Olimpia Milan has reached a multi-year agreement with point guard Niccolò Mannion, 1.90mt, born in Siena on 14 March 2001, coming from Openjobmetis Varese.
NICO MANNION – “I am proud and deeply motivated to be part of such a prestigious organization with all its history. My intention is to make sure all the energy I have will be available to the coaching staff and to my teammates in order to achieve the best results together. I will work hard every day, aiming to win as much as possible in all competitions. My desire is to demonstrate that I am a player capable of playing at this level, but, even more, I want to contribute to the club’s successes. I am open to learning as much as possible because I am aware that I still have great room for improvement as a player. Finally, I want to thank Olimpia for this opportunity and what was done to bring me to Milan.”
HIS CAREER – Born in Siena to an American father – Pace Mannion, who played for six NBA teams and then had a very long and successful European career, almost all of it in Italy, with Cantù and Treviso as the most relevant stops – and an Italian mother – Gaia Bianchi, a national volleyball team former player -, Nico Mannion grew up in Italy before moving with his family to the United States, to Salt Lake City and finally to Arizona. He attended Pinnacle High School in Phoenix which he led to the state title in 2018 while finishing the season averaging 23.4 points and 5.8 assists per game. In 2019, he led his team to a second consecutive championship, finishing with 43.4 points and 6.2 assists per game in addition to being named Arizona Player of the Year. In 2019 he enrolled at the University of Arizona. At the end of the season, he was named to the all-freshman Pac 12 conference team and second team overall before declaring himself for the NBA draft. He was selected by the Golden State Warriors with the number 48, in the second round. In his first year as a professional he played 30 games for the Warriors (4.1 points and 2.3 assists per game) and nine in the G-League for the Santa Cruz Warriors (19.3 points and 6.8 assists per game). In 2021, he signed for Virtus Bologna where he stayed for two seasons, playing the first in the Eurocup and the second in the EuroLeague. In the Italian league he had 9.4 points and 4.6 assists per game in 2021/22 and 10.5 points and 3.3 assists per game in 2022/23. In 2023 he moved to Baskonia, playing 20 games between the EuroLeague and the Spanish league and then signed for Varese where he ended the season with 20.3 points and 6.6 assists per game.
NOTES – Nico Mannion played for the Italian national team in the 2017 Under 16 European Championships (19.9 points per game) and in the same year he made his debut with the senior national team. In 2021 he averaged 17.7 points and 4.0 assists per game in the Belgrade Olympic qualifying tournament won by the Azzurri. At the Tokyo Olympics he averaged 12.5 points and 4.5 assists per game. He also played the 2022 European Championships and the 2024 Olympic qualifiers.
