Nico Mannion’s emotions after leading Italy to the Olympics: “It’s a lot bigger than I’d think”

He’s been Italy’s leading scorer in the game that brought the Azzurri a much awaited return to the Olympic Games after 17 years of absence. Golden State Warriors guard Nico Mannion spoke exclusively to Sportando after the final buzzer to share his emotions and thoughts about an unbelievable week in Belgrade.

Is it how you imagined it?

No, it’s a lot more. It’s a lot bigger, better. The emotions that has brought me… Usually I’m pretty calm, about a lot of stuff, I didn’t think I’d be this emotional. This one got to me. The support we had from Italy it’s unreal, the other day you told me that we haven’t been in the Olympics since I was 3 years old. I can’t imagine what it’s like back home, I’m sure my family is jumping through the roof. My mom was in the stands crying, it’s super emotional.

If I think of the history of the young Italian players in the NT, Marco Belinelli had a breakout game against the US at the World Cup at your same age, and from that game he went on to have a NBA champion caliber career. Could this be your breakout game?

I hope so. I can’t read the future, I just go with the flow. I work my tail off day in and day out. I don’t think the work can highed. If you work at some point it will show. This year I didn’t play a lot in the NBA, but I worked hard the whole year, the little bit of summer I’ve had and it’s starting to show. I will continue to do that with my head down, keep working, so are the rest of the guys. We have a week off before heading for Tokyo. Keep working, and we will see what we can pull off in Tokyo.

Can you talk me through the emotional talk you had with Nick Melli at the end of the game?

It was very emotional. I didn’t grow up in Italy, he did, and he told me ‘Nico, you have no idea how big this is’. Having a great game, winning this one, going to the Olympics for the first time in 17 years. I think I do understand how big this is giving how emotional I am, but if it’s better than I think it is, it’s even more unreal. I feel super blessed, and thankful.