Someone had lost hope. In recent years, the A1 series of basketball had been a dizzying collapse. The glorious Italian top flight had gone in just a few years from being one of the best leagues in Europe to becoming a hotbed of mediocrity and scandals. Little money, champions on the run, an increasingly detached and disinterested audience.
The only light in the dark was turned on there Monte Paschi Siena. The champions of the last five years seemed, at one point, to use Serie A matches as training for midweek European competition, demolishing their unfortunate sparring partners Sunday after Sunday.
Today the story seems to have changed and this story has the name and surname of someone who, as a boy, glimpsed a glorious road ahead of him made of successes and trophies: Danilo Gallinari. What happened last Sunday at the Mediolanum Forum, Milan's victory against Siena 63 to 56, is incredible and has a much deeper meaning than a success in a direct match at the start of the season. Milan hadn't beaten Siena in 21 consecutive matches, 5 years, including the championship finals. To defeat the green-and-white rivals it took Danilo, the man of destiny, who put the icing on the cake to a performance that could become the symbol of a new cycle in Italian basketball. Danilo Gallinari has Olimpia Milano in his heart and on his skin. Grew up in the myth of dad Vittorio, star of the great Milan of the 80s, the ace of the Denver Nuggets, just before leaving to try his luck overseas, he decided to get a tattoo on his side of "Proud the warrior", the historic symbol of the red and whites.
“I'm sure that sooner or later I'll come back to play here” he said in the summer of 2008 as he was preparing to join Mike "Arsenio" D'Antoni in New York, another element of that Olimpia that 30 years ago opened the winning cycle that would bring five league titles and two cups under the Duomo of the Champions. Danilo didn't think he'd have to come back so soon. To offer this opportunity has arrived the NBA lockout, the lockout that is paralyzing the American league. Danilo did not hesitate to take up the challenge and, being able to count on a group of all respect as well as the wise guide of Sergio Scariolo, is a candidate to bring to Milan a title that has been missing since 1996.
As well as for the fans of Giorgio Armani's team, this is good news for all Italian basketball fans who will be able to follow a championship that finally finds its charm. Certainly the ax of a negotiation between NBA players and owners hangs over the dream of the red shoes, which could be unlocked at any moment.
In the last week, however, the parties seem to have drifted apart again and the cancellation of matches until December 15th, i.e. 26% of regular season matches, has been announced. The situation was further complicated by the initiative of some players who sued the NBA for the violation of antitrust rules, asking for staggering compensation (we are talking about 2 billion dollars). The Milanese fans are hopeful but don't have too many illusions. Everyone knows that Danilo's career is in the United States and it couldn't be otherwise for a player of his level.
On the other hand, for sports romantics this is one of those stories too good not to have to follow its own script. There are too many relationships between this Milan and the great Olimpia and such is the personality of this team that with stubbornness has managed to defeat and detach in the standings the symbolic team of Italian basketball of the last 5 years. The challenge is open: it will be long and exciting with the fatal flavor of a circle that must close. Whether we can fully enjoy it will depend on the lawyers, trade unionists, tycoons and players who live 6000 kilometers away from the city of the Madonnina. In fact, everyone knows that Milan's hopes of returning to Olympus are contained in the inspired fingers of the big boy from Sant'Angelo Lodigiano with history in his veins, dynamite under his feet and gold in his hands.
