A Scudetto final with the flavor of the future. These are important days for the present, and the future, of Shabazz Napier. The point guard from Roxbury, a residential neighborhood of Boston, who a year ago represented the turning point of the red and white season, is chasing the second tricolor. And a confirmation in Olimpia Milano.
Not that everything has been simple up until now, on the contrary. The shock of 2023 was not the same in 2024, modulating into a progressive growth in intensity. The numbers remain, 13.6 points with 3.8 assists in LBA, and 10.9 with 4.1 in EuroLeague. Certainly better than in the short Belgrade countryside, a blinding love in the summer, but cohabitation that has become impossible since the dawn of autumn.
Red Star-Olympia, one-way ticket, to lead a team full of individuality, disastrous in its plurality. Difficult mission for Shabazz, helmsman in the stormy sea, soon identified as a new meteor.
A few months into his first season, a few months into his second before a radical rebuild? This has been thought for months, even though Ettore Messina, in fact, has never lowered expectations and demands on UConn’s product.
The keys are held by Napier, a tightrope walking talent, who already in the championship finals a year ago denounced a certain intolerance towards the physical European defenses. Twelve months later, following a convincing start to the playoffs, the point guard born in 1991 attacked the LBA Finals with his head down.
The triple that goes into overtime in game 1, and the first break, bears his signature. Assists go down, performances go up, especially the ability to score when teammates go on strike. Will it be enough?
As for the Scudetto, the week that has just started will tell. For the future, perhaps. Ettore Messina thinks about it, and he has been thinking about it for a long time. One, two new point guards, for a quintet that is changing its face, filled more with handlers than wingers, according to the dictates of European modernity.
And given that the market offers little in terms of senators of the role, the consequence is to go for emerging ones. Rookie at this level, who could use a veteran. Namely, Shabazz Napier. The die has been cast: the UConn phenomenon chases the Scudetto, and a future in Olimpia Milano.
