Gigi Datome retires from basketball after the World Cup – Corriere.it

Gigi Datome said stop. The Italbasket captain has announced his retirement from competitive activity after the World Cup that the Azzurri will play in Manila. “I’ll get straight to the point: I’ll stop playing basketball” he said in the video message made in his Olbia. «I left here when I was 15, to see if basketball could become my life: I made my wildest dreams come true».

This is how «Gigi-Gante» recounted his long career as a professionalwith Virtus Roma as a springboard towards the NBA (8.1 points per game in 55 games between Detroit and Boston) and 5 seasons at Fenerbahçe with the conquest of the Euroleague. In 2020 the return to Italy in Milan: two Scudettos, two Italian Cups and a Super Cup in three seasons the outcome of the Sardinian winger, with the title of Mvp of the 2022/23 finals thanks to the magical game 7 (16 points and 7/9 shooting), decisive for the third star of Olympia.

For the Messina team it is a heavy loss: they will replace him in the Italian park Diego Flaccadori from Trento, meanwhile the track of Argentine point guard Nicolas Laprovittola (ex Real Madrid and Barcelona) is hot. But Datome’s decision to leave the crest of a wave stirs the applause of Giorgio Armani
: «Brave choice because he arrives in one of his best moments: he leaves with a scudetto won by Mvp on his chest, accompanied by the applause of his fans. I am sincerely admired.” Olimpia will remain Datome’s home, with a managerial role – probably away from the parquet – after the last blue summer of his life: «The only gripe is never having won anything in the national teamThat’s why, thanks to Poz, I’ll play the last few games with the most beautiful shirt there is». And so here is the captain’s last mission: to qualify for those Olympics that he has never reached as a player.