The Virtus winger has made waves in the national team and was chosen by Cleveland in the last draft, while his brother is making his way in Trento: he is 17 years old, 1.95m tall, he jumps, dunks, shoots, he is becoming mature in his decisions and, as Marco Crespi who discovered him says, “he has something special”
We ended the summer with the magic of Saliou Niang, 21 years old, in the blue shirt in our eyes, a breath of fresh air for the future of Italian basketball, despite the disappointment of elimination from the European Championship. Three weeks off, then the Super Cup and the championship. Ready to be surprised. And the one who succeeded, once again, was a Niang. But this time Cheickh, Saliou’s younger brother. Having just turned seventeen, last Sunday, on his debut in Serie A with Trento, he scored 15 points with 2/2 threes, after starting in the quintet in the Super Cup semi-final. A clip of the match made the rounds on social media: Niang receives, decisively attacks the center of the area, dribbling and nails an explosive dunk in the face of the helping defender. A gesture that remains in the eyes, but even more affects the boy’s personality and confidence. In the previous game he missed the first three shots, then scored the fourth with a talented play. Even better: the reaction to the mistake tells a lot about an athlete. And he’s only 17 years old. If he was discovered by fans in Italy in a week, it took Cheickh a few more days to get noticed in Europe too: yesterday, in the second Eurocup match, won by Trento at Buducnost, he scored 14 in 25′ with 5/7 from the field, 3 rebounds and 3 assists.