Erika Striulli has said enough. The Venetian point guard, but now Sardinian by adoption given her long militancy with Cus Cagliari , stops playing basketball at 34 years old. The decision came at the end of a summer of long reflections. And it certainly wasn't easy.
Basketball, joys and disappointments. "Twenty years have passed since my debut in Serie A," reflects Striulli, "and like all athletes who begin to glimpse their decline with a smile, the time has come to start taking stock of what high-level professional sport has given me and taken away from me, full of victories, emotions, defeats, tough injuries, introspective moments and travels."
A story, the one with the orange ball, that began thanks to her father Dante , a former basketball player and coach. An extraordinary journey, which led her to debut at a very young age in Serie A, to wear the famous jerseys of Lucca, Napoli, La Spezia, and even that of the National team , in 2013. Intermediate stages that led her to Cagliari, where she found her second home: «I have lived Italy far and wide, always with my suitcase packed. Many places, many people, a thousand adventures. But the sporting adventure was for me mainly a continuous discovery of myself. A way to measure myself, to understand who I was and what I wanted». A path always lived with my head held high and without compromises: «The professional sports environment gave me the opportunity to know myself and to make more accurate choices as I grew and matured. My way of living the sporting “profession” has always been based on a deep love for that sharing born of values such as intellectual honesty, transparency, loyalty, altruism and professionalism. Beyond the technical - tactical skills, all the coaches I have had have always recognized my obsessive attention to detail, enthusiasm, willingness to dialogue and to assume my responsibilities, on and off the field. Their esteem has never been lacking, even though I am not a “soldier” who bows his head a priori».
There has been no shortage of difficulties : «Unfortunately, extreme competition, which determines the value and salary of an athlete, triggers mechanisms that bring to light all the limits of the human being when he is forced to lay himself bare, therefore envy, jealousy and cynicism come into play», she explains, «we have a social culture that does not appreciate talent and, above all, that has few cognitive tools to recognize it. The majority of failures that I have seen experienced by teams considered unbeatable, were not caused by the selfishness of the individual, but by the envy of many. One thing I have learned about myself is that this philosophy does not belong to me and I do not want to live it anymore».
