By Michalis Gioulenoglou / info@eurohoops.net
Limassol, Cyprus– The end of a line. A finale that comes for everyone. Danilo Gallinari has decided on his own, but only for the Italian national team.
“Galo” does’ want to think about life after basketball yet and also wants to extend his last Eurobasket adventure as long as possible, even if it sounds crazy until September 14, the day of the medal games.
“Hopefully, we can achieve something special with the team. The goal, of course, is to go as far as we can”, he told Eurohoops about the expectations of the EuroBasket, with Italy having secured its presence in the Round of 16 and having a chance to finish on top of Group C.
And while this is his last tournament with the national team, it’s not necessarily also the end of his career: “I haven’t thought about the end. I thought about the end with the national team, so this is the last summer with the national team. As far as basketball, I don’t know. Now the energy and the focus are with the team game by game, and to do the best we can in this competition”.
“Αnything is possible…”
As for the possibility of seeing him again in Europe or the Euroleague?
“I said anything is possible. I’m not thinking about anything. I didn’t think about anything yet. I didn’t make any plans, so we’ll see,” he replied.
The NBA was a big chapter in his career. The biggest. Is New York and the Knicks his best memory?
As he explains, for him, winning matters: “It was a good two and a half years. I had great memories, of course. I changed teams in my career, so New York was definitely a great beginning. I had a great time, I think you know that when you have winning years, so my first three years in Denver, my year in LA, my first year in OKC, in Atlanta, we went to the conference finals, which was the farthest that I got in my career. Probably the winning season is the one I remember the most”.
“That’s the beauty of the NBA”
Speaking about the current state of the NBA, the Italian star likes the idea that winning the title seems pretty open right now: “Anything can happen every year. Every team can come up and win a championship, so anything can happen”.
And of course, the league is now more open than ever to European talent: “I think it’s great to see European basketball getting all these amazing talents that are the best players in the world. Of course me coming from Europe, it’s great to see this, but like I said, it’s the beauty of the NBA, the fact that it’s so global and the game has become great in any part of any angle of the world”.