Basketball, Banco Roma in the Campidoglio with the legendary Wright

An applause breaks the buzz of the Julius Caesar Hall. The mayor of Rome enters the Campidoglio, but it is not Roberto Gualtieri, but Larry Wright, the tightrope walker capable of leading Rome to the basketball championship. Forty years later we celebrate the feat of that Banco who would become champion of everything, hoisting himself to the top of the world after conquering Italy and Europe. A feat for giants who find themselves and suddenly become boys again, with whitened faces and streaked with a few tears from emotion.

Hugs

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“Henry!”. Larry’s voice chokes in his throat when “Core de Roma” Gilardi arrives, who with his usual politeness takes leave of interviews to open up in a fraternal embrace. “Let me introduce you to Stefano (Sbarra)” then jokes the leader of the Roman group while the youngest of those guys, Wright’s alter ego in training at the Settebagni sports center, appears in front of him. “You made me better” Larry consecrates it immediately, while he almost shields himself in an “he always tells me”, before a succession of moved greetings with his teammates that the former American point guard recognizes one by one, in spite of the signs of the time, up to the maximum peak of emotions of a hot Roman morning with an embrace to coach Valerio Bianchini. Larry hadn’t been in Rome since 2006, and perhaps even his companions didn’t believe when he returned “home”. “Every time we get together there is always something new – underlines Gilardi – but when they told me I replied ‘If, oh well’… Instead it is here, it was already exciting to see it on video at the Brancaccio Theater on the 40th anniversary of the championships of Rome and Banco, it is even more so to hear him talk about the human value of that team”. The return playmaker is a great opponent of that triumph, that Pierluigi Marzorati beaten in the semifinals with Cantù and engaged until Sunday in the capital with Liba (Legends International Basketball Association) for the Ball Run-Fieri del Basket, a non-competitive walk/run from the Pincio terrace along a path equipped with baskets available to participants. “At the first phone call he started laughing – admits Pierlo – also because he too contributed to making my hair go white with his plays”.

Emotion

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In the protocol it would be the main dish, but Larry is unable to wait beyond the introduction of the authorities – the president of the Capitoline Assembly Svetlana Celli, the councilor for Sport Alessandro Onorato and the president of the Sport Commission Ferdinando Bonessio – before exploding in his manifestation of love. “Stefano, Enrico, Paolo, all of you, I love you. Thank you for allowing me to come to Rome and be part of this story, from the coach who came to Louisiana to take me to play for the Scudetto against Milan to all of you who, with your talent, have allowed me to express mine without nothing would have been possible for you”. Apotheosis of a party, while in the background the lump winds its way for the absence of Rome in the Serie A of baskets after the disappearance of Virtus. But that’s another story.