Hide Article Text (OCR)
Pallacenestro-Italian StyleTerry Driscoll, captain and center of the 1969 Boston College Eagles, will play basketball in Italy next year. Drafted number one by the Detroit Pistons who are desperately in need of a tall, good-shooting rebounder, Driscoll decided to accept a fabulous foreign offer, [Chances are that Driscoll will eventually end up in the pro ranks, Americans do not tend to make a career of Italian basketball.]The Italian league courted Terry affectionately all year and handed him an inesistabie offer. Driscoll, who intends to further his education, will be able to attend medical school abroad. Since he is committed to playing only one game a week, he will have the time to study which would have been impossible if he had been a captive of the NBA's rugged coast-to-coast, elongated grind.To make the offer even more tempting, the officals added some tatalizing “fringe benefits. ’ Driscoll will have his own apartment, complete with his personal servant, plus an automobile.What is Italian basketball like? Will a tall, handsome, modest American boy from proper, gentlemanly Boston, who led his college team into the Top Ten and the finals of a big national tournament, find hapiness in a strange foreign environment?To get an idea of what Mr, Driscoll has in store for him, an article by Jack Olsen written for Sports illustrated a few years ago, will shed some light. It was entitled “Pallacanestro Is theRage” and portrays Italian basketball as a wild melee. It is a game played with little style or skill in which the audience is anr - ■*active participant.At the time of the article (1967), a dozen or so Americans (Doug Moe of North Carolina, Toby Kimball of Connecticut, and Steve Chub in of Rhode island being the more well-known names) were playing in Italy ■‘with mingled joy anddiscontent.”Up to 1966, foreigners had been banned in Italy but the levelof play was so poor the authorities decided to permit each team a transfusion of one foreigner, with the inception of American talent, who weretreated “like King Farouk,” the game soared in popularity. But of the first twelve Americans recruited, only three returned, for a second season, Olsen wrote then that “to most of the American basket bailers, one season of Italy in midwinter is more thanenough.”The Italian game is different from the American version, Internationa! basketball rules are observed. There is no three-point play; if a player is bumped as he makes a basket, a foul can be called against the defender, but no free throw is awarded. On drive to the basket, the dribbling player is allowed one extra step at the end and, to the uninitiated spectator, it looks as though players pick up the ball at the foul line and simply run to the basket and lay the ball up. This makes play quiker at the shooting end but play is slowed down at the other end because one must bounce the ball right away before starting to move. There is also no back court time limit. A team has thirty seconds to shoot-timed by six different colored lights under the basket which go off every five seconds-but it can be kept in the backcourt for the entire half-minute.Fair play is unheard of in Italy. According to Doug Moe, the idea is to see what you can gel away with.”The referees can barely be called guardians of fair play. Steve Chubin remarks: “They have a dramatic sense, and they think of themselves as a bunch of Fellinis. In the early part of a game they tend to keep things even. In the last 10 or 15 minutes almost all the fouls are against the visiting team. In Italy, you just don't win away from home. Back in the States, the ho me-courtad vantage is about 5-10 points; here it's more like 25. Some of the refs'd get shot in the U,S,The referees' plight is twofold. First they are incompetent. Second, they are afraid of the fans. 1 hey must rule for the home team or run for their lives.The Italian fans are an extreme group. Chubin frankly relates his observations: “There’s a certain element of the fans here that’s absolutely nuts, 1 mean, they ought to be hauled off in strait jackets. Some of these people'll blow an air horn right in your ear as you're walking by, deafen you for a week. It’s different than the States. Sometimes it’s sickening. One man’ll keep hollering somethingdirty over and over, I couldn't take it at first, right in front of everbody. I mean, 1 don't speak Italian yet, but certain things you understand. You don't need a dictionary.”The fans also enjoy throwingdebrivS at referees they don’t agreewith. They also love their idols, attempt to rip the clothes off players. (“Young girl'll think nothing of coming right into the dressing room after a game and trying to grab sourenirs. If you don't do a pretty good job of defending yourself you’ll wind up naked.”)Olsen, the writer of the article, witnessed his first Italian encounter and some of hisrecollections are interesting.Before the players would appear, fans could be seen beating sheets of iron against the pipes, blowing air horns hooked to tanks of compressed air, banging away at tambourines and castanets, wavingsigns and screaming challenges.The teams have a bush-league appearance. Attired with socks of varying colors, the players war “short shorts that would have been banned in Boston.” P re-game drills we re ludicrous exhibitions Players would tend to attempt difficult maneuvers-fancy long jumpers, reverse lay-ups. But thecrowd would love these mochcriesbecuase the “appearance” of skill was observed. “And,” writes Olsen, “in Italy appearance is every tiling,”The game revolved around thetwo Americans, playing on opposite sides. The game went on as the players entertained the fansmore with their acting at foulscalled than with their abilities. The referees controlled the game calling countless fouls. The home team won.If the portrayal of Italian basketball reflected by this article is still true, Terry Driscoll will enter a bizarre, zany world of over-anxious fans, larcenous referees and semi-skilled competitors next winter.It should be interesting. It should be amusing. It surely willbe a learning experience denied many a professional athlete.
Newspaper Details
Boston Heights
Boston, Massachusetts, US
Fri, Jul 18, 1969
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
WV, USA 20 Apr 2020
Other Publications Near Boston, Massachusetts
Massachusetts Centinel
Boston Globe
Boston Daily Globe
UMB News
Mass Media
