The Andrea Bargnani lovefest was over before it started. It may be a homecoming, but it certainly hasn’t been a heartwarming one

TorontoSun.com – Basketball – The Andrea Bargnani lovefest was over before it started. It may be a homecoming, but it certainly hasn’t been a heartwarming one
Bargnani may be one of the best athletes out of Italy, but it is painfully obvious that he is not one of the most popular.

And that’s quite a surprise, as Bargnani’s handlers have sold the second-year Raptor as being a big star in his home country, and especially here in his hometown.

But there is a definite air of indifference surrounding Bargnani’s monumental return to The Eternal City. Most basketball fans here seem more excited about the presence of the big three from the Boston Celtics — Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett — than about Bargnani or the Raptors, and that’s why tonight’s pre-season game between the two NBA sides at Pala Lottomatica is sold out.

It seems that Bargnani is not Italian enough for Italians.

Almost famous

Almost famous
“He didn’t speak all that much, even when he was young,” Bargnani’s mother, Luisella Balducci says, laughing. “And he was always very short in his writing for school.

“He is very focused. He doesn’t read the newspapers very much. He is focused on the game, and he likes playing it so very much, and the rest of it isn’t very important to him. “He just loves to play.”

Pivotal time in Italy

Pivotal time in Italy – The Boston Globe
Raptors vice president and assistant general manager Maurizio Gherardini, who formerly served as Benetton Treviso’s GM, cites the extra practice time as one of the major reasons Europe has closed the gap on American basketball in recent years.

Raps embrace Italy’s charm

TorontoSun.com – Basketball – Raps embrace Italy’s charm
So when Mitchell whined to the European media in a conference call last week that holding training camp overseas was an inconvenience, a distraction, and everything else, Gherardini felt somewhat disappointed — and naturally so.

Mitchell, however, is now singing a totally different tune — to the extent that if the Treviso Chamber of Commerce needed an English-speaking spokesperson, he’d be the perfect guy.

“I would recommend to any NBA team that if you have the opportunity to go abroad for training camp for a couple of weeks, you should do it,” he said yesterday.

Talk about an about-face.