Thanks to the success in Game 4 against Virtus Segafredo Bologna, Ettore Messina won the 7th Scudetto of his career, overtaking Simone Pianigiani at the top of the ranking of coaches with the most titles in the Italian championship (stopped at 6 triumphs). Out of 8 finals coached, EA7 coach Emporio Armani lost only in 2021, against Virtus Bologna coached by Sasha Djordjevic (4-0) while the other successes came three times with Virtus Bologna, one with Benetton Treviso and two with Olimpia Milano. He achieved the titles at the helm of Bologna in the 1993, 1998 and 2001 editions of the playoffs, respectively against Benetton Treviso (3-0) and twice against Fortitudo Bologna (3-2 and 3-0). The victory on the bench of the Venetians dates back to the 2002/03 season in the final against Fortitudo Bologna (3-1) while the most recent Scudetti date back to the last two years on the bench of Milan (4-2 and 4-3 against Virtus Bologna in 2022 and 2023 respectively). Messina has already coached 36 games in total in the Scudetto final (23-13 so far).
Coach Ettore Messina has now won 97 career playoff games (ahead of Pianigiani’s 72 and Recalcati’s 66) out of 142 (ahead of Recalcati’s 119 and Repesa’s 105). Both figures are all-time records in the Italian championship. The Olimpia coach is also the second best coach in history for playoff winning percentage (68.3%) among those who have coached at least 60 games, behind Pianigiani’s 83.7%. Behind Messina and considering the filter already mentioned, there are 67.1% of Dan Peterson, 61.7% of D’Antoni, 59% of Scariolo and 58.1% of Jasmin Repesa.
Ettore Messina is the only coach in Italy together with Valerio Bianchini (who succeeded in Cantù, Rome and Pesaro in the 1980/81, 1982/83 and 1987/88 years) and Carlo Recalcati (who achieved the title with Varese in 1999 , with Fortitudo Bologna in 2000 and with Siena in 2004) to have won the Scudetto with three different teams (Virtus Bologna, Treviso and Milan).
