{"id":128272,"date":"2025-03-12T13:34:20","date_gmt":"2025-03-12T17:34:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=128272"},"modified":"2025-03-12T13:34:20","modified_gmt":"2025-03-12T17:34:20","slug":"donte-divincenzo-italy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/03\/12\/donte-divincenzo-italy\/","title":{"rendered":"Timberwolves Guard Might Play for Italy at EuroBasket"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donte DiVincenzo<\/a> might head to Italy for a busy summer in the offseason. The Minnesota Timberwolves guard is in talks with the Italian basketball team to participate in EuroBasket 2025. Italy wants him, and he has previously expressed interest to suit up for the Azzurri. However, it might depend on other factors like scheduling and administrative challenges.<\/p>\n

Timberwolves Guard Might Play for Italy at EuroBasket<\/h2>\n

The last time Italy won a medal at the EuroBasket was in 2003. Gianmarco Pozzecco was the point guard of that team. He now serves as the head coach of the team. Hoping to add talent to his players\u2019 pool, Gianmarco is trying to get Donte. Recently, he talked about how his country\u2019s reserve is much smaller than teams like France. He said<\/a>,<\/p>\n

\u201cA year ago, I was working in Asvel. I saw Vincent Collet, the French coach, and I asked him how many players he was choosing the 12 for his national team. He replied 24… How small is the pond I\u2019m fishing in compared to theirs? I have 18 players left, including eight that everyone would choose, and I hope the rest are well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team qualified for EuroBasket, and they hope to get some NBA talent. They are on the trail of DiVincenzo, the guard who is of Italian descent. They also hope Danilo Gallinari<\/a> to return to the lineup. Pozzecco talked about the Italy\u2019s interest in Donte DiVincenzo.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re working on the DiVincenzo case and I\u2019ll go and talk to him soon… It would be helpful. But what\u2019s needed is a passport, which he doesn\u2019t have today, and the willingness to play, which exists. However, that must be confirmed at the call, in order to avoid other cases like Paolo Banchero<\/a>.\u201d He said.<\/p>\n

For those who do not remember, Paolo talked with Italy before opting for Team USA. FIBA EuroBasket is the flagship competition of FIBA Europe. The 42nd edition will take place in Cyprus, Finland, Latvia, and Poland from August 27 to September 14. The draw for the tournament will take place in Riga, Latvia, on March 27.<\/p>\n

If DiVincenzo decides to play for Italy, he will have a busy summer. The NBA season might last until May and then in late September players begin reporting to training camp for their respective teams. For the Timberwolves this season<\/a>, Donte averages 11.6 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 3.7 assists on 39.5% shooting from behind the arc.<\/p>\n

Donte\u2019s Love for Italy Runs Deep<\/h3>\n

This is not the first time Donte expressed willingness to suit up for the Azzurri. Last summer, there were rumors he might suit up for the Italian team should they make it to the Paris 2024 Olympics. Sadly, Italy didn\u2019t qualify. He couldn\u2019t play in the qualifiers due to the Knicks’ deep playoff run<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While he wanted to play for Italy, he also acknowledged that \u201ctiming-wise\u201d it was impossible<\/a>. But that doesn\u2019t mean his Olympic dream has finished. He will have another chance in 2028 in Los Angeles. Donte will be 31 years old at the time and will be a huge help for Italy.<\/p>\n

Donte\u2019s Italian Heritage Explained<\/h3>\n

Born in Newark, Delaware, Donte is an American-Italian. He attended high school in the USA and played college ball for the Villanova Wildcats. His Italian heritage stems from his parents, John and Kathy, who are both of Italian descent. Here is a fun fact about his father: he is an avid Knicks fan and constantly took Donte to Knicks games at Madison Square Garden. This is where DiVincenzo fell in love with the game of basketball.<\/p>\n

Donte attended the Salesianum High School. He led them to two consecutive state championships and was named Delaware Sportswriters and Broadcasters Associations Boys\u2019 Basketball Player of the Year in 2015.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Photo credit: \u00a9 Neville E. Guard-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Donte DiVincenzo might head to Italy for a busy summer in the offseason. The Minnesota Timberwolves guard is in talks with the Italian basketball team to participate in EuroBasket 2025. Italy wants him, and he has previously expressed interest to suit up for the Azzurri. However, it might depend on other factors like scheduling and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5291,"featured_media":128275,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,21,62],"tags":[1066,1553,3823],"class_list":["post-128272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-timberwolves","category-nba","tag-danilo-gallinari","tag-donte-divincenzo","tag-paolo-banchero"],"modified_by":"Eamon Cassels, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5291"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128272"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":128276,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128272\/revisions\/128276"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}