FRANCO CASALINI_31 Masterminds of European Basketball
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Vladimir Stankovic<br />
a team must play according to its physical qualities,<br />
while from McGregor he learned how a team that<br />
wants to run must play.<br />
Casalini also never forgot Rubini, his first great<br />
mentor, who taught him a rule he respected all his<br />
career: before teaching tactics to a player, one must<br />
know his character because psychology is more important<br />
than tactics.<br />
From a year with Sandro Gamba, another great<br />
Italian coach, Casalini learned the importance <strong>of</strong><br />
individual work; for instance, focusing on pull-up<br />
jumpers instead <strong>of</strong> layups. The years by Peterson’s<br />
side showed him “everything else” as he normally<br />
says, especially how to treat players and what it really<br />
means to be a pro. As an assistant, he had to fill in for<br />
Peterson 24 times and he won 23 <strong>of</strong> those games. He<br />
was ready.<br />
With so much good advice under his belt, it was<br />
only a matter <strong>of</strong> time before Casalini did something<br />
important as a head coach – and he didn’t need much<br />
time at all.<br />
His <strong>European</strong> debut took place in Bulgaria against<br />
Balkan Botevgrad; Milan won 79-93 and at home did<br />
the same, 97-88, to get into the league stage with<br />
eight teams. After 14 rounds, Partizan was first with a<br />
10-4 record, while Aris and Milan were tied for second<br />
and third at 9-5, and Maccabi was fourth at 8-6. So<br />
those were the teams that played the Final Four in<br />
Ghent.<br />
Maccabi defeated Partizan 87-72 in the semifinals,<br />
and Milan overcame Aris by the same score behind a<br />
great game from Bob McAdoo, with 39 points, while<br />
Ricky Brown added 28. In the title game, Milan got the<br />
best <strong>of</strong> Maccabi, 90-84, as McAdoo shined again, with<br />
25 points and 12 rebounds.<br />
The fall <strong>of</strong> that same year, Milan won the Intercontinental<br />
Cup, which it played at home. In the final, Milan<br />
defeated Barcelona 100-84 with McAdoo and Brown<br />
combining for 49 points. Milan also played the first<br />
McDonald’s Open in Milwaukee that year, against the<br />
Bucks and the USSR national team.<br />
Shortly after being crowned in Europe, Milan failed<br />
to win the Italian League title, losing to Scavolini Pesaro<br />
1-3, but the following season, the title returned to<br />
Milan.<br />
The next season, Casalini’s team finished fifth in<br />
the Italian League regular season and was not the<br />
favorite to win the title. However, Desio was its first<br />
victim in the first round (2-1) <strong>of</strong> the play<strong>of</strong>fs, and then<br />
Benetton Treviso followed in the quarterfinals (2-0).<br />
In the semis, Milan avenged its loss to Scavolini with<br />
another 2-0 sweep and after that, five great duels<br />
marked the final series against Enichem Livorno. Milan<br />
claimed the crown by winning the fifth and final<br />
game in Livorno, 85-86.<br />
Casalini then left Milan and went to coach Virtus<br />
Rome from 1992 through 1994. In 1993, the team<br />
reached the Korac Cup final, which was a two-legged<br />
all-Italian affair between Rome and Casalini’s former<br />
team, Milan. In the Italian capital, Milan won 90-95<br />
thanks to amazing performances by Ricky Pittis (<strong>31</strong><br />
points) and Sasa Djordjevic (29). For Virtus, Dino Radja<br />
was the best man (30 points, 11 rebounds). In the<br />
second game, Milan won 106-91 behind an unstoppable<br />
Djordjevic, who recorded 38 points, making 6<br />
<strong>of</strong> 8 threes.<br />
It took Casalini five more years to advance to another<br />
<strong>European</strong> final. And he did so with Olimpia Milan<br />
once again, having returned to that bench. But in<br />
the Saporta Cup final, played in Belgrade on April 14,<br />
1998, Zalgiris Kaunas managed to win the title 82-67<br />
with Saulius Stombergas as the main figure with 35<br />
points.<br />
When I asked Casalini a few years ago about the<br />
most important moments in his career, aside from<br />
the EuroLeague and the Italian League titles, he<br />
identified a few: his duels against FC Barcelona in the<br />
Korac Cup semifinals <strong>of</strong> 1992-93; the participation <strong>of</strong><br />
Virtus Rome as the first Italian team in an NBA summer<br />
league in 1993, with a win over Portland; and a<br />
two-legged battle against Panathinaikos Athens in<br />
the 1998 Saporta Cup, when Milan came back from<br />
a 19-point deficit from Game 1 to win Game 2 by 27<br />
points.<br />
His basic ideas revolve around <strong>of</strong>fensive basketball<br />
and individual technique being more important<br />
than athleticism. He doesn’t use these words, but he<br />
prefers a 101-100 win to a 58-57 win. In 1987-88, his<br />
Milan squad averaged 101 points per game, a record<br />
that nobody has ever touched in Italy. Such an attractive<br />
style <strong>of</strong> play was thanks to players like McAdoo<br />
and Brown, but also thanks to Mike D’Antoni, a great<br />
floor general, but also a good scorer (12.2 ppg.).<br />
Casalini likes running fastbreaks and speedy<br />
transitions. He’s not an “enemy” <strong>of</strong> defense, but<br />
he says that he has “always worked more on the<br />
player’s pride than on detailed defensive plans.”<br />
He does, however, admit that those were “different<br />
times, when opponents knew way less about each<br />
other than today.”<br />
From the start <strong>of</strong> his career, Casalini, who was<br />
born in Milan on New Year’s Day in 1952, believed that<br />
the best players had to play more and play better. He<br />
wasn’t keen on rotations and sharing the minutes<br />
with all players. His stars used to average 30 minutes<br />
or more on the court, and they all posted impressive<br />
numbers, like McAdoo and Brown in 1987-88 or<br />
McAdoo and Antonello Riva (28.5 and 27.5 points<br />
per game, respectively) in 1988-89. Those stars were<br />
also given a great deal <strong>of</strong> freedom. Casalini‘s systems<br />
were important, but he respected ideas and improvised<br />
solutions by his players, as long as they worked.<br />
After his successes in Italy, Casalini continued his<br />
career in Switzerland, where he won two national cups<br />
with Vaccalo. After that, he retired in 2000, which many<br />
people thought was a little premature. He had coached<br />
173 Italian League games and won 92 <strong>of</strong> them (53.2%).<br />
After he left the sidelines, basketball gained a<br />
great new TV commentator. His first experiences<br />
came in 1994, when he collaborated with Tele+, but<br />
his popularity skyrocketed in later years with Sky<br />
Italia. He was a voice with authority, a wise man<br />
who not only commented about what happened on<br />
the court, but also about what happened before the<br />
game started. It’s a coaching thing. And it’s great for<br />
basketball.<br />
Franco Casalini<br />
28 29<br />
<strong>31</strong> MASTERMINDS <strong>of</strong> EUROPEAN BASKETBALL<br />
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