Arriving at ASVEL four games into the season, Gianmarco Pozzecco had already made his mark as a player and a head coach.
Gianmarco Pozzecco, ASVEL: 'Basketball is an opportunity to have fun'
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LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne made noise earlier this season when, after just four rounds of the new Turkish Airlines EuroLeague season, Italian head coach Gianmarco Pozzecco was brought on to replace T. J. Parker, brother of club president Tony Parker.
Nicknamed the Atomic Fly during his 20-year long professional playing career, Pozzecco has been no different while roaming the sidelines ever since he started coaching a decade ago – animated, emotional and involved.
"I'm different, and not because I want to act different, but because I grew up different," Pozzecco says. "I played basketball just for fun. As the coach, it's the same. Everything that basketball is for me is an opportunity to have fun."
Pozzecco, 51, has won over his players everywhere he has coached for creating team harmony and chemistry. That includes his latest job, serving as the head coach of the Italian national team the past two years, and it has been no different at ASVEL.
I will put all my passion, like I did as a basketball player."
"He coaches different," ASVEL forward Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot says. "He puts you in the best position as a player to perform. He makes us smile, he makes us want to fight for him and for the team."
Pozzecco admits he initially had certain doubts on how some of the legends he would get to coach at ASVEL – like Nando De Colo, Charles Kahudi or Joffrey Lauvergne – would react to him, and perhaps to his style, but those worries soon disappeared.
"Basketball is basketball," he says. "I am just here to help the club grow and my players to win games."