By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
Injuries were a constant for EA7 Emporio Armani Milan throughout season efforts en route to elimination from the 2025 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Playoffs. Coming out of Round 33 of the 2024-25 Regular Season, Shavon Shields resurfaced on the list of unavailable players for head coach Ettore Messina.
On Saturday, the 30-year-old forward was sidelined for Round 25 of Italy’s LBA UnipolSai Regular Season and a clash with UnaHotels Reggio Emilia in PalaBigi. Leandro Bolmaro, Fabien Causeur, and Josh Nebo remain out, but Nenad Dimitrijevic was cleared from a back injury and is set to play on Sunday.
“We are aware that our ownership and fans are disappointed because we blew up the great opportunity that we built ourselves by playing a mediocre sequence of games in the end,” Messina addressed his side being removed from the playoff hunt in Europe’s premier club continental competition on Friday.
To complete the EuroLeague campaign, Olimpia Milan will host Baskonia in Unipol Forum next Thursday.
“Right now, and until the return of our missing players such as Bolmaro, Causeur, Nebo and Shields, we have to dig in, playing with humility and show finally how much we care about the team, the fans and our own work,” added the legendary play-caller, focusing on the bottom end of the domestic campaign.
The Italian champions over the last three years sit fourth in the LBA table with a 16-8 record, trailing co-leaders Trapani Shark, Virtus Segafredo Bologna, and Germani Brescia by one game.