Nel Blog di Maurizio Gherardini ho trovato questo interessantissimo articolo ( i + pazienti lo tradurranno ) nel quale lui parla delle virtù di 3 dei + vincenti ( in Europa ) coaches di tutti i tempi e delle esperienze vissute con loro alla Benetton Treviso.
I loro illustri nomi sono:
Mike D’Antoni, Ettore Messina e Zelimir Obradovic.
Alla fine dell'articolo dice che è stato un grande privilegio lavorare con loro ma non chiedetegli chi è il migliore dei 3 perchè " non ve lo dirò mai ".
Questo è l'articolo del 7 Marzo......
Basketball's Three Tenors...
March 7, 9:11 a.m.
Over the last decade or so, I have been working with three of Europe’s most successful coaches of all time. And somehow in my mind I picture them as the successful trio of tenors: Carrera, Pavarotti and Placido Domingo….
I don’t say that lightly, but they have proven themselves to be elite at each stop of their careers, not just at Benetton, but reaching success with teams in Russia, Greece, Serbia and Spain and, in the case of one, being voted “Coach of the Year” in the NBA.
Mike D’Antoni, running Phoenix to great success today, was at the helm of our Benetton club for four seasons. We won two Italian Championships, the Italian Cup and the Europe Cup with him. He had become such a legendary player in Italian basketball prior to start coaching that I’ve always looked at him as the “first foreign coach” who ever made it to the NBA.
Ettore Messina was our head coach for three years, from 2001 on. He too was enormously successful in Bologna first, then with the Italian National team and in Treviso and he amassed a long collection of national and European championships and cups. We won an Italian title and three consecutive Italian cups with him. He left Treviso to sign for CSKA Moscow and it’s no coincidence that they are the reigning Euroleague champions today.
Zelimir Obradovic is coaching today CSKA’s arch-rival Panathinaikos of Athens; he’s been with them for the past seven seasons. He has won everywhere he has been and he is the only coach ever to take home a Euroleague trophy with four different clubs: Partizan Belgrade, Joventut Badalona, Real Madrid and Panathinaikos. He landed at Benetton in 1997 and we enjoyed two successful years with him.
There were many differences in their approaches and backgrounds.
Mike was a very successful player who retired at 39. He had a great college career at Marshall University and a couple of seasons in the NBA before realizing that his future could have been overseas.
Zelimir was a very accomplished point guard with Partizan Belgrade and the Yugoslavian National Team. His coaching career began suddenly when he was not 30 yet. His success as a player and his growth as a coach took place during some hard times for his home country.
Ettore never played except at the junior level and started to coach when he was very young. He grew up in Mestre, just outside Venice, and has earned two university degrees.
Obradovic would ask me to sit with him after practice every night in a small pub right outside the arena. We would have a beer and eat French fries and olives and talk basketball until my wife would start calling to find out where I was.
Mike was a morning guy. I’d meet him at the coffee bar of the Ghirada Sportscenter by eight o’clock every day. He would be there working already on his crossword puzzle as he would have one of the very few copies of USA Today in town. I’m still wondering if he ever finished one. He’s a very open person, always very positive and consistent. He has a great sense of humour that helps him in every situation. Mike had his own style after a loss: he would always find something positive, he saw the full part of your glass.
Ettore is a maniacal student of the game. He’s very intense, he always knows what he wants to accomplish and how and doesn’t like to be surprised by anything. After a defeat, he would sort of close himself down from the rest of the world and deeply analyze what went wrong. There are times when it is not easy to steal him a smile for a couple of days following a game, probably only his beautiful three-year old son Filippo can.
Zelimir is more introverted, but very open to the friends he has around. He doesn’t have Mike’s sense of humour but he has the ability to smile about things. He’s an unbelievable guy to spend time with. After a loss, he needed to get his feelings and his emotions out, he needed to discuss things. He always had to analyze everything in detail.
So, you might wonder, what did they have in common?
Well, all three of them have a great grasp of tactics and Xs and Os. They can assess what is going on instantly and make the necessary adjustments.
They are very, very passionate about their jobs and they have a great sense for when to talk to a team and what to say, whether to talk with players individually or address the group.
All three are flexible. You could talk to them and suggest one thing and they would listen to ideas, which isn’t a sign of weakness but a sign of strength.
All of them are very detail-oriented. They want things to work correctly and they want to be prepared for every eventuality they might encounter in a game.
They’re great human beings, and it was a huge privilege to work with all three. Just don’t ask me which one is the best, I would never tell you…
) come Messina
Scherzo eh, non prendertela! 
, gli americani non hanno ancora assorbito la "steal" della prima scelta 
che, prima di farsi fregare una panchina NBA, faranno penare tutta l'Europa... 
...soprattutto se difesa di squadra...dove loro non sanno e non vogliono applicarsi mimimamente... 
