After 13 seasons in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague, Gigi Datome has announced his decision to retire from the sport of basketball at the end of this, his last summer playing for the Italian national team. The 35-year-old is ending his professional club career with a string of trophies that included becoming a EuroLeague champion with Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul in 2017. Datome saw out the final days of his career playing for EA7 Emporio Armani Milan, having returned to his native Italy in the summer of 2020.
Gigi Datome, charismatic 2017 EuroLeague champ, ends his club career
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Datome in the EuroLeague
For fans of the EuroLeague, Datome has felt like a constant presence. After all, the forward made his competition debut all the way back in the 2004-05 season with Montepaschi Siena – just seven days after his 17th birthday – and since then he has gone on to appear in 273 games. Datome's EuroLeague title means that he will forever be held in the highest regard at Fenerbahce, while he also has an All-EuroLeague Second Team honor to his name from the 2015-16 season, when he posted 12.4 points, 4.4 rebounds, 1.9 assists and a 13.3 PIR as the Turkish side reached the championship game, losing to CSKA Moscow.
Of his 273 appearances in the EuroLeague, Datome played 17 games with Siena across the 2004-05 and 2005-06 campaigns, 26 with Virtus Roma between 2008 and 2011, 159 with Fenerbahce between 2015 and 2020, and 69 in the colors of Milan over the last three seasons. In that time, he scored a total of 2,278 points, he grabbed 869 rebounds, he dished 248 assists, he had 131 steals and he blocked 64 shots. As such, his averages across those fixtures read as 8.3 points, 3.2 rebounds and a 7.8 PIR, but Datome was so much more than the numbers.
More than a basketball player
In sports, everybody loves a charismatic player – and that's exactly what Datome has been. His love for art and music is well publicized, as the EuroLeague Documentary team was able to discover while filming a feature on him during his Fenerbahce days, and he was always a popular player among fans of every team that he played for during his 20-year playing career. In particular, Fenerbahce fans will always remember the images of Datome getting his famous long hair cut on the parquet of Ulker Sports and Event Hall by teammate Pero Antic, following the team's EuroLeague Championship Game triumph over Olympiacos Piraeus. He has regularly been involved with One Team, Euroleague Basketball's corporate social responsibility (CSR) program, throughout the years, too.
Incredible domestic success
Following a career that saw him suit up for Siena (2003-07), Scafati (2007-08), Virtus Roma (2008-13), the Detroit Pistons (2013-15), the Boston Celtics (2015), Fenerbahce (2015-20) and Milan (2020-23), as well as the Italian national team, Datome has a trophy cabinet that he can be proud of. In addition to winning the Italian League (2004, 2022, 2023) and the Turkish League (2016, 2017, 2018) on three occasions each, he also lifted the Italian Cup twice (2021, 2022), the Turkish Cup three times (2016, 2019, 2020) and a couple of Turkish Super Cup titles (2016, 2017). Individually, he has been named the 2013 Italian League MVP, as well as the 2021 Italian Cup MVP, the 2016 Turkish League Finals MVP, the Turkish Cup Final MVP (2019, 2020) and the 2017 Turkish Super Cup MVP, among others. All in all, quite the list of achievements.
Today, EuroLeague fans say goodbye to a modern-day legend in Gigi Datome. At least he now has more time to enjoy some of his passions, like traveling, music and art. Here's to a unique career, Gigi!