By Rigas Dardalis
In the 80’s the cosmopolitan city of Venezzia was living in basketball rhythm. Spencer Haywood was terrifying opponents with his thunderous dunks and Drazen Dalibagic was causing nightmares to defenses, even scoring 70 points in one game against Bologna. Following the “prime” years of the 80’s, Venezzia played in the “small” leagues of Italian basketball, until Andrea Mazzon took over.
The experienced coach guided Umana to legabasket for the first time after 17 years of absence and this year he has shocked European basketball. Venezzia is now on the 2nd place of Italian league, only one loss away from Siena and has a “mission impossible” for the rest of the season: To become the first “newborn” team in European basketball that will manage to qualify in Euroleague’s qualification rounds!
Few weeks ago Venezzia became only the 3rd “newborn” team that managed to qualify in Italian’s cup final-8. The other two was Sassari last season, and Napoli in 2003 when Mazzon was the head coach.
The Italian coach has shown in his career that he is capable of doing the impossible. Back in 1998 he won Korac Cup with Verona, after beating in “Hala Pioneer” Red Star with a margin of 9 points, eclipsing the 6 points loss of the first final in Italy. One year later he guided Panionios to Korac’s semifinals, even though Panionios was on the verge of “falling” in Greek A2, when he took over the team in the middle of the season. Then in 2006 under his guidance Aris qualified to Euroleague for the 1st time after 15 years! And now he is ready for a new “miracle” with Venezzia.
But maybe this will be his last year with the team of his hometown. “Sirens” from Spain and Russia are already “coming” to his ears, but he remains focused in one goal. «I only think of how to win every game with Venezzia. Nothing less, nothing more” was his only comment in eurohoops net.
Let’s see if “Ethan Hunt” of European basketball will succeed in another “mission impossible”…