Olimpia Milano was born on 9 January 1936 and on his 86th birthday, Mayor Giuseppe Sala dedicated the episode of his podcast "Buongiorno Milano" to this sporting anniversary, «an entirely Milanese birthday, an unrepeatable story».
«Happy birthday Olimpia», he says as he rewinds the tape of events from the very first steps of the basketball club, i.e. from the merger between two teams, the Borletti company after-work club in via Washington and that of the Trieste entrepreneur Adolfo Bogoncelli . Bogoncelli who, according to the mayor, "interprets the Milanese spirit at its best", setting up the Triestina Milano and then, in 1936, becoming its president with Borletti as a sponsor. "Bogoncelli - explains Sala - gives all of Italian basketball a different face, makes it make the leap towards professionalism: the invention of sponsors is all his, the market for players too", he recalls. This was followed by the season of coach Cesare Rubini and the arrival in Italy of the American basketball player Bill Bradley - with whom Olimpia climbs to the top of Europe for the first time - then the famous coach and television face Dan Peterson (the one with the slogan "Per me number 1!"), but also the well-known rivalry with the Varese team. "Years in which Italian basketball speaks Lombard" anticipate long periods of corporate difficulties, until in 2004 Giorgio Armani took over as main sponsor, taking over Olimpia and leading it in 2014 to regain the Scudetto that had been missing in Milan for almost twenty years.
"Olimpia is a legend in all of Italian sport - concludes Sala - the team with the most national titles, one of the most famous and titled in Europe, a palmares that makes an impression: 29 championships, 8 Italian cups, 4 super cups, 3 Champions Cups, 3 Cup Winners' Cups, 2 Courage and an Intercontinental Cup». In short, "86 years old and not hearing them".
