{"id":437366,"date":"2025-04-10T09:23:43","date_gmt":"2025-04-10T07:23:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/?p=437366"},"modified":"2025-04-10T09:23:43","modified_gmt":"2025-04-10T07:23:43","slug":"ettore-messina-there-were-games-we-could-and-should-have-won-even-in-a-weakened-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/ettore-messina-there-were-games-we-could-and-should-have-won-even-in-a-weakened-state\/","title":{"rendered":"Ettore Messina: There were games we could and should have won, even in a weakened state"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ettore Messina was the surprise guest in \u201cUomini e Canestri,\u201d Luca Chiabotti\u2019s basketball column on Repubblica-Milano<\/em>. Here\u2019s what he had to say about Olimpia Milano\u2019s European season, marking the third consecutive year outside the EuroLeague postseason.<\/p>\n

ON THE CURRENT MOMENT<\/strong><\/p>\n

“The team has no longer been sharp\u2014physically or mentally. There were games we could and should have won, even in a weakened state. We didn\u2019t, so criticism is fair, and we\u2019re rightly disappointed. That said, we\u2019ve always used the period leading into the Italian playoffs wisely\u2014playing just once a week\u2014to recover and get players back into the best possible condition to compete.”<\/em><\/p>\n

ON SEASON CHALLENGES<\/strong><\/p>\n

“It wasn\u2019t just the injuries. Mirotic and LeDay don\u2019t complain, but one\u2019s been dealing with a knee issue, the other with a shoulder problem. They\u2019ve often trained separately, and less with the team, because they were the most overused throughout the season. And Mannion didn\u2019t miss a single game\u2014his workload became heavier due to Dimitrijevic\u2019s physical problems.”<\/em><\/p>\n

ON NEBO<\/strong><\/p>\n

“It may sound obvious, but having Nebo on the floor benefits the whole team. A big man who rolls aggressively to the basket forces defenses to collapse and creates an extra meter of space for his teammates. We tried to compensate for his absence with the chemistry and skill of Mirotic and LeDay playing together, but over time, opponents found ways to adjust.”<\/em><\/p>\n

ON THE CRITICISM<\/strong><\/p>\n

“There\u2019s a part of the fanbase that\u2019s unhappy and they make it known\u2014sometimes going overboard. Then there\u2019s the world of social media, which I frankly don\u2019t follow because it seems like there\u2019s no peace for anyone there. But there are also many people who are extremely supportive of me and the team, who understand what we\u2019re going through, and continue to stand by us\u2014like those who came out to Bologna and Reggio.”<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ettore Messina was the surprise guest in \u201cUomini e Canestri,\u201d Luca Chiabotti\u2019s basketball column on Repubblica-Milano<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":436578,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_spbk_hide_featured":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[199,259],"tags":[],"rumors":[],"typology":[],"posizionamento":[],"class_list":["post-437366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-euroleague","category-serie-a"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/04\/Ettore-Messina.jpg","digistream_id":0,"digistream":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437366"},{"taxonomy":"rumors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rumors?post=437366"},{"taxonomy":"typology","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/typology?post=437366"},{"taxonomy":"posizionamento","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posizionamento?post=437366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}