Fabrizio Fasanella editor for Superbasket e Sportoutdoor24

Ph credits Fabrizio Fasanella (Instagram @FabrizioFasanella)

1) Hi Fabrizio, let’s jump into the past, on October 30th 2016 you wrote on Instagram “I started falling in love with basketball admiring Sasha Djordjevic dancing in the Olimpia jersey” is that what happened to you?

I would say yes. It was 2005, I was 8-9 years old and he was the player who immediately hypnotized me. It took him a few months in red and white to make me fall madly in love with this sport. My father has always been an Olimpia fan, so I used to watch the games with him. I still remember the fierce disappointment of Douglas’s shot in the final with Fortitudo. I couldn’t stop crying!

2) You started your career writing for Daily Basket, The Basketball Post and Pianeta Basket. When did you realize that journalism would be your future?

It all started during my high school years by opening a Facebook page dedicated to Danilo Gallinari. At that point Luigi Liguori and Silvana Bartuccelli, whom I will never stop thanking for trusting a 15-16 year old boy, they noticed this page and contacted me to join the ScoutingCenter.net project, which became The Basketball Post a few years later. I was really young when I started writing … I think it was in the third year of high school. And already in the fourth year, at 17, I was accredited for the Euroleague Final Four at the Forum and the Finals between Milan and Siena: emotions beyond words, all was bigger than me. I became fascinated with journalism in the middle school, when I visited the editorial staff of Corriere della Sera on via Solferino with my class. I was speechless. Besides I have always been a curious person and a writing lover. Now journalism is my present, we will see if it will strengthen in my future.

3) In 2018 at the age of 22, you joined the Superbasket editorial team. How did this opportunity impact on your career?

An incredible impact. I’ve always hoped for it and always believed in it, but I considered it as something further away from me. Getting there so early was a great satisfaction. Initially I was taken on as an online editor, then after a couple of months they offered me to start working for the paper too. My first articles for the magazine were published for the 40th anniversary of Superbasket: a debut that filled me with pride. In my head I thought: “Ok, maybe after a whole season on the website they will ask me to do something for the paper too”. Instead, the jump took place much, much earlier than I expected

4) You usually meet personalities related to the world of basketball. Who is a person that especially ispired you?

There were a couple of people that inspired me. Recently Dino Meneghin and Ettore Messina: two living legends of our sport, when they talk, you can only hear to them with open-mouthed. Interviewing these personalities is an honor. When you meet them, you immediately realize that you are dealing with personalities that rise above the others: you can notice by the way they speak, the tone of voice, the words they choose. It is as if they have a sort of aura. Going back to memories, I cannot forget the interview with Dante Calabria, my childhood idol, in a bar in the city center of Milan in 2017: a meaningful moment. Or the chats with Vittorio and Danilo Gallinari, the press conferences of David Blatt and Obradovic at the Forum … eye-opening meetings.

5) Which was an important suggestion that was essential for your career?

Journalism is more than writing an article using excellent Italian skills and being respectful of rules. Journalism is life: knowing how to observe, being curious, grasping in reality writing prompts to tell a story aligned with the editorial lines of newspapers or websites.
Being on the court, living events is essential, even the profession has totally changed and keep changing with an impressive speed. These are tips that several experts have constantly repeated to me. And they have been essential for approaching to “basketball” journalism and other themes for collaborations that I handle at the moment: I write about travel, wellness, health, fitness …