Vladimir Micov’s been wearing the number 5 for 12 years in a row. “By now it’s my number,” he says with a sense of pride. He will also wear it in his first season in Milan.
The Number 5 for the Olimpia is an historically important number, one to be worn with a great sense of responsibility. When Olimpia won the first European title, in Bologna in 1966, the number 5 was the great Giulio Iellini, who at that time backed up the legendary Gianfranco Pieri, and eventually became a dominant player himself.
Iellini was the boyhood hero of a young prospect that Olympia stole from the swimming pool. His name was Dino Boselli, the left-handed twin of Franco Boselli. In 1977/78 when Mike D’Antoni signed with Olimpia, then sponsored by Cinzano, his favorite number was 10. At Marshall’s college he wore number 10, as his brother Dan did before him. At the end of his career, Marshall would retire number 10 in honor of both! But when he went to Kansas City in the NBA, number 10 belonged to Nate Archibald, the franchise player, and D’Antoni elected to be number 5. At the end of the year, however, Archibald changed jersey number. He chose to wear number 1. So D’Antoni returned to his favorite number 10 for three years, until he went to San Antonio. There, the 10 belonged to the local shooter Louie Dampier and D’Antoni took the 14.
In Milan, he would happily take the 10 but was anticipated by Canadian Lars Hansen. Just as he did when he was a rookie with the Kings, he opted for the 5. That year he suffered some injures and Olimpia won just 50 percent of its games. When young Dino Boselli asked him to leave him wear number 5 to honor his hero Iellini, D’Antoni did not have any problem saying yes. “With the 5 I got injured. I was convinced it brought bad luck,” he says. But above all, the 5 did not mean much to him. Number 8 was free and he took it without giving it too many thoughts. He did not imagine what he meant for him and for Olimpia.
So the 5 went from D’Antoni to Dino Boselli, eventually went to Fausto Bargna, a useful back-up with the Grand Slam team, then the number was taken with great success by Nando Gentile, during the Stefanel era. When Alessandro Gentile arrived in Milan, late in 2011, the number was owned by Jacopo Giachetti and would remain with him until the summer of 2013. When Giachetti left, Keith Langford wanted the number. But in the face of Alessandro’s insistence, for family reasons, Langford gave up, stayed with his 23 and Gentile became Olimpia’s Captain with the same jersey number wore by his father.
After a story so full of success and coup de theatre, it is now Vladimir Micov turn to wear it. It’s the same number he wore during the last 12 years.
