Marco Belinelli, the "cinno" from San Giovanni in Persiceto, is hanging up his jersey: the only Italian basketball player to win an NBA title is retiring at 39 and saying goodbye. He does so—just as Gian Marco Pozzecco's Azzurri prepare for the European Championships—with a sweet and poignant Instagram post. In just a few minutes, it has drawn dozens and dozens of comments brimming with nostalgia, admiration, and gratitude.
"I put my heart into it. Every bit of myself. Every single day. Basketball gave me everything... and I gave it everything. It's not easy to say goodbye. But it's time," wrote the "number 3" of Virtus and the national team. "I carry with me every emotion," he added, "every sacrifice, every applause. Thank you to those who have always been there. To the younger ones, I leave a dream. Make it worth it ." Just a few minutes before the official announcement, Belinelli—who in the video accompanying the post chronicling his entire basketball life—promises that "Basketball will be there. Forever"—had posted images of a legendary career on social media: snapshots, full of memories, that had prompted, among others, Achille Polonara, a teammate with the Black VU and currently battling myeloid leukemia, to say goodbye. Polonara addressed the Bologna champion, saying he was "honored to have been part of your journey."
A journey that began and ended with Virtus Bologna—a Eurocup and two Scudetto titles to his name, the last a few weeks ago in the unprecedented final against Brescia—with which he made his debut in the top basketball league at just 16 years old (and which he now writes on Facebook, "It was a beautiful journey, concluded with Virtus on his heart and a Scudetto on his chest. Thank you for everything, Beli") before making the leap to the other side of "Basket City" and winning, with Fortitudo, a Scudetto and a Super Cup.
A springboard to the NBA and its golden world, frequented continuously from 2007 to November 2020. Those were the roaring years in the "Association" that established him internationally, making him the most famous Italian basketball player in the United States. And to think that of the three famous "paisà" who spent those early 2000s across the Atlantic Ocean more or less together—Belinelli, Gallinari, and Bargnani— the kid from San Giovanni in Persiceto must have been the least talented. He certainly has a good shot, but who knows if that's enough in the NBA. After all, he wasn't the first overall pick like the "Wizard," drafted by Golden State with the 18th overall pick. Having become a league globetrotter, donning nine different jerseys in thirteen years—Golden State, Toronto, New Orleans, Chicago, San Antonio, Sacramento, Charlotte, Atlanta, and Philadelphia—Belinelli, in the 2013-2014 season, led Greg Popovich's San Antonio to the NBA title and won the three-point contest at the All-Star Game. Before ending his NBA career in 2010, he had driven Philadelphia fans wild with the Spurs, averaging nearly 20 points in the playoffs and bearing a vague resemblance to the young "Rocky" whose statue stands on the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, in the heart of the "City of Brotherly Love."
(Unioneonline)