Alba Berlin, German champions and cup winners, started the basketball season with five wins: three in the Bundesliga, a 100-84 win over Partizan Belgrade and an 80-74 win at Armani Milan in the Euroleague.
This Monday evening (7 p.m. at Magentasport) the half-dozen should be full in the cup round of 16 against Telekom Baskets Bonn. The biggest advantage of the Berliners is that the team is almost unchanged compared to last season. The teamwork is at a level that newly formed teams need months to reach.
However, there were two new signings. One of them, Gabriele Procida, raises great expectations. “The young lad could be one of the nicest surprises of this Euroleague season,” enthuses the online portal Basketnews about the twenty-year-old Italian. His debut on the European stage was spectacular. He not only contributed twelve points in twelve minutes to the victory over Belgrade. Every single goal tore the Berlin audience and the teammates on the bench from their seats.
He hit three times with the highest precision from a distance, twice he flew to the basket with impressive dunks. “It was a great experience,” he says of his debut: “I was very excited. Now I’m convinced that I can play at this level.” In the game against title favorites Milan, coach Israel Gonzales gave the talent 21 minutes and the license to shoot. Procida threw six shots from distance, scored twice and scored a total of eight points.
Alba has signed the promising Italian for three years. But it seems unlikely that the young man will play in the number one shirt that the Berliners gave him until 2025. Its potential has long been recognized. The Detroit Pistons from the North American professional league NBA secured the rights to Procida in this summer’s draft. When he finally arrived in Detroit after four weeks of individual training in Los Angeles and two weeks of trials with various clubs, he found he had been weighed and found wanting.
This is to be understood literally. At two meters long, Procida does not even weigh ninety kilos. He should develop in the Euroleague and, above all, gain muscle mass, General Manager Troy Weaver told him kindly; they will keep an eye on him. The fans call such a choice “stash pick”: an option for times when the team could use a player with his profile.
“Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard”
The profile, however, was apparently Procida’s problem. His length and accuracy make him a special player. But neither in Cantu, where he made his debut in the Italian first division at the age of seventeen, nor in Bologna, where he subsequently played, did the coaches do anything more than let him throw. Procida’s job on offense was to wait on the touchline for a pass. Before his talent withered, Cantu was relegated and lost long-term rights to Procida, then the player lost hope of developing in Bologna.
He watched on television as his compatriot Simone Fontecchio rose to the top level at Alba Berlin in the Euroleague that he had never been able to show at his Italian club. Fontecchio moved to Baskonia in Spain and then to the Utah Jazz in the NBA. When the two met during training with the national team in the summer, Fontecchio told Procida how fascinated he was by his time in Berlin, especially by the meticulous work with the development coaches. “Following in his footsteps,” says Procida, “that would be exciting.”
Coach Gonzales has long had a plan for his young professional from Italy, who seems so fearless in the game and so shy in conversation. He wants to involve him more in the game, he says. He sees him in the second position in the future, as a shooting guard: as someone who leads the ball, who makes decisions for the team: “He doesn’t have that yet.”
Rebound, throw, athletics were right. “Gabriele can still be much, much better than he is now,” says Gonzales: “He still has to catch up with his teammates who played together last season.” Procida has the truism of every professional athlete tattooed on his left biceps : “Hard work beats talent if talent doesn’t work hard.” Above all, he still seems to expect a lot from the talented Procida.
