Around 500 players have worn the red and white Olimpia jersey in its 90-year history. Enrico Castelli was the first captain, leading the team to its first Italian championship in 1936. Giannino Valli was the first coach. Cesare Rubini won 15 Italian league titles, the first European title in 1966, and was the coach of the first star championship in 1957. Dan Peterson coached the team to the second star in 1982 and to the second European title in 1987. Franco Casalini won the third. Ettore Messina was the coach of the third star in 2023. Federico Aime, who is now the club’s public speaker, was the youngest player to play an Italian league game for Olimpia, thirty years younger than Dino Meneghin’s 44 years in 1994, his final season on the court. Mimis Stephanidis, a Greek, was the first foreigner in 1955/56. Ron Clark was the first American and the first foreigner to win the league title, in 1956/57. Olimpia has had five Hall of Famers, three of them are Italians (Rubini, Gamba, and Meneghin); two Olympic gold medalists, Bill Bradley and Luis Scola; and one NBA’s MVP, Bob McAdoo. Mike D’Antoni was twice NBA Coach of the Year. Tomorrow’s game against Dinamo Sassari, one of the most respected and consistent opponents of the last decade, is dedicated to all of them, to this magnificent history. Olimpia, returning to the Unipol Forum after a three-month forced absence, will welcome 11,000 spectators to celebrate its 90th anniversary Forty legends will parade on the court, with touching moments, to remember those who are no longer with us. And then there will be a game to play and win, with all the difficulties that entails, given that Olimpia returned from Istanbul during the night between Friday and Saturday and will be playing less than 48 hours after that battle. A sacrifice accepted to allow all the red and white nation to adequately celebrate a memorable history.
EA7 Emporio Armani Milano- Banco di Sardegna Sassari will be played on Sunday, March 22 at 16:00 at Unipol Forum. At halftime, Olimpia will celebrate with its legendary players, executives and coaches the 90th anniversary of its fondation.
COACH BEPPE MANGONE – “Sassari is a team that constantly tries to get the ball close to the basket, especially with Rashawn Thomas. They know how to move the ball and share responsibilities, relying on the creativity of Desure Buie. On defense, they try to use their physicality, playing solid basketball even on the road. They’ve been playing better than the standings indicate for some time now. We want to play at a pace that takes advantage of the dynamism of our big men and uses the aggressiveness of our guards on both defense and offense.”
BANCO DI SARDEGNA SASSARI OUTLOOK – Dinamo plays at a high tempo kind of game, as it demonstrated for better or worse in his last two games, a win in Trento and a loss at home against Reggio Emilia, scoring 99 points in both games. Desure Buie, a 1.85 New York point guard who previously played at Hofstra, has had excellent European appearances in Slovakia at Lubec and last year in Klaipeda, Lithuania. He is a good scorer, averaging 14.4 points per game on 33.8 percent three-point shooting on 6.5 attempts, but above all, he’s a great passer, as evidenced by his 7.2 assists per game. Since the last two games, he’s been joined by the experienced Daryl Macon, who also played in the EuroLeague at Panathinaikos and Kazan. He’s immediately made a remakable offensive impact, averaging 16.5 points on 7.5 three-pointers per game. The third foreign perimeter player is Carlos Marshall Jr., who came out of Santa Clara and spent his rookie year in Israel in Netanya. He averages 13.3 points and 4.2 rebounds per game . He’s a dangerous perimeter shooter, shooting 39.1 percent on 5.3 three-point attempts perouting. Lithuanian sharpshooter Laurynas Beliauskas is a traditional guard who played in several European leagues, in Spain at Obradoiro, in Germany at Frankfurt, in Greece at PAOK Thessaloniki, and in Poland at Warsaw before briefly returning to his homeland, to Utena. He currently averages 8.3 points per game and shoots 40.0 percent from three on 5.3 attempts per night. The roster also includes Alessandro Zanelli, a point guard who is a veteran in the Italian league, Marco Ceron (3.0 points per game, 34.8 percent shooting from three), and Riccardo Visconti, who is averaging 8.7 points and 3.0 rebounds per game and is another dangerous shooter. The power forward is Rashawn Thomas, an experienced and physical inside player, who is averaging 10.5 points and 6.4 rebounds, including 2.2 offensive rebounds. Center Nick McGwynn, a big man who played for Rhodes, Greece, last year, is currently averaging 10.6 points per game on 66.4 percent two-point shooting plus 5.3 rebounds, including 2.0 offensive rebounds. Among the big men, there are Andrea Mezzanotte, a shooting center (4.3 points per game on 38.1 percent three-point shooting), and Luca Vincini, who also made his debut for the national team and is playing 19.5 minutes per game, averaging 7.5 points and 3.9 rebounds a night.
THE SASSARI CONNECTION – Ousmane Diop made his Italian league debut with Sassari in 2018 and remained there until 2024, albeit with two seasons on loan in between. In 2024, he left Sassari to move to Milan. Sassari’s head coach, Veliko Mrsic, played for Olimpia during his playing career in the 2002/03 season, making five appearances and scoring 30 points.
