Nicolò Melli, the EuroLeague recordman: “I’m proud of my Olimpia story”

He was a chosen one, everyone knows it. He was a child when Reggio Emilia brought him to the bench in Serie A for the first time. When at Palalido, he was named MVP of a prospect camp led by Michael Jordan himself. When he went to America along the best European talents and even when, on his debut as a player, he jumped for the ball hitting it with his fist. When he was playing in Reggio Emilia at minibasket, he had Alessandro Gentile as a teammate for a while. He was described as a "beast", someone who couldn’t be contained. So Nicolò Melli’s career is no surprise. But between the promises of a fourteen-year-old kid and the successes of a 32-year-old man, there are years of work, fatigue, sacrifices, satisfactions, tears, blood, sweat, joy. And he intends to stay around for a long time, he thinks of 2028 as the earliest possible retirement date, but in truth, he plans to play for as long as possible, "at a high level and as long as I will be at least presentable". Nicolò Melli has played more games than anyone else with Olimpia in Europe’s top competition. This is his confession.  

(Via-OLIMPIA MILANO.com)

We are in 2010 and little Nicolò Melli receives this news: you will go to play for Olimpia Milan. Memories? Feelings of those moments?

"I wanted to come to Milan. I was taking my high school diploma, back then. I had to study and at the same time I was meeting the interested teams. But I wanted Milan. It is a city that has always been attractive to me. I confess it is in part because I am an Inter fan. For me the trip to Milan, the few times I have come to San Siro, has always had a particular charm. And then Olimpia Milano: I certainly don’t have to be the one to explain what it means. Furthermore, I come from Reggio Emilia and a special player from Reggio Emilia played here in Milan, Piero Montecchi. I can’t say that as a child I supported Olimpia, because naturally I supported Reggiana, but it was an important team, represented a goal. When the dream became true, I was just happy. Happy and aware that it would only be a starting point for me."

You played in the EuroLeague straight away, since your first year in Milan. Now you have the record for appearances with Olimpia. But how different was the EuroLeague at that time?

"There are different players, basketball has changed, almost 15 years have passed, and if I remember correctly my first year in the EuroLeague was also the first year after the three-point line was moved; therefore, there was an adjustment period to the new dimensions of the court. But the fact that almost 20 more games are played per year has also changed everything, therefore the level and physical intensity of each game is different. It’s all part of an evolution, I’m not going to say whether it’s good or not, as far as I’m concerned it’s a good thing, because I play more, but yes there is a lot of difference."

The 2013/14 season was some kind of breaking-out season for you: before winning the Italian championship after 18 years, that team had an exceptional run in the EuroLeague with seven wins in a row, the playoffs. How fun it was to play with that group of players?

"It was great, there was a nice atmosphere, we worked well on the court, there were clear roles, I remember a terrific away win against Fenerbahce, in the first game ever played at the Ulker Arena. It was beautiful. Then there were the famous playoffs with Maccabi which I will always carry with me. There was also a sporting injustice that year, in the sense that I don’t think we deserved to lose in the Italian Cup against Sassari, here in Milan. I remember Diener scoring twice from midcourt essentially. In the end, we also gained the championship coming back from a 3-2 deficit in the series. It would have been both a detriment and an insult not to win it, because that was a really good team, we worked well together, and we played good basketball for large stretches."

During that championship year, you were supposed to come off the bench behind Wallace, and then Kangur, and instead you mostly started; the following year you were supposed to come behind Linas Kleiza and instead you always started. How much this situation affected your decision to maybe seek trust elsewhere?

"Certainly, it played a part. Before Wallace and Kangur, there was also Antonis Fotsis. Look at this: one year you start behind a player and end up in front; the second year you start behind not one but two players and finish in front; the third year, after winning a championship, I said to myself "I’m going where I can really be a starter". There was this too, but above all I wanted to be wanted. It had an influence, it made me reflect, I wanted to prove that I too was a EuroLeague-caliber starter. I’m happy with the choice I made."

2015 Italian league semi-final, Game 7, the mysterious foul committed on Dyson which was actually an elbow received. If it was sanctioned correctly, would your story have changed?

"If I would have stayed in Milan? I do not know. Maybe. That was definitely one of the worst whistles I experienced in my career. If the unsportsmanlike call they called against me in the Maccabi game was a fair call, in the sense that I made the mistake, in that situation I didn’t really touch the guy. I got an elbow in the face. That’s an unsportsmanlike foul. If they call it we have the game won and we are in the final series. Our story certainly would have changed. As far as my decisions at the end of the year, I don’t really know what they would have been."

The fact is that you went from Milan to Bamberg, you took one step back to take two steps forward as you did. It was a courageous choice coming from an athlete who was very confident in himself.

"I didn’t feel brave, I’m telling the truth. As I said, even though I believe that you have to prove yourself every year, both me and everyone else, that at the start of every single season I had to take a step back made me reflect. I had this opportunity, Bamberg was an ambitious club, which had done well in the Eurocup and was playing for the Bundesliga championship. When our season ended they were still playing in Germany and only if they had won the championship would they have participated in the following EuroLeague. Certainly, it wasn’t an established team, Bamberg. But when they had the chance to play the EuroLeague that helped the choice. But I didn’t feel brave, I saw a club and a coach who wanted me, a team that had talented players, like Brad Wanamaker who I had played against when he was in Pistoia. I wanted to try something different, I wanted to test myself, I didn’t want to be brave."

You won a lot in Bamberg, Istanbul, and Milan. Is it true, as Gigi Datome says, that winning in Italy is different in terms of intimate joy?

"Yes, it is. As an Italian, winning the Italian championship or winning with an Italian team has a completely different meaning. And for me to do it as Captain… This doesn’t take anything away from what I was lucky enough to win in Bamberg or at Fenerbahce, but that’s how it is. You play against friends, former teammates, who then find them in the national team and it’s better to win… But it’s different, you are more recognized, then we grew up watching the Italian championship…"

Like Dino Meneghin long before you, you are not a player who is judged by statistics but by team wins. How do you become a player like that? Is it an instinctive skill?

"As far as I’m concerned, I had two lessons that helped me a lot in my career. The first, which helped me over a difficult time in my career, is to try to do the things that allow you to stay on the court. If you score 20 points every game it’s obvious that you play, but that’s never been the case with me. So, I learned, by watching and studying the opponents, what I could do to stay on the court. I have always grabbed rebounds even at youth level; defending is something I learned, working hard, then how to pass the ball. I like watching basketball, so I studied the situations. I had coaches like Trinchieri and Obradovic who helped me understand how to read the games. The other lesson that I learned – and I am convinced of this – is that if you win as a team, everyone benefits. Especially at a high level, if you’re a winner or someone who helps the team win, it eventually comes back to you. If a team has high-level ambitions, those who allow it to win are rewarded. It’s not just an economic issue, but a matter of feelings. It is said that trophies are getting covered with dust and only emotions count. I agree, but I have no problem dusting trophies. If this helps… We spend so much effort, commitment, emotions, that you want to win. It’s not the only thing that matters but it’s one of the most important."

However, playing like Melli does not win MVP trophies, as happened in 2022 and 2023.

"It doesn’t bother me because I saw two teammates who deserved the awarded and who cared about it for different reasons. Shavon for the problems he had, coming back, and playing the final he played, was well-deserved. Gigi, even if he hadn’t told anyone, had already decided to retire at the end, and wanted to do it with a big bang. And then he deserved it for how much he sacrificed throughout his career. I was happy for them. Then obviously, as much as I am team-oriented and the team goal is a priority, and I hope I have clarified this enough the way I stay on the court, if they give you the MVP it’s not like you don’t want it and give it back. But for me the championship matters. Even if I had won the MVP, it would have been better, but winning is what really counted. It seems to me that the MVP is always given to the winner. I remember a Roma-Napoli Italian Cup final in which David Hawkins was the MVP and had lost, but it was an exception. So, first goal is to win and then let’s see who the MVP is."

Did the two years in the NBA as a competitor leave you with a sense of incompleteness?

"A lot. More the second year than the first. By never playing, you’re left with this desire for competitiveness that you can’t express, no matter how much you train. In Europe perhaps we exaggerate because every game is seen as having to be won at all costs, while in the NBA it is almost the opposite. I missed this pathos, this daily experience. There are positive things about experiencing the season that way, but what I missed was playing. If I had played, I would have found a way to express my competitive spirit."

How different was it to return to Milan as a mature, experienced, established player?

"In the city, I found points of reference that I had had in my first five years, but it’s a different feeling. I’m happy to be back, I wouldn’t have expected it, you can’t predict certain things, the future, but I didn’t plan it and I’m happy that it happened."

You are the Captain: is it an honorific position or do you feel a higher sense of responsibility?

"I don’t know if it’s more important in Milan, I don’t want to belittle anyone. As far as I’m concerned, it gives me a sense of responsibility both towards myself, for how I have to behave, and towards my teammates, the club, the fans. I try to put my face on the line, as much as I can, to express myself, to act as a glue both within the locker room and towards the coach, the club. If there is something that I think makes sense, I become its ambassador, I try to act as a filter. For me it is a great honor. It also means I’m getting older. But I think it’s a beautiful thing that I hope to be worthy of."

You never benefited from the turnover, because in Germany and Turkey you were too important, here as well as being important you are also Italian and then you go to the national team. You never stop.

"I like playing, then it’s obvious that there are better games and worse ones, in Germany, Turkey and Italy. Some games you can’t wait to play and others you have to play. There are moments during the season when playing is more difficult and sometimes it is simpler. But I’m lucky enough to know how to manage myself off the court, thanks to my family, I’m able to recover. Then it is undeniable that in some moments everything is more difficult. But if the coach, the team think they can’t do without me, as it was in Germany and Turkey, as it is here regardless of the passport, I think it’s a good sign. I prefer this rather than being told to stay out."

Now that you are accumulating these records as well as satisfaction, are you starting to feel at the point where you start to think about the future?

"No, I’m not thinking about it. I would like to play at least until 2028, so I have another Olympic cycle after this year to handle. I also talked about it with Gigi: the important thing is to remain at a high level, do things well, be presentable. I think I still am. The only thing is that, when they handed me the first commemorative ball after a milestone, perhaps it was the rebounds record, I didn’t write above what it was for. Instead, I have to do it because there are starting to be a lot of them. They will never be as many as Kyle Hines has in his cellar or warehouse, but I have to start writing down what they are for otherwise I’ll get confused."

But a record like that of appearances is something that perhaps goes beyond that, because you can say that no one had really gotten there before you.

"Yes, it’s nice, but I don’t fully understand it and I don’t want to think about it too much. What I intend to do is reflect on what I have done, and I hope to do many more things, when I retire, hopefully as late as possible. I’m happy that these things are happening, I think it’s right to remember what has been and has been done, but I still have a long way to go."

But you can only set a club’s record if you stay there for many years and to do that you have to be appreciated.

"This is true: as a kid I followed football a lot and I always appreciated players like Javier Zanetti, Alessandro Del Piero, Francesco Totti, or in basketball Dirk Nowitzki in Dallas, the so-called franchise players I don’t think I’m a franchise player but being an important piece in the history of a club, even just for appearances, is good. It’s not what you dream of as a child, these aren’t the dreams you have, but as you grow up you realize that you were an important presence, of an important club. Not everyone can do it, I did."

Nicolò Melli