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Ray of hope in darkness!
Against the Bulls, Bargnani scored 28 points in a 134-129 victory as Chicago could not solve the big Italian just like they couldn’t in an earlier meeting in January. Back then, Bargnani set a career-high with 31 points. But the victory over the Bulls, who earned the seventh spot in the playoffs came to late. The NBA’s only Canadian team missed the post-season by six games after playing in the playoffs the two previous seasons. “Too many small things went wrong for us,” said Calderon. Actually they were not that small after all. Among the problems were the failed experiment with Jermaine O’Neal, the many injuries and a miserable performance on the court. Even the media favorite Chris Bosh made negative headlines when his ex-girlfriend filed a lawsuit against him for not paying child support for their child.
Ray of hope in darkness
One of the few rays of hope was Bargnani’s blossoming. “How Andrea played the final three months is how we always dreamed he would,” said the man who discovered him, Maurizio Gherardhini. The assistant to Toronto GM Bryan Colangelo stumbled across Bargnani as a 16-year-old with Italian second division club Stella Rossa Roma. He saw a lanky teenager who had such a huge ego after getting little opposition in the lower Italian league that he wanted his teammates from the Italian junior national team to call him “Big Bargna”. Gherardhini brought Bargnani to top club Benetton Treviso where the young wing player developed into one of the biggest talents in Europe.
Bargnani won two Italian cups with Benetton and helped Treviso in 2006 to the club’s sixth and last league championship. As a 19-year-old, he was a leading contributor, scoring 15.3 points and grabbing 7.1 rebounds per Lega Basket A game. And he was crowned the Euroleague’s Young Player of the Year for the 2005-06 season.
To put it shortly, the expectations were huge as Bargnani headed off to the NBA as the biggest Italian basketball talent since the legendary Dino Meneghin. Gherardini was brought to Toronto by long-time friend Colangelo in early summer 2006. And a few weeks later, Andrea followed to Canada as Toronto made him the first European player to be drafted Number One overall. But, was he the wrong one?
During Bargnani’s horrible second season, some even compared him to Matt Bonner – a role player who is a big, but one dimensional shooter without any real defensive skills. But at least the red-headed Bonner was none as a guy who battles. One Raptors fan with a bit of humor wrote in an Internet forum that he would like a combination of Bargnani and Bonner: “Mattdrea Bongnani – deadly from the three-point line, hard worker, good ball-handling, boxes out on rebounds, drives a Grand Am and eats Ravioli.”
Spoiled and soft
Bargnani was deeply affected by the criticism. And he has still not forgiven the journalists for the many negative articles about him in his homeland. “His relationship to the Italian media is horrible,” said journalist Chiara Zanini. Bargnani rarely grants his compatriots interviews. Zanini saw Bargnani for the first time when he was a 14-year-old at a tournament with the Italian youth national team in Milan and the journalist arrived for the second half of the game against Venezuela. “All by himself, he made up a 16-point deficit in four minutes,” remembered Zanini. She has followed his career since then. Even during Bargnani’s tough second season, he gave interviews to Zanini. “Andrea’s pride plays a big role. As a youngster he was a winner. He didn’t know losing,” said Zanini. And in Toronto, the forward began to lose the confidence which in the beginning had excited so many in Raptors management. “Italian athletes are among the most spoiled in the world,” said Zanini. “Spoiled from the sweet Italian life and the VIP status which they enjoy everywhere back home.” Bargnani drove around Treviso in a big BMW, usually with a beautiful woman in the passenger seat. “Andrea is the typical Italian, who misses the food and needs his buddies from back home because he is sure that no one else can understand him,” adds Zanini. Once he was confronted with criticism, he closed everything else off.
