The star of Italy to the victory of the European U20: “I feel ready for Serie A, the NBA would be Wow. The racist insults to the team? Some wanted to answer, but I as a captain …”
It happens that one of 20 years – age in which some of his peers still do not distinguish the day from the night – puts the gold medal of the category basketball European in the Category basketball to the neck after having dragged the national team to the win of points (16 on average in the 7 games, including the final, played by Italy), awarded the title of MVP of the tournament and included in the ideal quintet of the same. At that point you are looking for him for an interview and he lets you know, through WhatsApp, who, yes, willingly, but will be a little complicated because he is leaving for the holidays; Think: he will be in a transoceanic flight towards Polynesia, blessed him. Two days later you can fix a time for the video call and find yourself face to face, albeit at a distance, with Francesco Ferrari, kissed alone and leaning against a white wall. Beautiful, Francesco, where are you? “At the Terme di Padova”. Sorry?! … “Yes, I needed a little relaxation.” Ladies and gentlemen, here is the one who, according to all, is the new phenomenon of Italian basketball, 204 centimeters of pure technique, elegance, effectiveness. Fatififerous shot, agility, presence under the scoreboards despite two shoulders and arms still to be strengthened if they want to hold the shocks of the tinks at the highest level that stationed in those parts, Francesco is of those with the stigmata of the predestined, the rest is to him. To hear him speak, he does not seem to exist the risk that ending up from the road that nature has traced for him.
Close your eyes and fix the moment of this European that you will never forget.
“I embrace my father, my mother and my big brother after the victory in the final over Lithuania.
I screamed “I did it!” “And they?
“They replied with a nice kiss and someone said:” You deserved it “”.
When did you start believing it?
“In the middle of the third quarter against Israel, in the quarterfinals, when we started the comeback that allowed us to bring home the game. While recovering point on point, I said to myself:” If we win this, we can really do something special “”.
“Phenomenon” is a demanding appellation: do you feel such?
“I feel like a normal person, then like all twenty -year -olds I am on social media and I read what they say about me. I am grateful for the compliments, which however increase the expectations on my account and consequently my sense of responsibility”.
Few or nobody believed you could win the European Championship: does this gold mean that Italian basketball has a future?
“When we left, the Federation put on the site our photo accompanied by a presentation post. The comments below were of the type: if this is our future we are put not bad, more. And down racist comments for the presence among us of several boys of color, despite being Italian exactly like the undersigned. With this victory we have silenced several”.
Speaking of racism: within the group, how did you react? Have you decided to let it go, but someone wanted to answer?
“Some would have liked to replicate on social media, but I, as a captain, convinced everyone that the best answer we would have given it to the field, winning. So it was. Only at the end of the tournament, David Torresani wanted to respond to the racists, thanking them because their insults gave us strength. He wrote a post using an intelligent irony, but said the truth”.
As in football, even in basketball the A teams are full of foreigners because, it is said to be justified, the Italian players are few and cost too much. But isn’t it that, missing, is just the courage to launch them?
“Certainly it is necessary to courage, but not only from the companies. We players must also have the liver to make certain choices, undertake a certain type of path, raising the bar a little at a time. Then it takes luck, including that of exploiting the opportunity that is given to you, because, if you are wrong, few clubs give you another, even if it should not be so”.
Do you feel ready for Serie A?
“I think that at mental and technical level I have nothing less than those who play in A. Today I play in Cividale, in a high -level A2 club, therefore, yes, I think I am ready”.
It is written that, in view of the A, you have to put on a little mass: is there a risk of losing in speed?
“I don’t have to be a player who weighs 110 kilos. Obviously, in order to go up in the category, I have to develop musclely, but without losing speed, timing, my main athletic characteristics at speed”.
Your father Federico played in B: What did you take of him, in addition to the height?
“The passion. As a child I went to see him play even away, together with the rest of the family. If it hadn’t been there, I don’t know if I would be here at the moment. Of course dad was a great tiener, he had better hands of mine”.
The first “one against one” with him?
“It will have happened in the buildings where he played: at the end of the game I went down to the parquet to do two shots, he stopped with me and I certainly have challenged him. Even now, on vacation, if we find a playground we go. In the family, the basketball is the main topic: my mom played as a girl, but it was not his so he gave up soon, my two brothers also play”.
But, between dad and mom, the technical judgments of those who listen to more?
“I listen to my father more, because compared to mom he made a certain type of career … But, in his little one, she also understands a lot of basketball, write it!”.
There had been no basketball, what would have been your plan B?
“I don’t have the faintest idea of it … in elementary school I wrote in a theme that either would have played basketball or I would have done the ice cream maker.”
“Kobe Bryant, for his dedication to this sport. But, yesterday as today, I like Gallinari very very much. Many bring me to him: Danilo is higher, but we are both dangerous to the shot and we know how to open the field. It would be a dream like him. A year ago I made some training with him in the national team, in Trento. I was the smallest of the group, I did not know anyone, I went from one to introduce myself to me as long as I get to the other. ‘Hi, pleasure, Danilo’.
“I have always followed the Euroleague a lot because I feel like a player more as a European team, but the NBA would be a dream because there are the best in the world. My goal is to play at the highest possible level: so I tell you Euroleague, but the NBA would be Wow”.
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