Expect Italy to play with fire in its eyes as one of its leaders — Luigi Datome — is set to retire after seeing action in the FIBA Basketball World Cup that will be held in Manila from 25 August to 10 September.
According to Basket News, the upcoming 32-nation showpiece will be the last hurrah for the 35-year-old forward following a grueling 20-year campaign in the professional and international arenas.
Datome, however, will still stay with his former team, EA7 Emporio Armani Milan, in a different capacity.
With Datome’s looming retirement, the Italians are tipped to give him a fitting send-off by going all out in the preliminaries of the World Cup against teams like the Philippines, Angola and Dominican Republic.
With star playmaker Nico Mannion out due to injury and Darius Thompson not included in the roster due to passport issues, Datome is expected to play a bigger role in the Italian campaign.
Datome, after all, is familiar with the Filipinos after facing them in the preliminaries of the World Cup in 2019 in Foshan, China.
In their 108-62 victory over the Philippines, Datome fired 17 points, three rebounds and two assists in just 16 minutes of action to help stars like Danilo Gallinari and Marco Belleneli book an easy 108-62 win over the Gilas Pilipinas coached by Yeng Guiao.
Prior to the game, Datome expressed respect to the Filipinos, saying that the Italians can’t afford to commit “stupid” mistakes against a quick, skilled and determined squad like the Philippines.
“They are a very fun team to watch. They play an uptempo brand of basketball,” said Datome, noting that the Filipinos are full of individual talents.
“Making good plays against them is always very easy to say and tough to do. But we’re prepared to do this in order to be able to control the game, at least.”
