“Banchero made fun of us. If he wanted the USA, a phone call was enough»- Corriere.it

Every choice is legitimate but he could have avoided making fun of us. This is the meaning of the words of Gianni Petrucci president of the basketball federation towards the choice of Paolo Bancaro, a very young NBA champion, to wear the shirt of the American national team, effectively refusing the Italian one. “It’s a legitimate choice but a phone call was enough to let us know, instead we learned about it from the agencies”. So Petrucci comments on Gazzetta dello Sport.

“We are not the deluded ones, I have a history of his statements. Meanwhile, in 2019 his family wanted to become Italian and we helped them. Then in 2020 – adds Petrucci – he declared that he wanted to help Italy qualify for the Paris Games and later that his intention was to play for the national team, if not this summer, then the next. Finally, Paolo’s father wrote to our general manager Trains asking him to help his family come to Italy. When he understood his value within the NBA, the romantic aspect ended. In recent days he has been in Milan and, despite the commitments made by his agency to meet us, he has avoided any contact with the Poz”, explains Petrucci still embittered according to whom speaking of “betrayal is a big word, in sport these situations happen and personally I’m trained.”
“I consider it a joke. And I add that thanks to the excellent organization of master groups and its general manager Antonio Santamaria – concludes Petrucci – a plan had been developed to invest in its image in Italy. I close here by quoting Pirandello: “There are many masks and few faces”. I said everything”.