After conquering everything with Fenerbahçe – Cup of Türkiye, championship and Euroleague – Maurizio Gherardini opens a new chapter of his career and Italian basketball. He is the New President of the Lega Basket Serie Aelected with 14 votes out of 16 representing the companies of the maximum championship. It happens to Umberto Gandini, and his three-year mandate formally begins with the approval of the final balance 2024-25.
A appointment that arrives at the end of an extraordinary season from General Manager of the Turkish club, but also as a choice of life: Gherardini has decided to return permanently to live in Italy, in Treviso, to face a completely different challenge.
«Life is made of challenges, large and small: you have to understand if you feel it to face them or not – he said to The Gazzettino. – This is a huge change for me, and I want to get involved, get out of my comfort area. As long as you feel you can do it, you have to try: you look in the mirror to understand if you still have strength, adrenaline, passion, desire. I realize that I can make my contribution in favor of the Italian basketball movement».
A path made of turning
Gherardini’s choice is not surprising who knows his professional path. From the beginning he has always had the courage to change his way. So he told The Gazzettino:
«When Giorgio Buzzavo came to Forlì to take me to Treviso, I had a brilliant career in the bank and I was the general manager of my city’s team. Accepting the proposal seemed crazy, but I did it. Like when, after 14 years in Benetton, I became the first non -American manager in an NBA team. Or like when I left the States, accepting the challenge of bringing a Turkish team to the Final Four of Euroleague».
After 18 trophies in 14 seasons with Treviso, 7 years in Toronto and 11 in Türkiye, Today the first solo institutional assignment arrives for Gherardini: no longer in the collegial board of Euroleague or Fiba, but directly in the buttons room.
The vision: the League as the Club House
The new president showed up without proclamations, but with the will to listen and build.
«It really gratified me the confidence on the clubs, – he admitted – who thought of the undersigned as someone able to make their contribution. I’m not a politician, I’m quite very pragmatic. My goal will be to understand the dynamics of affiliated clubs. Before drawing a new strategy, I have to learn many things, compare myself with everyone, ask for help».
At the center of his mandate is the strengthening the role of LBA as a service structure.
«The League must be the Club House. We must study the type of support we give today, to understand what can be added, where you can improve. We must help societies to live the great changes that basketball is going through. – said Gherardini a The Treviso Tribune, Continuing: – I like concepts such as sharing, sustainability, visibility and positivity, but clearly at the beginning I will have to get an idea, to know how the system works, what the mechanisms are. I consider it a league family made up of 16 people. We will have to talk to everyone, make him understand that they are their home».
A role to build step by step
The task is not simple. Being at the head of the LBA means moving from a club logic to a systemic vision. Gherardini is aware of it.
«So far I have lived basketball from a certain corner, – he said to The Treviso Tribune. – Now I jump the barricade and for me the perspective will be completely different. Today I could say I was “out of the box”, the provocation, the challenge is precisely to start doing something different. Above all at the beginning I will only have to listen, speak, understand, to form a strategy that is good for everyone».
The reference also goes to the work of its predecessor, Umberto Gandini. «I think he has done an excellent job for the development of events, both for their visibility and for quality. We have to start from here to continue growing».
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The look at the movement
The development of Italian basketball remains the common thread. “Important signs also come from the women’s national team: it is a success that confirms the vitality of the movement».
For Gherardini, therefore, the League cannot be only governance, but also promoter of sports culture and dialogue between the parties. It is not to be surprised so if the vote against Trapani, Valerio Antonini, is not considered an alarm.
«Voting is always an expression of democracy, – he said. – He rightly wait to know what the League programs are. No problem, indeed I would say that it is normal and also stimulating every now and then having some critical voice».
An expert guide for an evolution system
The challenge that awaits Gherardini is to bring managerial skills built in decades of international successes to LBA, to ferry the League in a new phase. In a system that seeks stability, vision and competitiveness, the figure of a manager with a global vision and shared approach can represent a concrete development lever.
Now, the time of listening. Then, that of the choices.
