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Saying goodbye, with some predictions

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 09:36:26 GMT

Hello, Euroleague fans! I'd like to begin my last blog on Euroleague.net by saying thank you to a lot of people: starting with the guys at the official site of the Euroleague, who chose me, making me feel even more involved in this wonderful adventure that is the Euroleague and living a great new experience. Then I would like to thank all the fans who have had the patience and the desire to read my blog. I hope you had fun. I would like to thank Matteo Mantica, Armani Jeans Milano's media director, who followed me, step by step, on this adventure.

Having said thank you to everybody, unfortunately, I have to switch to an apology. In particular, I offer apologies to all those who came to Mediolanum Forum to see our last game of the Top 16 against Prokom Sopot last week, to those who saw that game on television and to those who announced it on TV. It was not a beautiful way to close our adventure in the Euroleague. We should have played the game with another state of mind. Our team this year has made of its unique state of mind our great strength, our winning weapon in order to get results that even on paper might have seemed really impossible. We always fought, we did so until the penultimate game in Piraeus against Olympiacos, but we completely missed the last game against Prokom. I'm the captain of the team, so it's up to me to apologize to everyone from all of us.

Will I miss not being in the playoffs? Absolutely, yes, very much. I'll miss the excitement you get from the atmosphere you feel when you play such important games at so high a level within just a few days. I'll also miss a lot not having David Hawkins in my hotel room playing with the Nintendo DS against Mason Rocca. They did it during all our Euroleague trips this season and seemed quite crazy as they blew at the console to in order to inflate the balloons in the game. CJ Wallace of Benetton said that the great strength of their group, which was even more cemented during the course of the season, also came from the fact that they were always playing MarioKart on Nintendo DS. The console for Nintendo DS has been important also for us, but the difference is that all the Benetton teammates played, and they reached the Eurocup Final Eight, while just two guys on our team played and we stopped in the Top 16. Draw your own conclusions, but next year, as the captain, I promise we'll all play together. This is the target for the next season!...

In addition to the playoffs, I have to say goodbye also to the idea of reaching Berlin to play the Final Four. I am sorry for several reasons. First of all, Berlin is a fascinating city for what they have been able to do from the cultural and architectural points of view in the last 20 years. It could almost be considered the capital of Europe and I really liked the idea of going to play in such an important city. I am also sorry we could not play in the new arena they built, o2 World: everybody said me that it's wonderful. The thing that makes me feel worst, though, is that I won't get a ball from the Final Four. It is the third time I am so close and I cannot stand it. This means that I will have to ask someone to get a ball for me! Who? Well, I would say to Nikos Zisis of CSKA, a great friend, or Drew Nicholas of Panathinaikos, another. I am sure that in early May both will play with their teams in Berlin for the European title, which leads me to my...

Living the Top 16 - even injured!

Sun, 25 Jan 2009 22:29:47 GMT

Hello, Euroleague fans. I'm here again on Euroleague.net for a new blog. I am happy, I am proud, we're all proud after reaching the Top 16, a significant milestone for us and for the city of Milano, which did not reach the second round of the Euroleague since the 1996-97 season. And linked to that there is a curiosity that I'll tell you shortly. When the Euroleague contacted me in October to ask if I'd like to write my blog on the official site, Euroleague.net, I was enthusiastic and delighted that they chose my team and me personally. Well, now I am happy to continue this adventure after reaching the Top 16: they had confidence in us and we continue our adventure in Europe. I am proud of this achievement.

I mentioned that 1996-97 season, the last one in which Olimpia Milano qualified for the second round of the Euroleague. Well, that also was my first year in this club. I was 17 years old and I came from Treviso (then as now), and because of many injuries that had occurred on the team (from this point of view, that season is very similar to this one), after current Lottomatica Roma coach Nando Gentile broke his knee in a home game against Olympiacos Piraeus, I was called by the coach to be on the bench at all the games. (To tell the truth, I had been on the bench once before that, for a game against Alba Berlin due to another injury occurred to another teammates of mine, but I broke my nose!) I never played, but it was a beautiful experience that ended in Game 3 of the quarterfinals against Olimpia Ljubljana: we lost at home. They were a good team with players like Marco Milic and Marko Tusek: we did our best, but we were dead. It was a shame because we would have deserved to go to the Final Four.

And now, the present. As you may know, unfortunately I got injured. I broke my left hand, so at least for the first few games, I'll have to watch this Top 16 sitting at the end of the bench. It will be painful, believe me. It will be difficult for me to shut up. It's tough not being able to put all the energy you have in a jump, a sprint, a push, a debate. I am very disappointed that I'll not be on the floor with my teammates for these games. The Top 16 is special: every game is a battle and it is exactly the situation I love most; games you live till the very end. For me it is, paradoxically, easier to play a game like this with so much tension, so much pressure, rather than a game, perhaps easier, in the regular season. In the Euroleague there's a special atmosphere, and in the Top 16, that atmosphere becomes even more intoxicating. It is a process that takes you toward the atmosphere that you live in the Final Four: four days of full immersion in world basket at its highest level, with thousands of events, the games and the feeling that Europe is watching you. Fantastic. In the Top 16 you begin to sniff the scent of what happens in the Final Four. I have already played two Top 16s (I have also been in another with Siena, but without playing) and in both cases I wasn't able to go on, my team having lost the last game, the decisive one, once against Panathinaikos and once against Dynamo Moscow. I'd like things to change this time.

I cannot go on the floor in these first Top 16 games, but I'll do all I can to be useful to my teammates. I will try to give each of them what they need on the basis of their character: giving energy to one, giving confidence to another, generally...

A great taste of Milano history!

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 14:47:40 GMT

A fantastic night! This is the only way I have to describe what happened on Wednesday at Datch Forum, when we were able to win against the reigning champions from CSKA Moscow for our second win in a row in the Euroleague, following our first win versus Panionios, also in front of our fans. The extraordinary fact was that we won this big match after recovering from 20 points down in the first half and 17 at the intermission - against such at team as CSKA, too!. It looked like an easy walk for CSKA but we showed great character and big desire to do something special, pushed by our crowd, which deserves special mention. It's crazy to think, as I write this a day later, about what happened: if you win a game rallying, it's great, but if you do so against a team like Moscow, it's more incredible! It's something that just does not happen every day.

We talked about the crowd: simply great! They participated in an extraordinary way, giving us a big charge. It looked like a final at times, and the celebrations we had on the court at the final buzzer will be something that will remain in our minds. A lot of my friends who watched the game on TV poked fun at me for celebrating, telling me that we just won a game, an important and well-played game, but just a game. But in my opinion, the TV didn't give to viewers the right feeling and the atmosphere we were experiencing at the same moment at Datch Forum, where there was a magic and unreal atmosphere. Many people still have in their mind the great achievements of Olimpia during the 1980s. To hear comparisons of this victory with Olimpia's incredible comeback in 1987 against Aris Thessaloniki, when Mike D'Antoni and his teammates rallied from a 31-point difference to win by 34 points (and later won the Champions Cup) made me feel proud. It's very exciting for me that a game in which I was a protagonist is compared, not from a technical point of view, but on the side of character and heart, to other unforgettable nights in the history of the club. To win this kind of game is always fantastic, but doing it in a Milano jersey, in a city like Milan, is more exciting.

What could change for us after this victory? I think we sent a message with our win and the way we got it, with everybody giving their best, showing the tools of a team effort. It was not so nice to watch on the offensive end, but on 'D' it was simply super, with an incredible intensity. I think and hope that this a great message to the people, our fans, that pushes them to come at the arena to watch the games, yell for us and get behind us, because we have to fight together. It won't be easy to produce results like this always, but we'll always fight putting our heart on the floor, and we want do it with our fans. When they came on the court at the final buzzer to celebrate with us, it was something I cannot describe. Believe me, it felt like we got the win all together.

In the locker room, we the players were really happy, because we needed a victory like this. Many people had written and said that the game with CSKA would be just like a friendly game, something we played with no hopes of winning. But we showed on the court who we are and we received a great boost from our win. We have to hold onto the atmosphere in the building, the magic moment everybody lived together. We tried to give all we had, and those are unforgettable moment in a player's career. At...

Adrenalin that never stops!

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 21:56:12 GMT

Hello, Euroleague fans. Let me tell you that I'm really happy to be talking to you! When the Euroleague contacted me to become one of the bloggers of the official site, Euroleague.net, it was a great joy for me. I have always been a frequent user of the Euroleague site, even last year when I was playing the ULEB Cup with Benetton Treviso. I'm always looking for news, stats, results... and when I saw the blogs of some players, I thought: "I would like to become one of them. I'd like to tell everybody some of the experiences that I have had playing the Euroleague, what I feel playing this competition all around Europe." But then I recalled that one time while I was in Treviso, I did a TV promo for Euroleague.net, but I had a lot of problems reading and repeating the internet address of the official site. After that, I thought they'd forget about me. Now, out of nowhere, my phone rang recently and I was asked to blog! I immediately said, "Yes, of course! I'm really interested." So here I am, ready as I can be to tell everybody what the Euroleague is for me.

It's something special: trust me. In the Euroleague, you can breathe a wonderful sensation that I just love. Just listening to DEVOTION, the official song of the Euroleague, is something special for me, both when I am there on the court, ready to play, and when I'm at home watching the games on television. Wednesdays and Thursdays, all season long, from regular season to Final Four, this music resounds all over Europe in the ears of the fans, and it's a great pleasure to listen to that. Believe me, it's a great emotional charge and a great surge of adrenalin. Adrenalin that never stops. Never.

Also, obviously, when you're in the most important arenas all over Europe, from Moscow to Madrid, from Tel Aviv to Athens (without forgetting the others), you know that the floor where you're playing on at that particular moment is the same one where great basketball stars have played before. And you feel that surge of adrenalin in your veins. Something explodes inside your and you think: "Compared to those great stars, I may be less of a player, less of everything, but tonight I'm here to play, to do my best, to prove to everybody - but especially myself - what I can do."

I remember very well my debut with Benetton in the Euroleague: we played at home against the German team of Bamberg and I really played a bad game. Maybe I was not yet really conscious about what I was doing, what competition I was playing. But then you start to travel, to play against great teams and great players and everything changes, everything is different, more fascinating. I say "my playing debut" because in fact, I was part of a Final Four even before I was a real player! It was 2003 in Barcelona, and I was there with Montepaschi Siena, but not on the roster. I didn't play even a minute and I didn't practice, either, but I remember really well one thing that I am not sure I should admit, but since a lot of time has gone by since then... I took home an official basketball of the Final Four. And I still have it at home. It's wonderful. On the ball is written: "Barcelona 3/5 May 2003". I love it! I also remember really well bringing it back to the hotel and one of my teammates (I don't like to name names, but it sounds a lot like Kakiouzis - sorry, man) asked me where I got the ball. "In the gym," I told him, and he said, "Come on, Marco, get another...