Italy head coach Gianmarco Pozzecco lauded his wards for fighting on even if they are no longer in contention in the FIBA Basketball World Cup.
The charismatic mentor admitted that his team already felt going back home following their crushing quarterfinal exit at the hands of the United States last Tuesday, but no longer needed to look far to find the extra gear to continue.
“After the USA game, we wanted to leave. We want to come back home to our families. That’s normal,” the 50-year-old shared. “I have a daughter who’s six months old, and I haven’t seen her in the last two weeks.
“But, they got a big character, and they will finish here because they want to give Gigi what he deserves,” furthered Pozzecco.
He’s talking about national team veteran Gigi Datome, who’s now at the tail end of his farewell tour before hanging up his sneakers for good.
The 35-year-old played his penultimate game on Thursday versus Latvia, and went on to perform his best scoring outing in a World Cup game. He dropped 20 points on an excellent 7-of-10 shooting from the field, including four treys.
“He’s unique,” said Pozzecco of Datome. “I was thinking a couple of days ago, what I have to tell about Gigi. Everybody in the world is asking me what kind of person Gigi is, or what kind of player. So tough to explain.
“Then I said OK, unique is something that represents him. But then you want to explain why he’s unique. If he’s unique, you cannot have an example and you cannot compare to anything else, and it’s difficult to explain why he’s unique,” he added.
“He’s unique because he’s unique.”
It was too unfortunate that his efforts went for naught as the Azzurri fell short, 87-82. But Pozzecco couldn’t ask for more from his charges, especially the young ones, for the fight they showed even without Simone Fontecchio.
The Utah Jazz forward sat out the game as he was under the weather, and was not permitted by the team doctor to see action.
“The young guys… they help us a lot but they have to play this type of game to grow up. We are really happy because we are on the right [track],” he said.
He knows, too, that they will all try to give Gigi the sendoff he deserves.
“We are focused on the last game of Gigi.”
