Ettore Messina: The Start of a New Adventure Is Official

There’s no longer any doubt: Ettore Messina will leave Italy after a long stint as a coach and a brief tenure as President of Basketball Operations—a role that ended when his contract expired on June 30. After days of rumors and increasingly clear signs, the official announcement came directly from the United States: the coach, born in 1959, will join the Atlanta Hawks’ staff as a coaching consultant starting with the 2026–2027 season.

Messina is one of three high-profile figures who will join Coach Quin Snyder’s staff, alongside Jason Love and Sergi Oliva. For Messina, this marks a return to the U.S. following his previous stints as a consultant for the Los Angeles Lakers and as an assistant to Gregg Popovich with the San Antonio Spurs. The news definitively puts an end to the rumors circulating in recent weeks, which suggested a possible departure and a new professional chapter for the former Olimpia coach.

Messina is reunited with Snyder, with whom he had previously worked during his time at CSKA Moscow, and brings to Atlanta a resume that needs no introduction: four EuroLeague titles, national championships in Italy and Russia, a silver medal at the 1997 European Championships with the Italian national team, and induction into the FIBA Hall of Fame. The Hawks have chosen Messina to join a coaching staff already brimming with experience, rounded out by the arrivals of Love and Oliva.

For the Italian coach, then, a new adventure begins at the heart of an ambitious coaching project: the Hawks made the playoffs last season and were the only team to truly give the eventual champion New York Knicks a run for their money, even taking a 2-1 lead in the first-round series before Jalen Brunson and his teammates staged a comeback.