On the Basketball Field... in a Wheelchair
By Federico Bartolomei, photograph by
Ramiro Castro Xiques
Pozzecco's
emotions are worth more than a thousand baskets.
Bologna is known as the
city of baskets; in bars, in parks or even in the street, it's possible to feel
that unique atmosphere, typical of Bologna, where passions are divided between
fans of Fortitudo and Virtus. Bologna, however, has been the theater of a very
special challenge, a game which has brought together two realities apparently
distant, but with the same competitive spirit of professional athletes who
practice a sport for the pleasure of it and to achieve outstanding results.
The Paraolympics have put the spotlight on
sports for the disabled bringing to our attention life stories and sporting
challenges which have nothing to envy to the results achieved during the
Olympics of Athens 2004. A little more than a year ago, sports for the disabled,
thanks to Le Iene broadcasting, made its arrival on the scene at Pala Madison
with a game which brought together a team of basketball players in wheelchairs,
B. H. Torino against Bologna's basketball team Fortitudo. To tell us about
this spectacular challenge, we have interviewed one of the players, icon of
the Fortitudo, who has participated in this unusual match.
Gianmarco
Pozzecco arrives at the Paladozza dressed with his usual windbreaker jacket and
his wool hat on his head despite the fact that it's still not that cold outside.
His teammates say that these are some of his paranoias, but he knows instead
that - in regards to being on the field or at any public event he is ready to
show off a bit - these little things are part of his daily life. And about his
being a basketball player. "I have always said that I, and anyone who, like me,
does this for work, am privileged, but it's also because of this that we have to
pay attention to what our own body tells us. I admit that it took me a
while to understand this, but now it fruitfully pays back." A new maturity for
him, now two years and a half with Bologna's basketball team Fortitudo.
Almost a new career, no more a fantastic egocentric, but a
fantastic team player. "This environment had me grow up, once and for all. Here
I learned that the time to be a fool was over, how I allowed it to be in Varese,
but I can say that I feel considerably better, and on the field I have become
only one thing to my teammates." Here is the new Gianmarco Pozzecco. The one
who, on the field, but most of all out of it, knows how to show his big heart.
He has demonstrated this, together with his teammates, a year and a half ago, in
February 2003, when La Iena Marco Berry introduced himself at the Paladozza
and challenged the Poz and his teammates to play in a very particular way: on
the basketball field, right, but sitting on a wheelchair to challenge the boys
of B. H. Torino. The challenge was naturally accepted and Pozzecco, Mancinelli and Fultz, Barton and Van Den Spiegel (both in
Rome now) smiled through the experience. This is a challenge that Gianmarco
Pozzecco remembers well still today with great pleasure and true pride. "How did
this come about? One of the managers at Le Iene, Marco Berry, whom I had met not
too long before, asked me. I was immediately pleased with the idea, and so were
my teammates, to do something important and fun at the same time. In Varese,
incidentally, years ago, I met Fabrizio Macchi, one of the best disabled persons
who do sports and who had set a world record then. Besides immediately
becoming his friend, I have always followed him: I realized how much we could be
enriching our lifes by being close to special kids like those who are disabled,
and seeing the spirit with which they challenge life and sports. Our opponents
in wheelchairs that day were certainly happy to meet a series-A team and to be
able to go on a popular television program like Le Iene, but I am convinced that
on that day my teammates and I learned, more than anyone else, some pretty
valuable things. Besides realizing how lucky we are in life, we had a
demonstration
as to how we should react towards the difficulties we run against. And
this, if I may make a precision, allows us, sportsmen and privileged, to
understand how to better overcome the sporting difficulties we face each day,
which has absolutely nothing to do with the true problems of the less
fortunate." A flow of spontaneous words for the Poz, on
the field and out, always trying to brighten his smile. "We have to
learn to experience things with more serenity and to react on the field with the
same obstinacy these kids have, obstinacy that is born out of passion and desire
to have fun, playing to their maximum and always with a smile. I think that this
occasion has been very useful for us, and the good results our team has obtained
from that moment on is probably, in a certain sense, consequencial to this. Yes,
but what did it feel for Gianmarco Pozzecco to be on the basketball field... in
a wheelchair? At the beginning, it was really strange, distances are completely
different and you are missing the usual points of reference. And the basket
seemed truly very high. However, a little bit at a time, once I overcame the
difficulty of pushing the wheelchair, for someone like me who is used to always
have the ball in my hands, I got to like it. Same with my teammates: at the end,
I tried to convince Stefano Mancinelli to always play in a wheelchair, or
even on a chair in the middle of the field, because we had never seen
him make three baskets in one game! Unfortunately, it was not enough and we got
our pay.
But, I repeat, we had a good time and I saw in the eyes of the kids
that they were happy to play with us. Even at the end of the competition, I got
myself a little satisfaction, I threw an assist to Van Den Spiegel who
got up from the wheelchair and ran to do a smash. Enough to be disqualified, I
know! But the atmosphere was right, we had such a good time." And it's not only
fun for Gianmarco Pozzecco and his teammates, Fortitudo is always looking to be
involved socially and do things, however little it is, to help those who need
it. "Last year, Christian, a little boy who was just out of a coma, came on many
occasions to see us training. Well, a little at a time, he has started to get
better and now he is facing a very important recovery, we hope the best for him.
We were told we had a little to do with this, because he was passionate about
basketball and about Fortitudo, and to see us there in front of him, it gave him
important emotions. The most important emotion though, we have felt it
ourselves. It's worth more than a thousand baskets and any catch. Even for
these words, Gianmarco Pozzecco shows that he is a champion. On the field, but
most of all out.