Italy actually had big plans for Paolo Banchero, but he became a “traitor” in the eyes of the Italians – now it comes to a reunion in the World Cup quarter-finals.
Banchero, son of former American basketball player Rhonda Smith, was born in Seattle but also has Italian roots because of his father. So it was that the Italian federation approached the Banchero family early on- “When I was 16, the national team contacted my father,” Banchero revealed last autumn. In 2020, he finally received his Italian passport.
Then it was quiet for a while before the drama took its course. In 2022, the power forward was drafted by the Orlando Magic as the No. 1 pick – and his career took off. In his rookie season, he averaged 20 points, 6.9 rebounds and 3.7 assists in 72 games while shooting 42.7 percent from the field and 29.8 percent for threes.
First advances, then spurned: Italy feels betrayed
The forward also made it clear that he plans to play for Italy. “I can’t wait to go to Italy,” he told the Young Person podcast. In Italy, this intention was met with great joy, people were looking forward to an upcoming superstar. But then everything turned out differently.
While Banchero had emphasised his intention to play for Italy last year, he changed his mind shortly before the World Cup – and is now playing for Team USA. Unsurprisingly, this did not go down well in Italy, with fans clearly expressing their displeasure on social media. And the federation officials were also “not amused”.
“It was a legitimate decision,” Italian federation president Gianni Petrucci told the Gazzetta dello Sport when Banchero’s decision was announced – and made clear his disappointment at it, particularly because of the way it was reported. “He could have called us, we found out about it from the newspaper,” the 78-year-old complained, making serious accusations.
“Betrayal is a serious accusation especially in basketball,” Petrucci said, admitting that it did not surprise him personally as he already knew such situations, “but he deceived us. We had big commercial plans with him. Now we have to turn that disappointment into positive energy.”
Said positive energy will be needed by the Azzurri on Tuesday if they are to pull off a sensation in the quarter-finals against gold favourites USA around the very same Banchero. The “Rookie of the year” himself was tight-lipped after the surprising 104-110 defeat against Lithuania. When asked if he had anything to say to the Italian fans, the 2.08-metre Banchero, who has performed well at the World Championships so far (10.2 points on average), only said “no”.