On 22 June 2014 the Knights rose to A2 by beating Latina on the neutral ground of Cervia. The story of who was there
Legnano – Cervia, 22 June 2014, I was there. At least they are 250 Knights fans – but the writer was also present – who today can celebrate the tenth anniversary of Legnano Basket’s promotion to Serie A2. One sunny Sunday at the beginning of summer, in the Saharan heat of the concrete parallelepiped of the Romagna town, the red and white community exploded in a scream of joy for the feat of Mattia Ferrari’s team. A Final Four with three promoted to A2 and one disappointed with the short straw; Legnano was the last to celebrate, in the play-off of the losers of the first day, following the trend of results not without suffering that are in the DNA of the club Marco Tajana. That year he had done great things to aim for the big leap to A2 which vanished a few years earlier in the finals lost against Vado Ligure.
That Legnano shaped by Mattia Ferrari, the basketball son of Andrea Trinchieri (who coached him as a player at San Pio the perimeter class of Milan and the solidity of the metronome Penserini, later integrated by another Pesaro player like the Casagrande winger, added in the running in February. Then the link man, captain Federico Maiocco still on the verge of becoming the historic flag of the Knights, the emerging Arrigoni picked up by the Sangiorgese cousins and the multiple promoted Roberto Cazzaniga, a veteran of the group with his 36 years.
A solid run in the regular season, finishing in second place with 44 points behind the steamroller Orzinuovi with 52, and losing the Italian Cup by a narrow margin in the finals in March 2014 in Ravenna against the super battleship Latina. Then the playoffs: 2-0 in the quarterfinals against Pordenone, 2-1 with some suffering against Montichiari, and the coup against the top seed Orzinuovi, reversing from 0-1 to 2-1 with the victory in the “beautiful” match at PalaLamiera in a scorching day. Thus Legnano earns the pass to Cervia, where in the first act it faces Tortona: it is the first match of the Final Four on Saturday 21 June, following the Knights there are over 200 fans, who dream of A2 given the underdogs. But the field says no: it ends 81-72 for the Piedmontese, who thus begin a climb up to the current showcase in Serie A and in Europe.
And Legnano has to wait for the outcome of the second final to know the name of Sunday’s opponent: here too the field reverses the prediction and rewards Scafati against Latina, on paper the strongest team of the lot with a track record of 33 victories in 36 games. And it is precisely the opponent who had snatched victory from the Knights in the Italian Cup in March: the Legnano group leaves the Romagna sports hall disappointed and prepares for the second day of the maritime weekend with a thousand worries. The Tajana management, close to its tenth year, has dragged the red and white club from the 80 scattered among the cobwebs of the old PalaDante, to an important following in via Parma. But the red and white president is the Tano Belloni of minor basketball, the eternal second, with many finals lost between the Italian Cup and playoffs (first of C1, then of B2 or DNB in the new name). The evening and night, in the hotel in the center of Cervia where the team and management are staying, are not peaceful, tormented by a thousand thoughts and a thousand doubts about the possibility of tripping again on the last step.
On the morning of June 22nd the team held a shooting session at the sports hall, then broke ranks waiting for the tap-off at 6pm: the environment was concentrated, some reinforcements arrived from Legnano for the group of 200 who had booked the weekend on the Riviera . Everything is ready for the tap-off, and the Knights are there: the impenetrable defense set up by coach Ferrari harnesses the talent of the Pontini. Legnano plays with heart, withstands a couple of negative moments (minus 7 at 18′ and minus 6 at 35′), and is more lucid when it counts: overtaking with 2+1 by Casagrande on an assist from Tavernelli, the escape into the open field by Arrigoni makes it 58-55, then again Paderno’s big man puts the safety free throws after Pilotti’s minus 1. And Casagrande sets the score with an attacking rebound: the siren sounds at 62-58, and Legnano is in Serie A for the first time in 48 years since the club was founded in 1966.
It explodes the joy of the 250 fans following: for half an hour on the Cervia parquet there is red and white chaos, with president Marco Tajana transfigured with joy at having broken his fast and GM Maurizio Basilico almost speechless with emotion. Then the long night with the team and supporters dinner with at least 150 present to celebrate the victory of the Knights, which will open another chapter.
From via Parma to Castellanza, from the DNB to the A2 which after a first year in the Gold and Silver version became unique from 2015/16, up to the playoffs played against Roseto and Verona in a five-year period of extraordinary emotions interrupted in 2019 for non-sporting reasons. But today’s Legnano Basket, relaunched by Marco Tajana in 2021 with the purchase of the B title and subsequent jump to National B in 2013, would not be what it is now without that magical series 10 years ago in Cervia. The same Tajana who often, in the press conferences of the years to come, cited the writer as a voice of reason, in the joyful apotheosis of the Cervia night: “Congratulations Marco, but now it’s your “business” (euphemism)!”. Ten years later, we can say that it was worth it, and we enjoyed the feat that we remember and celebrate today.
Giuseppe Sciascia
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