Niccolò De Vico to the rescue: "Brindisi, I will repay you for your great affection"
Niccolò De Vico to the rescue
Niccolò De Vico finally sees the light and approaches a new season with Valtur Brindisi with great enthusiasm. The talented Brianza basketball player, who will turn 31 in a month, spoke exclusively with Sportal.it.
How hard was it to be out due to injury for so long?
It was definitely the toughest season of my career from that point of view. I’ve always been pretty lucky, I’ve had a few injuries like everyone else, but nothing long or heavy. Instead, problems accompanied me throughout the season. I couldn’t get out of them: it seemed to get better, then it would start all over again. Every month it got worse, and in the first part the team was struggling, so everything was even more complicated, heavier. Then we did well to pick ourselves up and finish the championship well. It was hard, however, I must say that the technical and medical staff was always there for me, without putting pressure on me, rather trying to help me be patient and find solutions.
The first year in Brindisi, however, had many positives…
Certainly. I knew I would land in a hot square with a great basketball tradition. But the positive and stimulating pressure I felt here is something I had never experienced. It is a square that lives for basketball, it involves you. I decided very willingly to stay, also because of the trust of the club. I wanted to show what I can give, repay that trust and give something back to the fans and club, even under all that pressure. Real pressure that pushes you to give everything.
How good is it to play in such a square? You’ve been around a lot of big teams, but here it feels like they’ve touched you to the core.
Yes, because you live for basketball here. Every morning I would go to the bar downtown and hear people talking only about basketball. It was fun, for better or worse. When it was bad, the fans, rightly so, got loud: a couple of times we walked off the court amid booing. There wasn’t an away game, though, where the fans didn’t follow us. After every game, victory or defeat, they were always there, greeting us, singing with us. It was beautiful, intense. A strong experience, which leaves something in you.
It is very hot these days but you have a hellish league ahead of you, the A2, with so many noble lapses and so many ambitious companies…
Yes, truly hellish. The A2 is full of historical squares: Cantù was promoted but, just to name two, there are Fortitudo and Pesaro, which years ago also had their say in Europe. We have lived it on our skin: it is a very hard championship. Cantù took 4-5 years to rise again, Udine even longer. This year even Brindisi has seen how complicated this tournament is: it came from 12 years in A. The trips are heavy, long, tiring for everyone, even for the fans who follow us everywhere.
Rightly Brindisi does not hide its ambitions…
Everybody wants to go up and of course so do we. The new formula with direct promotion pushes everyone to try and avoid the playoffs, but it is not enough to have a strong roster. You need organization, you need patience. And here I have to say that coach Piero Bucchi and the club have done an incredible job. In January it looked like all was lost, but they were clear-headed, they stuck it out, and the results came.
At the end of the last championship Udine and Cantù were promoted: the Brianzoli with a super Grant Basile
.
Grant has been the best ever. He is strong, plays with incredible calm, always in control. He has outside shooting, inside game … Physically he doesn’t even look that dominant, but really he is. He has so many qualities. He has shown his worth this year. I don’t know him personally, but I advise him to keep growing. There’s no need to go to a “big” immediately to get more money. He needs to keep playing, improve, and then he will have his whole career ahead to do great things.
We close with a thought for Achille Polonara, at this very difficult time for him.
Achille is a friend, although we never played together. We crossed paths in Reggio Emilia. He is a beautiful person, a family man, someone who always put heart into everything he did: sports, family, work. The news was hard to hear and it affected everyone. I never heard anyone speak ill of him, neither teammates nor opponents. It will be hard, of course, but knowing him I am sure he will face it with the same strength with which he has overcome so many other obstacles. He has tremendous fortitude and I send him a big hug.
