It should have been his 729th NBA game, this one in particular.
But it never came to that. Because Danilo Gallinari, who signed for two years with the Boston Celtics in 2022, will not play a single game for his dream club.
After tearing his cruciate ligament just before the start of the NBA season in the World Cup qualifier with Italy against Georgia last September, he missed the entire season.
In his second year under contract, he will not play a single game for the Celtics. Because the Boston team shipped the 34-year-old to the Wizards in Washington as part of Kristaps Porzingis’ blockbuster trade – along with center Mike Muscala and the 35th draft pick.
For Gallinari, a childhood dream was shattered at that moment.
Because it was the Celtics who had his heart – even as a little boy from Lombardy.
“I grew up with my dad and, like him, I was a Celtics fan, a Larry Bird fan,” the guard told The Athletic last year. “When the Celtics were under discussion, it became a sure-fire success. Walking into this facility, looking around, taking in the banners and the great history of the Celtics, it was an easy decision.”
Gallinari sixth draft pick in 2008
He dreamed of wearing a green jersey at the legendary Garden and couldn’t wait for the new season. It was his big dream to play as Celtic in the hall where his idol Bird’s shirt hangs from the ceiling.
It would have been the completion of a career that began in the NBA in 2008.
Gallinari was picked sixth in the NBA draft. For the New York Knicks he ran in October of the same year for the first time in the best basketball league in the world.
In his sophomore season, Gallinari would play 81 of the 82 games for the Knicks. But a cruciate ligament rupture stopped the Italian for the time being – he was out for almost a year and a half.
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His journey through the NBA continued with the Denver Nuggets, where he played between 2011 and 2017. Detours to the LA Clippers, OKC and the Atlanta Hawks followed before the call from Boston overtook him.
On July 12, 2022, he signed a two-year contract for $13.3 million.
“It’s going to really motivate me,” Gallinari said of Larry Bird’s shirt in The Athletic. “If I can do just a little bit of what he has done for the Celtics in the past with the team, that would be fantastic.”
A few weeks after this interview, he injured his cruciate ligament for the second time. It was, as it turned out, the beginning of the end of a big dream.
2023-06-25 06:38:00
#bitter #dream
