Insider Documentary Series: “The New Old Boys” in Milan

“The New Old Boys” at one of basketball’s most storied clubs, AX Armani Exchange Milan’s, are the subject of the newest production in the Insider Documentary Series created by Euroleague Basketball to deliver a unique look beyond the glare of the parquet and into the personal stories of the continent’s biggest names.

This season has seen Milan launch an ambitious challenge for the EuroLeague title on the back of several experienced stars who had already enjoyed great success elsewhere. This fly-on-the-wall documentary gives fresh insight into how four-time title-winning Head Coach Ettore Messina is attempting to mold a winning blend with a veteran roster featuring former champions Kyle Hines, Sergio Rodriguez and Luigi Datome.

Messina recalls that his arrival in Milan came after a meeting with team owner Giorgio Armani which made it hard for him to say no.

“When you sit in front of Mr. Giorgio Armani, it’s something special because you meet one of the most impressive characters of our century. And we found a common agreement on how to structure the club. The most important thing is the possibility to choose the people that you work with.”

Among the players Messina recruited to the Milan cause is Hines, who says that his team’s attempts to win the title this season are even more meaningful in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which hit the Italian city and its surrounding area very hard.

“This city has been devastated with so many deaths and so many illnesses of COVID, one of the hardest [hit] out of the whole entire world. So, if we can help to give some positivity with our play and basketball, that’s definitely one of our main goals, [to] do great things for this city, because this city and the people of this city deserve it.”

Tying together present with past, the documentary also recalls the emotional story of Milan’s previous climb to the summit of European basketball, under similar circumstances, when veteran stars Dino Meneghin, Mike D’Antoni and Bob McAdoo inspired back-to-back continental crowns in 1987 and 1988, led by coaches Dan Peterson and Franco Casalini.

That golden run very nearly never happened, because Milan lost the first leg of a 1986-87 qualifying round tie against Aris Thessaloniki 98-67, before bouncing back to win the second leg 83-49 and eventually advance all the way to the title.

In an emotional video reunion of the key protagonists filmed exclusively for this video, McAdoo described the second leg of that tie with Aris as “the most satisfying victory of my whole basketball career,” while D’Antoni admits it was the key event for all the triumphs that followed.

“That one game, if you think about it, if it went different, we would have never had the grand slam in ’86, and ’88, we wouldn’t have won that, we wouldn’t have won the Italian championships,” D’Antoni said. “It would all have blown up, probably.”

Meneghin highlights the importance of the solidarity within the team during that golden period, although he could not resist aiming a joke at his former coach, Peterson.

“We were like a family in that time. No jealousy, everybody was thinking about what’s the best for the team. Our problem was the coach didn’t understand anything about basketball! Anyway, you cannot have everything.”

D’Antoni has gone on to enjoy a long coaching career and is now assistant coach at Brooklyn Nets. And he explains that the lessons he learned during his time in Italy are the cornerstone for his approach to the job even now.

“Everything I do, I can reference back to what happened to me as a player, then as a coach, and the organization, the society that always backed me, the coaches, the players, and just the feeling of being connected with an unbelievably great organization.”

Now Milan is attempting to repeat history, and point guard Rodriguez believes that he and his fellow veterans have the experience to help them follow the pattern of the past and lead the team to more glory.

“Now we have a lot of facilities to be playing longer, we all have the experience, and I think that is helping us. We may not have the full energy all the time, but the experience to help to create a better atmosphere.”

“The New Old Boys” is the latest film in the Euroleague Basketball Insider Documentary Series, which capture the intimacy behind the spotlights and provide full access to the protagonists and the people who know them best.

Past Insider Documentaries have profiled coaches like Zeljko Obradovic; players like Shane Larkin, Luka Doncic, Nando De Colo and Vassilis Spanoulis; referee Anne Panther; championship teams such as Maccabi Tel Aviv from 2004 and 2005 and CSKA Moscow of 2019, and cities such as Istanbul and Belgrade – all taking viewers to the heart of what makes basketball a sport that moves people so deeply.