{"id":35671,"date":"2020-07-04T08:00:32","date_gmt":"2020-07-04T06:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.demo.olimpia.iquii.info\/ill-work-to-deserve-all-the-accolades-im-getting-the-italian-nts-captain-datome-is-in-milan\/"},"modified":"2020-07-04T08:00:32","modified_gmt":"2020-07-04T06:00:32","slug":"ill-work-to-deserve-all-the-accolades-im-getting-the-italian-nts-captain-datome-is-in-milan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.olimpiamilano.com\/en\/ill-work-to-deserve-all-the-accolades-im-getting-the-italian-nts-captain-datome-is-in-milan\/","title":{"rendered":"“I’ll work to deserve all the accolades I’m getting”: the Italian NT’s Captain Datome is in Milan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gigi Datome is the captain of the Italian national team.<\/strong> He played in his first European Championship in 2007 when he was not yet 20 years old. It was an unexpected selection, dictated by injuries, but he wasn\u2019t ready yet. Then he played the Europeans four more times, the 2019 World Cup, too. And the 2016 Pre-Olympic Tournament, which was for many Italian players of his generation the saddest event to remember, due to that defeat after an overtime against Croatia in Turin that erased the Olympic dream. In fact, the medals won with the national youth teams remain the only ones won with the Azzurri. But in the meantime, he has climbed the historical list: he is 13th for points scored, 15th for number of appearances with the Italian Team.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s missing from the Italian league since June 19, 2013. That evening ended in tears, in the locker room of the Rome arena, in Viale Tiziano: Virtus had just lost game 5 of the most unexpected final series in its history. The tears were pouring because of a vanished dream, but perhaps even more for a beautiful season that was ending. And finally, he was also aware, Datome, that he would no longer wear that jersey with which he had scored over 1,000 points in the Italian league. The journey, from Olbia to Siena, from Scafati to Rome was over. Datome had to decide what to do as a grown-up, as a mature player. He was almost 25. He chose to play in Detroit, the sixth Italian ever to go to the NBA after Enzo Esposito, Stefano Rusconi, Andrea Bargnani, Marco Belinelli and Danilo Gallinari; before Nicol\u00f2 Melli. Unlike his three peers, however, he had not been selected in the NBA draft, he was an “undrafted” who had attracted the attention of the scouts for the way he performed on the court. Among other things, without benefitting from the EuroLeague classic exposure.<\/p>\n