Two threes on a couple of catch-and-shoot situations, and a five-meter jumper, to beat a close-out. He scored eight points in a span of two minutes between the third and fourth periods. At Sinan Erden Dome. It was May 21, 2017. Gigi Datome’s offensive outburst allowed Fenerbahce to get away for good against Olympiacos, flying to its first European title, the first ever for a Turkish team. Datome had gone to Istanbul in 2015, two years earlier, back from two seasons spent in the NBA, for exactly that reason. In 2016, in Berlin, the defeat had come – against CSKA Moscow – after an overtime. Fenerbahce came back from a 20-point deficit and led by two. They only had to defend efficiently for one last possession. Nando DeColo from three went for the win. But he missed. Only, the rebound ended up in the hands of Viktor Khryapa: in a moment he somehow threw the ball towards the basket, found the net and the overtime. It was a terrible disappointment, but Fenerbahce found the strength to respond that evening. Datome had an offer from Memphis to return immediately to the NBA. He refused because he wanted to try again in 2017. The sacrifice paid off. Denis Marconato, Gregor Fucka and Gianluca Basile are the only Italians who, before him, won the EuroLeague on a foreign team. Daniel Hackett did the same in 2019.

Luigi Datome comes from Olbia. His father Sergio owns a hotel, but above all is a great basketball fan as well as a former player of the Sardinian minor leagues whose nickname was “33” because he scored 33 points several times. Or so it seems. The local club is called Santa Croce and was founded in 1970. Gigi wears the number 70 for that reason. He had always worn the 13, including during the first NBA experience in Detroit. But in Boston, number 13 was not available and that was how he decided to play with the number that represents his origins. “I can’t remember my first basketball practice, because basketball is always been part of my life, of my family,” he says. Olbia hired a coach of great quality and experience like Piero Pasini to coach a very promising youth team: in 2002, they won the Italian Under 14 championship thanks also to a temporary merge with other teams in the area that forced the kids to practice in Olbia, in Sassari or halfway. Datome was the tallest, best, most determined player on the team. Riccardo Fois, who is now a coach, on the Phoenix Suns staff and the Italian national team, was part of that team. The title was won in Bormio, beating Biella in the final. In the semifinals, Gigi’s team defeated Olimpia.

Obviously, Gigi was outgrowing Olbia. At the Under 16 European championship, he led all the scorers. All the top Italian clubs tried to lure him. He was part of the most promising generation of Italian players: Andrea Bargnani from the Blue Star Rome went to Treviso; Marco Belinelli went to Fortitudo Bologna; Danilo Gallinari came to Milan. And Datome went to Siena to win one youth title after the other. He lived with his mom. She couldn’t bear to see her 16-year old child living alone so far from home. In 2005, at the EuroLeague junior tournament in Moscow, he led his team to a resounding win over Maccabi Tel Aviv, scoring 38 points with 19 rebounds and a personal rating of 54. Maccabi featured Omri Casspi and Gal Mekel, two future NBA players. He was 18 and was considered an NBA prospect.

In fact, it would have taken a little more time to see him emerge at the highest international levels. In Siena, he played sparingly for the first team (although he made his Serie A debut on 12 October 2003, at fifteen years and eleven months, and three days after his sixteenth birthday he scored his first points against Viola Reggio Calabria), in Scafati he spent two years of apprenticeship, as were the first two in Rome. In 2010/11, things changed gradually and still clearly. That was the first season that he averaged in double figures, 10.8 points per game, the following year he was very close to finish the year over 60% from two, 40% from three and 90% in free throws. He stopped at 58.9% from two. In 2012/13, when he chose to stay in Rome, he was the league MVP leading his team to the final series, lost against Siena. That season he practically tripled the shots he took from three-point range (from 88 to 221) and the free throws earned (from 65 to 203, converting 92.6% of them). That year Rome won the quarterfinals against Reggio Emilia in game 7 and did the same in the semifinal against Cantù, reversing the series from 2-3 to 4-3. The reward for a season played at the highest level was fulfilling his big dream of playing in the NBA. (1-to be continued)