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ROME (Italy) – Achille Polonara will not be on the court with Italy at FIBA EuroBasket 2025 but he will be there in spirit.
Point guard Marco Spissu announced he will wear No. 33 to honor his teammate Polonara, who is currently battling cancer.
Spissu has been playing with the senior national team since 2021 and always wore No. 0. But for this tournament, he will take Polonara’s number.
Polonara played almost the entire 2024-25 season for eventual champions Virtus Bologna in the Italian league. He appeared just briefly in the first two games of the Semi-Finals in June before being diagnosed with myeloid leukemia.
The 33-year-old forward, who played with Spissu for three seasons at the Italian club Dinamo Sassari, recently finished his second cycle of chemotherapy and continues to recover.
The diagnosis came less than a year after Polonara had overcome another major health battle. In October 2023, he was treated for a testicular tumor, which was successfully removed. He made his return to the court in mid-December that same year.
Polonara has long been a key figure for the Italian national team. He appeared most recently in two FIBA EuroBasket 2025 Qualifiers games, having also competed in the 2015 and 2022 EuroBaskets, the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023, the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, the 2024 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Puerto Rico.
Italian captain Nicolo Melli said Polonara remains involved with the team.
“From the U20 level on, I’ve basically spent every summer with Achille. He’s part of this group. We always call and text him, and he’s in the ‘secret’ team group chat with only the players. We always keep him in mind while preparing for EuroBasket. Hopefully we’ll be able to get some satisfaction for him as well,” Melli said.
Italy will be facing Greece on August 28 to start play in Group C in Limassol.
FIBA