RAGUSA – Playing basketball every week on a pitch in London with an exceptional companion: the famous American actor and comedian Adam Sandler. The experience, which certainly doesn’t happen to everyone, was told by the 51-year-old Giovanni Nobile from Ragusa, who has always been passionate about basketball and a son of art, given that his father was one of the presidents of Virtus Ragusa, at that time Fortitudo.
“Hi guys, my name is Giovanni, I’m from Ragusa but I’ve lived in London for years now, and I wanted to talk to you about the guy in the light blue sweatshirt in the center of the photo above. Little preamble: every Saturday morning I go to play on the pitch in the Clapham area. The beauty of this pitch is that a lot of people come, of all ages, of various nationalities, and every time there is someone new who shows up. 3 Saturdays ago the guy with the light blue sweatshirt (Adam Sandler, ed.) showed up. He introduced himself as ‘Adam’ and asked to play. We explained the rules of the pitch to him – continues Nobile – he waited patiently for his turn, he played, he lost, he waited for his turn again, he played, he won, then he lost, finally he thanked everyone with a high five and said ‘see you guys next Saturday’.
He’s been coming for 3 Saturdays in a row. We have now become almost friends. We laugh and joke together, we elbow each other under the basket, we give 101% in every match and at the end we drink a beer together and chat about our lives, we comment on the NBA, in short like any other group of friends. I – concludes Nobile – am the bald one behind him who smiles, also because how the hell can you not smile thinking that every Saturday you play basketball with a legend like that”?
