The Most Famous

BASKETBALL PLAYERS from Italy

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This page contains a list of the greatest Italian Basketball Players. The pantheon dataset contains 1,757 Basketball Players, 15 of which were born in Italy. This makes Italy the birth place of the 14th most number of Basketball Players behind Germany, and Canada.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Italian Basketball Players of all time. This list of famous Italian Basketball Players is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Italian Basketball Players.

Photo of Ettore Messina

1. Ettore Messina (b. 1959)

With an HPI of 50.79, Ettore Messina is the most famous Italian Basketball Player.  His biography has been translated into 18 different languages on wikipedia.

Ettore Messina (born 30 September 1959) is an Italian professional basketball coach who is the head coach of Olimpia Milano of the Italian Lega Basket Serie A (LBA). He has won four EuroLeague championships as a head coach. Messina is regarded as one of the best European basketball coaches of all time, having been named one of the 50 Greatest EuroLeague Contributors in 2008. He was named the Italian League's Best Coach three times, in the years 1998, 2001, and 2005. Furthermore, he has been named EuroLeague's Coach of the Year twice, in 2006 and 2008. He was inducted into the Italian Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008, and into the Russian VTB United League Hall of Fame, in 2019. Messina also previously worked with the San Antonio Spurs, as an assistant coach for Gregg Popovich, from 2014 to 2019.

Photo of Sergio Scariolo

2. Sergio Scariolo (b. 1961)

With an HPI of 50.35, Sergio Scariolo is the 2nd most famous Italian Basketball Player.  His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Sergio Scariolo (born 1 April 1961) is an Italian professional basketball coach who is the head coach of the senior Spain national team. Scariolo latest coached also Virtus Bologna of the Italian Lega Basket Serie A (LBA). Having won four EuroBasket championships and a World Cup at the head of Spain, Scariolo is one of the most successful coaches in the history of international competitions, and according to many players, journalists and commentators, he is regarded as the greatest national team coach of all time.

Photo of Dino Meneghin

3. Dino Meneghin (b. 1950)

With an HPI of 50.20, Dino Meneghin is the 3rd most famous Italian Basketball Player.  His biography has been translated into 24 different languages.

Dino Meneghin (Italian pronunciation: [ˈdiːno meneˈɡin], Venetian: [meneˈɡiŋ]; born 18 January 1950) is an Italian former professional basketball player. He is widely considered to be the best Italian player ever, as well as one of Europe's all-time greats. A 2.06 m (6 ft 9 in) tall center, Meneghin was born in Alano di Piave, Veneto (northeast Italy). On 20 November 1966, when he was 16 years old, he played in his first game in the Italian League, with Ignis Varese. He played the last game of his career at the age of 45. He holds the record for the most EuroLeague championships won by a player, with seven, when counting all formats of the competition's history, dating back to the inaugural 1958 season. In 2003, Meneghin became a Basketball Hall of Fame player. In 2006, he became a member of the Italian Basketball Hall of Fame. In 2010, he became a FIBA Hall of Fame player.

Photo of Cesare Rubini

4. Cesare Rubini (1923 - 2011)

With an HPI of 46.09, Cesare Rubini is the 4th most famous Italian Basketball Player.  His biography has been translated into 19 different languages.

Cesare Rubini (2 November 1923 – 8 February 2011) was an Italian professional basketball player and coach, and a water polo player. He was considered to be one of the greatest European basketball coaches of all time, Rubini was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1994, making him the first, and to this day, just one of three Italian basketball figures to receive such an honour, alongside Dino Meneghin and Sandro Gamba. He was also inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 2000. In 2002, he was awarded the FIBA Order of Merit. He was inducted into the Italian Basketball Hall of Fame, in 2006. He was also inducted into the FIBA Hall of Fame, in 2013.

Photo of Pierluigi Marzorati

5. Pierluigi Marzorati (b. 1952)

With an HPI of 42.69, Pierluigi Marzorati is the 5th most famous Italian Basketball Player.  His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Pierluigi "Pierlo" Marzorati (born 12 September 1952) is an Italian former professional basketball player. He is considered to have been one of the best point guards of all time in Europe, and was named the Mister Europa, in 1976. He was named one of FIBA's 50 Greatest Players in 1991. In 2007, he was inducted into the Italian Basketball Hall of Fame and enshrined into the FIBA Hall of Fame. In 2008, he was chosen as one of the 50 Greatest EuroLeague Contributors.

Photo of Gianmarco Pozzecco

6. Gianmarco Pozzecco (b. 1972)

With an HPI of 42.15, Gianmarco Pozzecco is the 6th most famous Italian Basketball Player.  His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Gianmarco Pozzecco (born 15 September 1972) is an Italian professional basketball coach and former player who is currently the head coach of Italy men's national basketball team. Pozzecco is one of the best known figures in the Italian basketball world. As a player, he had a prominent role in Italy's win of the silver medal at the men's basketball tournament at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. He won the Serie A1 1998-1999 and the 1999 Italian Supercup with Varese, and in 2004 he reached the EuroLeague Final Four with Bologna, eventually lost to Maccabi Tel Aviv. He played in the two 1997, the 1998, the 2001, and the 2004 Italian All Star Games, and in the 1999 McDonald's Open Championship. As a coach, Pozzecco won the 2018–19 FIBA Europe Cup and the 2019 Italian Basketball Supercup with Dinamo Sassari.

Photo of Marco Belinelli

7. Marco Belinelli (b. 1986)

With an HPI of 41.33, Marco Belinelli is the 7th most famous Italian Basketball Player.  His biography has been translated into 34 different languages.

Marco Stefano Belinelli (Italian pronunciation: [ˈmarko beliˈnɛlli]; born 25 March 1986) is an Italian professional basketball player and the team captain for Virtus Bologna of the Lega Basket Serie A (LBA) and the EuroLeague. He was selected 18th overall in the 2007 NBA draft by the Golden State Warriors. In 2014, he won the NBA championship with the San Antonio Spurs, becoming the first Italian player to do so. He won the Three-Point Contest during the 2014 NBA All-Star Weekend. He played in the 2007, 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2017 editions of the FIBA EuroBasket and the 2006 and 2019 editions of the FIBA World Championship with the Italian national basketball team.

Photo of Danilo Gallinari

8. Danilo Gallinari (b. 1988)

With an HPI of 40.59, Danilo Gallinari is the 8th most famous Italian Basketball Player.  His biography has been translated into 32 different languages.

Danilo Gallinari (Italian pronunciation: [daˈniːlo ɡalliˈnaːri]; born 8 August 1988) is an Italian professional basketball player who last played for the Milwaukee Bucks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). After spending his first four years as a professional in his native Italy, Gallinari was drafted sixth overall in the 2008 NBA draft by the New York Knicks. He played with the Knicks for two and a half seasons before being traded to the Denver Nuggets in 2011. He has also played for the Los Angeles Clippers, the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Atlanta Hawks, the Washington Wizards and the Detroit Pistons.

Photo of Luigi Datome

9. Luigi Datome (b. 1987)

With an HPI of 38.73, Luigi Datome is the 9th most famous Italian Basketball Player.  His biography has been translated into 23 different languages.

Luigi "Gigi" Datome (born 27 November 1987) is an Italian former professional basketball player. Standing at 2.03 m (6 ft 8 in), he played at the small forward and power forward positions. Datome was an All-EuroLeague Second Team selection in 2016.

Photo of Gianluca Basile

10. Gianluca Basile (b. 1975)

With an HPI of 37.12, Gianluca Basile is the 10th most famous Italian Basketball Player.  His biography has been translated into 25 different languages.

Gianluca Basile (born 24 January 1975) is an Italian former professional basketball player. At a height of 1.92 m (6'3 3⁄4") tall and a weight of 95 kg (210 lbs.), he mainly played at the shooting guard position. He is considered one of the best 1990s and 2000s era Italian basketball players. He won the silver medal at the 2004 Summer Olympic Games, and the gold medal at the 1999 EuroBasket. He was also the captain of the men's Italy national team.

People

Pantheon has 25 people classified as Italian basketball players born between 1923 and 2001. Of these 25, 24 (96.00%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Italian basketball players include Ettore Messina, Sergio Scariolo, and Dino Meneghin. The most famous deceased Italian basketball players include Cesare Rubini. As of April 2024, 10 new Italian basketball players have been added to Pantheon including Sergio Scariolo, Gianmarco Pozzecco, and Simone Fontecchio.

Living Italian Basketball Players

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Deceased Italian Basketball Players

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Newly Added Italian Basketball Players (2024)

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