Recruited in Corsico, very, very young, Flavio Portaluppi is an original youth system product. A shooting guard, he was always considered too short or too thin or not athletic enough to play at the highest levels, but he was able to kill every kind of preconception about him, because of smartness, determination, a devastating outside shot, improved by a surprising quickness in the release. In Olimpia’s history is second to Mike D’Antoni for three-pointers made and on 1103 attempts he has an extraordinary 44.9% (he’s also third all-time in the free-throw shooting percentage with 87.5%). Loaned to Arese in A2, he used that year to score more than 20 points per game earning the return to Olimpia to become some kind of symbol. He played for Mike D’Antoni and Bogdan Tanjevic, won the championship and the Italy Cup in 1996, and in the former he was also the guy making the closing three-pointer in Milano (game 4, against Fortitudo Bologna). In the first half of his career, Portaluppi played for a solid team that made three European cups finals, winning one, the 1993 Korac Cup, plus one semifinal and a trip to the Final Four missed in a decisive home game against Ljiubljana; then he was involved in the dark years and finished his career in Cremona and Castelletto Ticino, just to be back in Olimpia, as a team-manager initially, a general manager eventually, earning himself a Mr.Olimpia’s tag on his resume.

Share the article with your friends and support the team

Share the article with your friends and support the team

URL Copied to clipboard! icon-share