Coach Ettore Messina attended – remotely – the ceremony with which FIBA ​​enshrined the 2021 Class of its Hall of Fame. The Olimpia Milano coach was inducted along with 11 other new members, including two coaches, Chuck Daly (posthumously) and Tom Maher. Former players Detlef Schrempf, Panagiotis Giannakis and Sergey Tarakanov were also inducted.

In his acceptance speech, Coach Messina thanked, among many others, his first coach Renato Vianello, who transmitted to him the passion for this profession, Tonino Zorzi who after a youth-level game told him that he could become a good coach and offered him the opportunity to start very young. As a matter of fact, he entrusted him with coaching a team of boys just a couple of years younger including his brother. He also thanked all the head coaches that he worked for, including the great Sandro Gamba and, last, but not least, the legendary Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs, and thanked all the owners, presidents and managers who gave him an opportunity in moments when, “given my age, I probably would have not given to myself.”

“In life, it doesn’t matter how good you are if nobody gives you a chance to prove it”, Messina said, thanking the – decisive – support of the family, mentioning the people he lost and “are in my heart every single day, especially today.”. He thanked the assistant coaches (“They do a very hard job and never had any jealousy when I was the one receiving most of the praise after a win”) and finally thanked the game of basketball because allowed him “to grow, to enjoy experiences that I could have not even dreamed. I’ve traveled a lot, met great people, competed against the best, learned a lot from the wins and the losses. Many years ago, I had the chance to listen to the late Mr. Robert Busnel, a former great player, great coach and President of FIBA, and I’ll always remember through all these years his message that in my opinion stands as the essence of relationship between the game of basketball and the life of the coach. He said: “The tactics are for a day, techniques and fundamentals are for life”. I’ve always tried to follow Mr Busnel’s principles and I strongly believe that at any level that should be the mission of a coach: help your players to get better every day.”