EMILIANO T>..|i?i The Case for Italian Basketball Venice in Week 1, Venice's team comes to In last year's Coppa, Milan was one of Zach Messitte your arena in Week 16. And there's drama: three top seeds that lost in the first round, MILAN Turin, seeded fifth in last year's Coppa, much to the delight of fans from smaller- AS THE National Basketball Associa- won the trophy, even though it placed llth i\ tion plods its way to the 68th an- at the end of the season. i % nual Ali-Star Game in Charlotte, There's an intensity to the Italian regu­ Forget the Ali-Star Game. •*• ^N.C, on Sunday, American lar season that too often is missing from hoops fans should take note of how the the N.BA.'s long fall and winter games. The real hoops drama Italians generate hardwood dramain Feb- Not only are there fewer games, but also ruary. they are shorter and quicker (10-minute is in Europe. Since Thursday, the eight best teams in as opposed to 12-minute quarters, and Italy's Lega Basket Serie A from the first with fewer play stoppages mandated by market teams like Cantù, which plays in naif of the season have been competing for television). And even if the quality of play in Italy is interior, the interest in the Feb- the Milanese suburb of Desio. As one team the Coppa Italia, a no-holds-barred, single officiai told me, it doesn't hurt that elimination tournament whose outcome ruary Coppa Italia far outstrips whether Team LeBron will prevail over Team Gian- coaches have built-in salary incentives if actually matters to fans, players, team their team does well at the midseason owners and corporate sponsors. And nis in the N.BA.'s Ali-Star Game. "Whether it is Game 6 or 26, you are al- tournament — and sponsors, of course, while a champion will be crowned at the love the positive brand attention of a win- end of the playoffs later this spring, brag- ways playing for something," said Travis Diener, an American who also holds Ital­ ning squad. ging rights for holding the Coppa's trophy The quarterfinal round began on Thurs­ aloft on Sunday provides a midseason ian citizenship and plays on this year's fourth-seeded team from Cremona. "Then day and Friday, featuring a doubleheader shot of adrenaline. each day: Milan-Bologna and Cremona- The N.BA.'s 82-game regular season, you get the Coppa and anything can hap- pen." Diener, who spent several years in Varese on Day 1, and Venice-Sassari and which began in October and will end in Avellino-Brindisi on Day 2. American fans Aprii, is a slog. Anyone who has watched a the N.B.A., won the M.V.P. award of the Coppa Italia when he was playing for Sas­ should try to imagine a similar midseason Wednesday night non-marquee matchup sari in Sardinia in 2014. weekend tournament: What if the Bucks, in November can attest to that. The action The Coppa allows teams from smaller Warriors, Raptors, Nuggets, Celtics, Pac- rarely begins before the fourth quarter; ers, Thunder and 76ers were playing in coaches rest their superstars. markets (and smaller budgets) like Sas­ sari and Cremona (more famous for Strad- Charlotte this weekend for bragging The first naif of the Italian season, by ivarius violins than hoops) to pulì off rights to an American Basketball Cup? It contrast, is an exciting sprint from the March Madness-like upsets against more would be a fresh take on a tired Ali-Star opening tipoff. The 16-team league has a glamorous squads like Milan, which is Game whose television ratings have de- 30-game regular season in which each sponsored by Giorgio Armani and takes clined by more than 50 percent since the club plays one another twice — once at full advantage of the lack of a league sala- each other's home court. If you play in Michael Jordan-dominated 1990s. ry cap. The Italian basketball league used to LEGABASKET have its own ali-star game, but there was- offs, the idea of borrowing from the Ital- consigned to the minor leagues, the folks n't enough sustained interest from players ians to make each tipoff count more at Madison Square Garden might think or fans, so it ended in 2016. A dunk contest should be enticing. differently about how to handle the final was similarly discontinued. Giorgio Gan- Take the case of the New York Knicks, months of the season. If the Knicks were dolfi, a former basketball journalist who who currently hold the worst record in the demoted to play against the Maine Red now runs his own international sports N.B.A. There is nothing mudi left for the Claws, New York fans would probably agency and who has been to 13 N.B.A. Ali- Knicks to play for or their fans to watch have some choice words and creative Star Games, said that winning the Coppa this season. hand gestures for their team's poor man­ Italia is second in prestige only to winning By contrast, Italian basketball teams agement. Italian basketball fans would the league championsbip at the end of the near the bottoni of the league run the risk have some advice on how to do that better, season. He doesn't miss Italy's ali-star of relegation to the second division, which too. • games. "They were just kind of boring," he is a bad result for everyone. That's why said. ZACH MESSITTE, the president ofRipon the fight near the end of the season can be College in Wisconsin, is on sabbatical as While there is too mueh money to be just as fierce at the bottom as it is as the an associatefellow at the Johns Hopkins made for the N.B.A. — and team owners — top. School 0/ Advanced International Studies to consider shortening the season from If the Knicks had to worry about being in Bologna. the grueling 82-game march to the play- LEGABASKET.