Coach Messina: “Nobody wants to let you win three in a row”

For Coach Ettore Messina it is the seventh career championship in Italy, but it is also the third consecutive in Milan: "We defeated a strong, tough, deep team, capable to score in many different ways. After the defeat in Trento, we found cohesion, determination and perhaps even the humility to play together, with rebounds, defense, the ability to attack the opponent’s weaknesses. This explains why, especially in the finals, we have always found so many different go-to guys. I would say that we have found the consistency that during the year we only had in spurts. I would say that at a certain point during the season this might have seemed like an unexpected ending. Now we are satisfied, for us, for everyone, for having repaid the trust and commitment of Mr. Armani and Mr Dell’Orco. Nobody wants to let you win three consecutive championships, everyone multiplies their efforts. To do this you have to be capable of suffering and we were capable of suffering."

On team chemistry: "It wasn’t a problem of one or two players but of everyone. In these weeks of work during the playoffs we found it. In my career I have never had the perception of being destined to win, I have had moments in which you feel a different kind of consistency. This happened during the days spent in Trento. We had great ambitions and somehow we realized that not everything was working. We never had Billy Baron. I don’t mean to say he is Belinelli, but for us it was our Belinelli. We never had him and we thought that at some point he was coming back. That was even worse. Then we made a mistake that I don’t want to revisit again. But given the circumnstances it was a great win."

On Kyle Hines: "Melli’s gesture in letting him raise the cup was nice. Maybe he, as a friend, knows something that I don’t know yet. We’ll talk to him. If he decides it’s time to stop it will also be the moment he becomes a great coach or manager."

The iconic moment Melli passed the trophy to Hines

On his season: "I read a beautiful phrase from my colleague Andrea Trinchieri. He said that a defeat, a series cannot define him as a man and as a coach. It makes me think. It made me think to see Simone Pianigiani who won six or seven championships. I read a beautiful story about Jerry West: in his last year at the Lakers he didn’t watch a game because he was in too much pain, he was mangled by the mistakes he might have made. We are talking about the Logo here. That makes me think."