't qualify for the last three World Cups. This summer, the whole of Italy watching the game against the USA was cheering to push our players because we convinced them that we could win against America," Pozzecco continued.

Pozzecco also believes that if not for Team USA in the quarterfinal, Italy would have been among the Top 4 teams in this FIBA Basketball World Cup.

"In my opinion, if we didn't play the USA [in the quarterfinal], we would be in the semifinal. You can think I'm crazy but don't worry. You wouldn't be the first [thinking that], and for sure, not the last one," Pozzecco concluded.

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