Gabriele Piazzolla
He was the King of Dezza Street Playground, the most famous and important court in Milan. His reign has been recognized by all Milan’s ballers, no doubt about it. Gabriele Piazzolla, 6′1″ point guard from Missaglia, Milan suburbs, could make you sick with his crossover, could penetrate in all the strong defense he faced, and could mortify you with his three-pointer. Simply you couldn’t stop him.
He grew up in the Armani Jeans Milan, one of the most winning teams in Europe, then he played in a lot of italian minor leagues, but his life was the asphalt of Dezza, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. At the end of the day, when everybody were destroyed by the dozens of games played on the court, he was always the only one who remained on the concrete, taking some jumpers, waiting for some fresh baller, and telling everybody: “hey, one more game?”. Piazzolla was literally untiring, always looking for a challenge and also a genuine trash-talker, when he crossed someone he always had a word for his victim, no mercy with the smile on the lips.
A legendary anecdote: before a practice of the turkish national team (during their training camp in Italy before the FIBA World Championship), Gabriele was in the gym, watching the only player on the court, the strong 6′5″ turkish Alper Yilmaz taking some jumpers. Piazzolla took a ball, and said to Yilmaz: “d’you want to play one on one?”. No time for the answer, he passed the ball to the disoriented turkish saying: “you start”. The strange challenge began, and after three minutes the score was 5-0 for Gabriele, who trash-talked the turkish every single action. Yilmaz was terribly mad, maybe he didn’t played seriously those game, but in the game after, starting 0-0, he played at his best. No way, 7-0 for Gabriele, Yilmaz was humiliated, just before the turkish coach yelled to his guy for playing (and losing) with some strangers, ending the short but intense game.
In may 2006 Gabriele died at age 26, leaving an enormous vacuum in the hearts of everybody who knew him and seen him on the court. He had a tattoo on his ankle, three words: “It Never Ends”. We are sure his soul is still flying on the Milan’s playgrounds, and above all we are sure that his legend it will never end.
December 19th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
Lu72 says:
Rest In Peace, King.
December 19th, 2008 at 7:27 pm
original PRK says:
such a story…..
respect to Gabriele Piazzolla and all the ballers dead.
RIP
great article
December 19th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
Bobbito Garcia a.k.a. Kool Bob Love says:
i hate hearing about cats dying young man . . .
but love the story of him going 1-on-1 and shocking the national team dude. you can never underestimate the hungry unknown waiting on the side. never.
oh, his uni was hot!
rest in peace
December 19th, 2008 at 8:04 pm
Mattia Favero says:
hi I’m italian and casually I read this wonderful article. I’m a baller I know Gabriele Piazzolla I read about him also on the book of Daniele Vecchi. I’m from Milan and Gabriele was really a legend, we were all shocked after his death.
He was a good guy and everybody love him.
Thank you for let Gabriele lives again.
cheers
Mattia Favero
December 19th, 2008 at 8:18 pm
Olimpia in the heart says:
it’s late night in Italy but I can’t stand thinking to Gabriele.
ciao Gabri, it never ends
December 19th, 2008 at 8:34 pm
dingo says:
rest in peace
December 20th, 2008 at 3:59 am
alegiust says:
RIP
Did not know about that tattoo “It never ends” ………yeas RIP in a never ending ball game.
I do remeber the family of Gabriele talkin about him and about the love he has got about the game……..sad and glourios.
December 20th, 2008 at 5:00 am
Derrick says:
never forget the soul is forever
December 20th, 2008 at 5:21 am
alegiust says:
Great words here :
“you can never underestimate the hungry unknown waiting on the side. never”
“never forget the soul is forever”
December 20th, 2008 at 8:55 am
Dave says:
would be great seen him on a ny court….
maybe now he’s playing one’o'one with the goat, such a challenge.
rest in peace
December 20th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
blaxo77 says:
great great great great piece.
thank you, you make me smile and cry.
rest in piece king
December 20th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
Casey Lee says:
Great piece! Unfortunately, its like they say the good die young…but their stories live on..
“It never ends”
Words of wisdom.
December 20th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
ktulu says:
baby face cat, I like your posts for real
December 22nd, 2008 at 4:49 am
wally says:
I’m Italian-American and I love to read stuff from my country. Continua così fella.
December 23rd, 2008 at 2:48 pm
johnny boy says:
bella “vecchio”!
if you read this and you don’t feel some bittersweet pain in your heart….
then you must have lost your heart somewhere already.
love to all the ballers out there!
December 26th, 2008 at 5:30 am
paolo galbiati says:
Buon natale piazz
guidaci da lassù
December 29th, 2008 at 6:51 am
BB says:
rest in peace king of dezza street
December 29th, 2008 at 7:21 am
Claudio says:
I’m from Italy and this is a very sad story..
respect to Gabriele from Naples.
RIP
December 30th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
kiri says:
we are also heardt from him,he is a great legend,rest in peace:(
December 31st, 2008 at 8:17 am
eurocall911 says:
a lot of heroes of the concrete in italy and all around europe….
rest in peace king
July 2nd, 2009 at 5:39 am
m@ says:
ciao Piazz!!!
November 24th, 2009 at 11:09 pm
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