VALERIO BIANCHINI_31 Masterminds of European Basketball

Vladimir Stankovic
the two spots allowed for foreign players. But Bianchini
was different. In Cantu he had Marzorati, but it was
impossible to bring him to Rome. Bianchini once told
me how he found his ace, Larry Wright.
“I had great reports about Larry and through Daren
Dale, a well-known American agent at the time, we
offered him a contract. He was hesitant though, and
I had to go to Monroe [Louisiana], his hometown, to
convince him.”
With Wright on board, Rome won the Italian
League regular season with a 22-8 record and then
rolled to the title with a 2-0 series win over Gorizia,
before knocking off Cantu 2-1 in the semis and Milan
2-1 in the finals with a 97-83 victory in the third game,
played on April 13, 1983 in front of 14,348 fans, which
remains a record to this day in Italian basketball. Dan
Peterson called his Milan the “25th team in the NBA”,
but he would have to acknowledge defeat against
Rome. In the Korac Cup, Bianchini could not take Rome
past the quarterfinals, where it was second behind
Limoges. But the first goal, the Italian League, had
been achieved, and another one was set for 1984: the
EuroLeague.
The long EuroLeague road started with easy duels
against Dudelange Luxemburg and Partizani Tirana.
In the six-team final group stage, Barcelona and Bianchini’s
Rome led with 7-3 records. Cantu, Bosna,
Maccabi and Limoges would have to watch the title
game from the sidelines.
The final was played in Geneva on March 23, 1984,
with Costas Rigas and Mikhail Davydov officiating.
Barcelona was the favorite, but only a slight one.
Coach Antoni Serra had a great team with names
like Nacho Solozabal, Chicho Sibilio, Mike Davis, Epi
and Juan Domingo de la Cruz. On the other side,
aside from Wright, Bianchini had the great rebounder
Clarence Kea and several very good Italian players in
Enrico Gilardi, Marco Solferini, Fulvio Polesello and
Gianni Bertolotti.
At halftime, Barcelona led 32-42, and the game
didn’t look too good for Rome. Bianchini himself later
told me the story about what happened during the
break.
“In the corridor to the locker rooms, Barcelona big
man Mike David made a mistake,” he recalled. “The
players from both teams were walking together and
David told Wright something like ‘Hey man, there’s no
prize for you tonight.’ Wright walked into the locker
room completely mad. He started to shout, demanding
his teammates wake up. He stepped on that court
like a madman in the second half and almost won the
game single-handedly.”
In the second half, Wright made good use of his
best weapon: his speed in one-on-one situations.
When he didn’t penetrate, he shot well. In the 31st
minute, Rome jumped ahead for the first time, 57-56,
and even though Barca had a chance in the final seconds,
an offensive rebound by Kea sealed the game
for Rome, 79-73. Wright ended up with 27 points and,
of course, was named MVP.
At the start of the 1984-85 season, a new trophy
arrived: the Intercontinental Cup. Rome ended up
first in Sao Paulo, Brazil, ahead of Obras Sanitarias
of Argentina, Sirio of Brazil, Barcelona and Marathon
Oil of Chicago. Luca Chiabotti, a prestigious writer for
Gazzetta dello Sport, described Bianchini following
that win.
“Valerio was the cultural revolution of Italian
basketball. He was famous for his interviews and his
duels against Peterson in the press. He was the first
one to bring history, literature or the current political
situation to basketball. He used that to explain his
basketball philosophy.”
As a coach, Bianchini is famous for his ability to
have great soloists or strong players with “difficult”
personalities, and he was a creator of competitive
teams around winning talent: players like Wright,
Boswell, Darren Daye and Darwin Cook. As for his
philosophy, offense was his best weapon and he paid
attention to motivating the individual players, giving
freedom and responsibility to the strongest and most
spectacular of them.
National coach
After those titles at the club level, Bianchini’s next
step was the logical one: the Italian federation offered
him the job of national team coach.
He made his debut at the 1986 FIBA World Cup in
Spain, with a solid team: Roberto Premier, Ario Costa,
Walter Magnifico, Enrico Gilardi, Fulvio Polesello,
Roberto Brunamonti, Renato Villalta, Augusto Binelli,
Riva, Sandro Dell‘Agnelo, Marzorati and Romeo
Sacchetti. Italy finished sixth. One year later, at the
EuroBasket in Athens, Italy improved by one place
after falling to eventual champion Greece in the quarterfinals.
He introduced several new players: Nando
Gentile, Piero Montecchi, Alberto Tonut, Massimo
Iacopini, Riccardo Morandotti and Flavio Carrera.
Two years later, Bianchini returned to club competition
with Scavolini Pesaro and soon won the title from
fifth place. First, he eliminated Reggio Emilia, and later
Caserta and Varese followed. In the finals, Scavolini
faced Milan, the European champion, and won 3-1.
Bianchini was the first coach to win three titles with
three different teams, something that Carlo Recalcati
would match years later.
Something strange happened in 1998, when Fortitudo
Bologna was 21-5 before the start of the playoffs
but Bianchini was dismissed. A few months before,
the team had won its first trophy ever, the Italian Cup,
by defeating Benetton Treviso in the final, 73-55.
After Scavolini, Bianchini coached Rome again
(from 1989 to 1991), Mens Sana of Siena (1992-93),
Pesaro again (1993 to 1996), Fortitudo (1996 to 1998),
a short span in Rome again (1999), Varese (1999-
2000), Milan (2000), Virtus Bologna (2002-03), Blue
Stars Beirut (2005-06) and Varese again (2007-08).
His career boasted 448 wins in 787 games (56.8%)
plus a 52-17 record in the Italian Cup and 134 wins
from 210 games in European competition.
Bianchini is now very critical of modern basketball.
He says that many clubs are “hostages to agents”
and doesn’t like the policy of buying foreign players
instead of looking to the young talents of the club. He
also gets mad at colleagues who do not have patience
with young players (“That’s why Italy has lost importance
in the basketball stage,”) but he doesn’t believe
that everything was better in the past. He always says
that “nostalgia is the worst shelter.”
Valerio Bianchini must be listened to. You can always
learn something from a prophet.
Valerio Bianchini
18 19
31 MASTERMINDS of EUROPEAN BASKETBALL
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