Maybe somebody here is still thinking about the possibility of the unlucky Crailsheimers making it into the playoffs. Or perhaps someone else is will write that Berlin could be champion one day. Maybe so. Those would certainly be interesting stories from the world premiere of the first easyCredit Isolation Basketball Championship. But the best story that can be covered at this event is written here. By far. And it's a world exclusive.
It tells of the miraculous journey of Diego Flaccadori into ambidextria.
Flaccadori at the free-throw line against Crailsheim
Signore Flaccadori -what a beautiful name - comes from Seriate in Lombardy (a fact that will be discussed here again, stay tuned). The area is dominated by the cultivation of corn, wine and mulberry trees while iron and marble can be found as minerals.
Of course Wikipedia does not know anything about the connection between Seriate and Ambidexterity.
Diego, who is now 24, started playing basketball at the age of five. Dribbles, lay-ups, half-court shots, threes, everything is done with his left hand. He also writes with his left hand.
After 19 years of basketball, five of them in the Italian premier league including games for the Squadra Azzurra and a three-quarter EuroLeague season Bayern, Diego is now at the free-throw line in the final quarter against Crailsheim. He bounces the ball, once, twice, then shoots. With his right hand. Twice, both free throws go in.
5:02 left, Diego puts up a three. Right hand. He scores.
Preliminary investigations by the BBL Arbitration Court during the night did not, of course, confirm anything suspicious. Diego did not place a special bet with Tipico on these circus acts. Now he simply always shoots with his right hand.
Everything started three days after the season was suspended. Quarantine training with individual coach Emilio and everything with the right hand. They did it consistantly for a small period.10 shots, 20, 30, half an hour at the end, he shot right-handed. "I never thought about it, but it felt better, the touch."
To Emilio: "We've got a few months now, I could try it."
- "You'd better sleep on it."
The next day, 500 shots. Middle distance, his percentages go up. After three weeks: threes. Coaches watch from a distance, the GM, the sports director. They say nothing. Petteri Koponen, the professor of three-pointers from Finland, shouts over: "This is not possible, this is not possible!"
The mechanics of the shot
10 to 15 percent of Europeans are left-handed. When the easyCredit BBL was still called something else, the then Commissioner Aristotle lectured that human handedness was innate. His colleague Plato considered this to be fake news; he attributed the choice for right or left to education. But to be ambidextrous, to the phenomenon of ambidexterity? No theory, from either of them
Diego Flaccadori from Seriate, Italy, is now shooting right-handed from every distanc. Dribbling and drivingto the basket, he'll continue to do with his left. Diego smiles. "I'm more difficult for the defender to calculate." And Coach Kostic says, "It's not so much about percentages right now, but the mechanics of his shot is working better than before."
If things continue this sucky corona thing could have Diego - at 24-years-old - making his shots better than ever before. Not the worst thing for a basketball player.
Room 379 of Munich's Leonardo Royal Hotel is occupied by FC Bayern Basketball's media director during the BBL final tournament.