The Italian job

We’ll never know for sure if the Italian cagers, who flew in to play coach Chot Reyes’ national pool, are gondola paddlers from Venice or pizza waiters from Rome or sidewalk hawkers from Milan.

The discredited visitors are keeping to themselves and avoiding reporters like the plague.

Their coordinator Mel Nazares, a Filipino who has lived in Italy since 1988, is somewhere in Batangas and can’t be located.

Nazares, 47, was responsible for arranging the Philippine team’s trip to Italy three years ago. He previously brought in a group of Filipino ex-pros, including Freddie Hubalde, Noli Banate and Joseph Pelaez, to play in Milan. Nazares has also negotiated playing trips for Bong Alvarez and Samboy Lim to Italy.

As a founder and commissioner of the Philippine-Milan Basketball Association (PMBA), Nazares has a track record of getting things done when it comes to organizing games.

So when Nazares offered to send an Italian team to play the national pool here, there was no reason to doubt his ability to deliver. Nazares, a frequent Manila visitor and a long-time PBA fan, knows Filipino players’ caliber. The presumption was he wouldn’t dare bring in a team of patsies for slaughter.

Nazares asked Italian national team manager Claudio Silvestri for assistance in assembling a respectable squad to play in Manila. Eventually, a certain Andrea Annese informed PBA operations manager Rickie Santos that he would coach the Italian selection.

In an e-mail to the PBA, Annese said the visiting team would be called "Stranges Papo Movie" in memory of a friend Riccardo Stranges and sponsored by Pirelli.

Annese spoke glowingly of his club.

"In the 2002-03 season, we won Serie B of the UISP league and we finished second in the National Finals of the Italy Cup," he said. "That same year, we were third in the Italian championship of ‘promozione’ of FIP (Federazione Italiana Pallacanestro). This season, we won the Super Cup of the UISP league."

Annese was an assistant coach on the Italian squad that made it to the European under-14 finals in Croatia in 2001. He has trained youth players in Cantu, Milan and Pavia for years.

Annese said he invited former Italian Division I forward Andrea (Rambo) Gianolla to join his coaching staff in Manila. Gianolla, 40, began his pro career in 1982 and has the distinction of having played against Michael Jordan in a tournament.

"Our team is composed of young players who have played in under-18 and under-20 championships at the national level," said Annese. Six players in the roster were 21 and under. The tallest player was 6-9 center Oscar Mazzocco.

Annese listed two players without credentials in his lineup — Alejandro Herminio and Garry Panganiban. They were probably Filipinos inserted in the cast by Nazares. In the preliminary roster sent to the PBA, there were slots open for Gianolla and three others.

Annese even suggested that if the PBA wanted another foreign team to visit, he could contact former Italian league import Valerie Still who’s supposed to be training an American squad in the US. Still’s brother Dennis played for the Philippines as a naturalized player in 1985.

As it turned out, the Italians arrived without two 6-9 forwards and a 6-10 center who were supposed to anchor the squad.

It was no surprise that when the Italians played Cebuana Lhuillier in an exhibition game at the Adidas Sports Kamp in the Global City last April 21, they were ravaged and quartered beyond recognition. The Pawnbrokers were merciless in carving out an 89-25 decision. The Italians were so atrocious they scored only three points in one quarter.

The Italian town mayor of Corbetta, where the team is based, apologized to PBA commissioner Noli Eala and volunteered to withdraw from the exhibitions. He offered to pay back the PBA for its expenses or send another team–this time, a formidable squad–to play the national pool at no expense to the league. The mayor accompanied the team to Manila.

The withdrawal left the PBA with only three teams for the Invitational Challenge. A proposal to replace the Italians with either Cebuana Lhuillier or a Philippine Basketball League selection was scuttled and the PBA decided to pit the pool, split into two teams, against Iran in a two-game series instead.

Nobody figured the Italians would be pushovers. To pin the blame on anyone for this misfortune is unfair because nobody wanted it to happen. The Italians came with serious intentions of playing but when they realized the caliber of the competition, they themselves offered to withdraw as a courtesy to the PBA.

Surely, there are lessons to be learned from the fiasco. The consolation is the PBA saved the Invitational Challenge and made the best out of the situation. All over the world, event organizers run into unexpected setbacks but instead of brooding and finger-pointing, they move on.

The PBA has had its share of ups and downs in 30 years of existence. And it’s still alive and kicking. No Italian job can bring it to its knees, that’s for certain.