The Most Famous

BASKETBALL PLAYERS from Italy

Icon of occuation in country

This page contains a list of the greatest Italian Basketball Players. The pantheon dataset contains 1,757 Basketball Players, 25 of which were born in Italy. This makes Italy the birth place of the 12th most number of Basketball Players behind Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Slovenia.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Italian Basketball Players of all time. This list of famous Italian Basketball Players is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography's online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Italian Basketball Players.

Photo of Ettore Messina

1. Ettore Messina (b. 1959)

With an HPI of 58.37, Ettore Messina is the most famous Italian Basketball Player.  His biography has been translated into 18 different languages on wikipedia.

Ettore Messina (born 30 September 1959) is an Italian professional basketball coach who is the head coach of Olimpia Milano of the Italian Lega Basket Serie A (LBA). He has won four EuroLeague championships as a head coach. Messina is regarded as one of the best European basketball coaches of all time, having been named one of the 50 Greatest EuroLeague Contributors in 2008. He was named the Italian League's Best Coach three times, in the years 1998, 2001, and 2005. Furthermore, he has been named EuroLeague's Coach of the Year twice, in 2006 and 2008. He was inducted into the Italian Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008, and into the Russian VTB United League Hall of Fame, in 2019. Messina also previously worked with the San Antonio Spurs, as an assistant coach for Gregg Popovich, from 2014 to 2019.

Photo of Dino Meneghin

2. Dino Meneghin (b. 1950)

With an HPI of 58.12, Dino Meneghin is the 2nd most famous Italian Basketball Player.  His biography has been translated into 25 different languages.

Dino Meneghin (Italian pronunciation: [ˈdiːno meneˈɡin], Venetian: [meneˈɡiŋ]; born 18 January 1950) is an Italian former professional basketball player. He is widely considered to be the best Italian player ever, as well as one of Europe's all-time greats. A 2.06 m (6 ft 9 in) tall center, Meneghin was born in Alano di Piave, Veneto (northeast Italy). On 20 November 1966, when he was 16 years old, he played in his first game in the Italian League, with Ignis Varese. He played the last game of his career at the age of 45. He holds the record for the most EuroLeague championships won by a player, with seven, when counting all formats of the competition's history, dating back to the inaugural 1958 season. In December 1991, the Spanish basketball magazine Gigantes del Basket, voted Meneghin the Best European Player of All-Time. In 2003, Meneghin became a Basketball Hall of Fame player. In 2006, he became a member of the Italian Basketball Hall of Fame. In 2010, he became a FIBA Hall of Fame player. Meneghin was inducted into the Walk of Fame of Italian sport in May of 2015.

Photo of Cesare Rubini

3. Cesare Rubini (1923 - 2011)

With an HPI of 55.35, Cesare Rubini is the 3rd most famous Italian Basketball Player.  His biography has been translated into 20 different languages.

Cesare Rubini (2 November 1923 – 8 February 2011) was an Italian professional basketball player and coach, and a water polo player. He was considered to be one of the greatest European basketball coaches of all time. Rubini was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1994, making him the first, and to this day, just one of three Italian basketball figures to receive such an honour, alongside Dino Meneghin and Sandro Gamba. He was also inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 2000. In 2002, he was awarded the FIBA Order of Merit. He was inducted into the Italian Basketball Hall of Fame, in 2006. He was also inducted into the FIBA Hall of Fame, in 2013. In 2015, he was inducted into the Walk of Fame of Italian sport.

Photo of Sergio Scariolo

4. Sergio Scariolo (b. 1961)

With an HPI of 53.77, Sergio Scariolo is the 4th most famous Italian Basketball Player.  His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Sergio Scariolo (born 1 April 1961) is an Italian professional basketball coach who is the head coach of Real Madrid of the Liga ACB and the EuroLeague. Having won four EuroBasket championships and a World Cup at the head of Spain, Scariolo is one of the most successful coaches in the history of international competitions, and according to many players, journalists and commentators, he is regarded as the greatest national team coach of all time.

Photo of Pierluigi Marzorati

5. Pierluigi Marzorati (b. 1952)

With an HPI of 51.75, Pierluigi Marzorati is the 5th most famous Italian Basketball Player.  His biography has been translated into 18 different languages.

Pierluigi "Pierlo" Marzorati (born 12 September 1952) is an Italian former professional basketball player. During his playing career, he was nicknamed "L'ingegnere volante" (EN: "The Flying Engineer"). He is considered to have been one of the best point guards of all time in Europe, and was named the Mister Europa, in 1976. He was named one of FIBA's 50 Greatest Players in 1991. In 2007, he was inducted into the Italian Basketball Hall of Fame and enshrined into the FIBA Hall of Fame. In 2008, he was chosen as one of the 50 Greatest EuroLeague Contributors. Marzorati was inducted into the Walk of Fame of Italian sport in May of 2015.

Photo of Reggie Jackson

6. Reggie Jackson (b. 1990)

With an HPI of 49.06, Reggie Jackson is the 6th most famous Italian Basketball Player.  His biography has been translated into 24 different languages.

Reginald Shon Jackson (born April 16, 1990), nicknamed Big Government and Mr. June, is an American professional basketball player who last played for the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played three seasons for the Boston College Eagles before declaring for the 2011 NBA draft, where he was drafted 24th overall by the Oklahoma City Thunder. Jackson has also played for the Detroit Pistons, Los Angeles Clippers, and Philadelphia 76ers. In 2023, Jackson won a championship with the Denver Nuggets.

Photo of Danilo Gallinari

7. Danilo Gallinari (b. 1988)

With an HPI of 48.00, Danilo Gallinari is the 7th most famous Italian Basketball Player.  His biography has been translated into 32 different languages.

Danilo Gallinari (Italian pronunciation: [daˈniːlo ɡalliˈnaːri]; born 8 August 1988) is an Italian professional basketball player who last played for the Vaqueros de Bayamón of the Baloncesto Superior Nacional (BSN). After spending his first four years as a professional in his native Italy, Gallinari was drafted sixth overall in the 2008 NBA draft by the New York Knicks. He played with the Knicks for two and a half seasons before being traded to the Denver Nuggets in 2011. Over the course of 16 seasons in the NBA, Gallinari also played for the Los Angeles Clippers, the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Atlanta Hawks, the Washington Wizards, and the Detroit Pistons.

Photo of Marco Belinelli

8. Marco Belinelli (b. 1986)

With an HPI of 47.74, Marco Belinelli is the 8th most famous Italian Basketball Player.  His biography has been translated into 34 different languages.

Marco Stefano Belinelli (Italian pronunciation: [ˈmarko beliˈnɛlli]; born 25 March 1986) is a former Italian professional basketball player. He was selected 18th overall in the 2007 NBA draft by the Golden State Warriors. In 2014, he won the NBA championship with the San Antonio Spurs, becoming the first Italian player to do so. He won the Three-Point Contest during the 2014 NBA All-Star Weekend. He played in the 2007, 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2017 editions of the FIBA EuroBasket and the 2006 and 2019 editions of the FIBA World Championship with the Italian national basketball team.

Photo of Antonello Riva

9. Antonello Riva (b. 1962)

With an HPI of 46.87, Antonello Riva is the 9th most famous Italian Basketball Player.  His biography has been translated into 14 different languages.

Antonello Riva (born 28 February 1962) is an Italian former professional basketball player. At 1.96 m (6 ft 5 in), he played at the shooting guard and small forward positions. During his playing career, he was nicknamed "Nembo Kid" (Italian version of Superman). Riva was named one of FIBA's 50 Greatest Players in 1991. In 2004, he was given an award to mark his being the top scorer of all-time in the top two Italian club league competitions. He is also the all-time leading scorer in the history of the senior men's Italian national team. He was named to the FIBA All-Time EuroStars Team in 2007. In 2008, he was named one of the 50 Greatest EuroLeague Contributors.

Photo of Andrea Bargnani

10. Andrea Bargnani (b. 1985)

With an HPI of 46.70, Andrea Bargnani is the 10th most famous Italian Basketball Player.  His biography has been translated into 33 different languages.

Andrea Bargnani (Italian pronunciation: [anˈdrɛːa barˈɲaːni]; born 26 October 1985) is an Italian former professional basketball player. The 7-foot (2.13 m) power forward-center played for Benetton Treviso in the Italian LBA and the EuroLeague before being selected first overall in the 2006 NBA draft by the Toronto Raptors. He spent 10 seasons in the NBA, including with the New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets, before ending his career with a stint in Spain during the 2016–17 season.

People

Pantheon has 31 people classified as Italian basketball players born between 1923 and 2001. Of these 31, 30 (96.77%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Italian basketball players include Ettore Messina, Dino Meneghin, and Sergio Scariolo. The most famous deceased Italian basketball players include Cesare Rubini. As of April 2024, 5 new Italian basketball players have been added to Pantheon including Antonello Riva, Massimo Bulleri, and Michele Mian.

Living Italian Basketball Players

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Deceased Italian Basketball Players

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Newly Added Italian Basketball Players (2025)

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous