Market hit with blue colors for Virtus Bologna. Not even the time to conclude the Tokyo Olympic Games, with the exhilarating ride especially in the pre-Olympic tournament in Belgrade, for Nico Mannion who will already have to throw himself into a new reality: the Italian playmaker has in fact accepted the offer of the Virtus Bologna and next year will play in Serie A1 basketball championship.
The 20-year-old son of art, a native of Siena, lax therefore the most important basketball tournament in the world (the NBA, where he made his debut last year with the Golden State Warriors) to join the reigning Italian champion team. The qualities, as he demonstrated, are boundless: the choice may be questionable, but overseas, given the choice of the Warriors to sign Chris Chiozza, there would have been a few minutes available for Pace’s son.
Blow for the team of patron Zanetti and Sergio Scariolo: to an already very high level squad is added another piece of great quality.
The words of the Chief Executive Officer of the Bolognese Luca Baraldi: “I announce with great satisfaction the arrival in the roster of Virtus Segafredo of Nico Mannion, a young man of great talent, who in the recent releases of the Italian National team, both in the pre-Olympic and in the final phase of the Olympics, has shown all his value and technical potential. The success of the operation was possible thanks to the determination and desire that Dr. Massimo Zanetti has once again demonstrated to make our Virtus become bigger and bigger. Nico has been, since the beginning of this market, one of the most important objectives and the negotiations to bring him to play at the Segafredo Arena have started for several weeks. If Mannion arrived at Virtus it is thanks to the work and teamwork put in place by the top of the Company, together with our coach Sergio Scariolo. I would like to reserve a special note for Paolo Ronci, who from the very beginning believed he could successfully complete this important market operation ”.
Photo: Lapresse
