Who is Peppe Poeta, the new coach of'Olimpia Milano and successor to Ettore Messina
The story of Peppe Poeta starts in Battipaglia, a southern town where in the 1990s basketball was one of the few ways to dream. Those who grow up there spend their days between playgrounds and makeshift courts. Poeta comes from a solid family, with parents who teach first how to live and then how to study. Those values remain his reference point.
Basketball enters his life like everything else, quietly. Between soccer, tennis and swimming, he always returns to the outdoor courts where he plays with the older kids. There he learns to cope. By the time he is 10 years old, he is already in Salerno, though without a basketball physique. He is thin, small, but curious and steady.
At fifteen he plays B2, attends high school and is a school representative. Being around people comes naturally to him. His main gift is tolerance, which in sports is as valuable as good technique. It’s no coincidence that in the national team they call him the “glue guy,” the one who holds the group together.
His career progressed smoothly. From C2 to B1, until the game that put him in the showcase: 51 points. From there come Teramo, Serie A, the national team, Virtus Bologna and the Euroleague. In 2010-11 he wears the V Nere jersey and in 2012 becomes its captain. In November 2013 he terminated his contract.
On January 1, 2014, he switched to Saski Baskonia. With the Basque club he plays in the Euroleague Top16, Copa del Rey and Liga Endesa. Among his best games is the one with Gipuzkoa, decisive for entry into the Copa del Rey, in which he scores 13 points in the last quarter.
At age 30 an injury stops him for a year. He starts from scratch and goes through Trento, Turin, Reggio Emilia and Cremona. He continues to choose the field without talking about sacrifice.
The national team remains the most significant chapter: 120 appearances, among the top 20 ever.
becoming a coach is not his initial plan. He thinks about an executive future, but the coaches he meets recognize his particular reading of the game. Calls from Ettore Messina and Gianmarco Pozzecco convince him to try. He returns to the life of travel, this time as an assistant.
In 2022 Pozzecco put him on the national team staff. At the same time, Olimpia Milano called him as an assistant to Messina. He contributes to the winning of two consecutive championships between 2022 and 2024, including the third star in 2022-23.
On June 17, 2024 comes the first head coaching assignment: Poeta takes over from Alessandro Magro at the helm of Brescia. The following season he finished the regular season in third place and led the team to the first Scudetto final in its history, lost to Virtus Bologna.
On June 23, 2025, he leaves Brescia to return to Olimpia Milano as associate head coach, in a move already planned. On Nov. 24, 2025, he officially takes over as head coach of the team.
“I did two years as an assistant and tried to draw as much as possible from’excellence, both from Milan and the national team, however being a head coach is another sport, you do a full immersion. I lived it serene, I enjoyed it, thanks to the Brescia’environment that supported me and gave me confidence, thanks to the guys who really gave me a lot both on and off the field”, he said a few months ago in the Trash Talk podcast.
