The family, wife and two children, had already sent her back to Italy a week ago, then he waited a few days before getting on the plane that took him from Moscow to Istanbul and from there, after two days of traveling in Italy. Where the contract until 2024 with Virtus Bologna. Daniel Hackett returns to Italian basketball and does so with the depth of those who, in recent years, have proven to be a player capable of making a difference at the highest levels. Not that when he left our country, in 2015 after winning the Scudetto, Coppa Italia and Supercoppa, complete with three MVP titles, with Siena and a Scudetto with Milan, he was of lower caliber, also considering the weight he had in the national team , but the experiences made with Olympiacos, with attached national title, Bamberg and CSKA with which he put two national titles on the showcase with the icing of an MVP trophy but above all, in 2019 the Euroleague in the final with Efes , have included him by right among that elite of players that you cannot do without if you want to win something. And also this year his role in the Russian team was fundamental, then the situation worsened, Putin invading Ukraine, the sanctions against Russia banned from politics and sport, including the Euroleague, the concern for the family and in the meantime the players, not only basketball, who return to their respective countries, have changed the horizon and Daniel has really put us little to decide: away from there to go home. Meanwhile Virtus, attentive to the situation with its general manager Paolo Ronci, moved immediately: a player of the thickness of Hackett, alongside champions such as Beli and Teodosic and all the others, would have made it even stronger, in Italy but also in Europe where the goal of reaching the Euroleague through the Eurocup had been declared from the beginning. It took him very little to put his signature under a contract until 2024 with the bar of expectations rising a lot but with an extra guarantee: Daniel Hackett he knows how to win.
Baraldi: “Hackett will add character to our team”
“I thank our President Massimo Zanetti for the umpteenth demonstration of availability and generosity, which allowed our Company to acquire the sporting performances of Daniel Hackett – said the CEO of Virtus, Luca Baraldi -. The latter arrived, after one complex and difficult negotiation conducted once again with great patience and skillful mastery by our DG Paolo Ronci, enriches the extensive list of players who represent the best expression of Italian basketball both nationally and internationally. I’m sure Daniel can add that extra point of characternecessary for a team that has been built to achieve important sporting goals. “
Daniel Hackett’s career
Play-guard of 196cm, Hackett was born in Forlimpopoli on December 19, 1987.
He grew up in the youth academies of Pesaro, the city where he lived for a long time before flying across the ocean, at the Bellflower St. John Bosco High School. Then theUniversity of Southern California where he plays with the Trojans shirt. In 2009 his first season as a professional, after returning to Italy, with the jersey of Benetton Treviso. In the following season the passage to Pesaro, where he remains for two consecutive championships. In July 2012 the signing with Siena with which he wins the championship and receives the MVP award of the finals; in the same year he was also MVP of the Italian Cup and the Italian Super Cup won by the Tuscan team. In the 2013/2014 season after the first months in Siena, the transition toOlimpia Milan where he still wins a championship. In the summer of 2015 he leaves Italy to join theOlympiacos where with the red and white of Piraeus he won a championship. After two seasons in the Greek team he moves on to Bambergbefore moving to the CSKA Moscow: with the Russian team he reaches the championship victory twice, with the MVP award in the 2020-2021 season, once the Russian Super Cup and a Euroleague final in the 2018-2019 season. Daniel Hackett also counts 114 appearances with the Italian national team.
