Gianfranco Lombardi

Gianfranco Lombardi was one of the best, and most respected, Italian basketball players in the 1960s. He started his career as a youth with Pallacanestro Livorno before being discovered by Vittorio Tracuzzi. He then sent almost the remainder of his career with Virtus Bologna. He played over 250 games for the club, with a second place in the League in 1960/61 being his best finish. In 1970 he moved to Bologna’s other team, Fortitudo, before finishing the career in 1973 with AMG Sebastiani Rieti. Lombardi was the Italian League’s top scorer in 1963/64 and 1966/67 with 594 and 552 points respectively. In total he scored 5,470 points.

Lombardi, known as Dado, made his international début against Israel at the 1959 European Championship at Istanbul. He took part at three Olympic Games, Roma 1960 with a 4th place (where he was on the all-star team), Tokyo 1964 (when Italy suffered a shock defeat by the hosts, in a match played at nine o’clock in the morning), and finally at Mexico City in 1968. Lombardi also appeared at the 1965 European Championship and 1963 and 1967 World Championships. He won a gold medal at the 1963 Mediterranean Games when Italy beat Spain in the final at Napoli. Lombardi was a kingpin of the national team, and won 113 international caps and scored 1,408 points.

After his retirement Lombardi coached teams in the First and Second League, like Trieste, Treviso, Basket Rimin manyi, Scaligera Verona, LP Livorno and Pallacanestro Napoli, with five promotions from the Second to First League. Lombardi was inducted into the Italian Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006.