Milon

I had high expectations for Milan, Italy because of my previous Italy experience from Rome, but Milan turned out to be somewhat of a disappointment. It may be my fault because I didn’t research well enough but I went to 4 different courts within the city of Milan and 2 of them were under construction or completely gone, 1 of them was reserved and the 4th court I was finally able to play.

I blame Google for the 2 that were no longer there because I do map out the courts on Google maps before I head over and even check satellite view to make sure the courts are actually there. Google maps showed both courts on satellite view…but they were actually no longer there in real life…

Basket Argonne – I spy a basketball court…nope, I think they were renovating the subway underneath so the entire area was under construction…

Parco Sempione – This is definitely a basketball court right? Nope, it’s now just a large concrete block with a crane in the middle of it. No hoops near here.

PlayMore! – This one was an interesting sportsplex that hosted a lot of outdoor courts such as volleyball, soccer and a basketball court. The basketball court had some pretty good looking ballers warming up, but as I was walking to the court hoping to just walk in and play, someone working there put up a signed that said ‘Reserved Court”. I am assuming this group of friends or team reserved the court to practice or play. I was unable to get in so I left to go and find my final court

Campetto di basket – Finally a real court. I don’t know the actual name of the court but here’s the address from google: Via Giovanni Battista Sammartini, 37, 20125 Milano MI, Italië

As for this post, I will only be talking about the Campetto di basket court.

I went on a Tuesday evening.

Finding and getting to the court (8 – Hop off a train and start balling)

Extremely easy getting to this court as it is right next to Milano Centrale, the cities biggest transportation hub. It’s so close to the train station that passengers waiting for their trains could probably catch a glimpse of people playing.

This court is within a very small park (if you call it a park…)

The Basketball Court (6 – very small court but surprisingly well maintained)

I was surprised by the number of good quality aspects of this court including well painted lines for out of bounds, free throw line, 3-point line, half court line and jump ball circle. The backboard was soft, the rims were single rims, and most surprisingly, the nets were standard mesh polyester. I was expecting chain or no nets for outdoor courts but this was a good surprise to have.

The court surface was pretty standard material but the court itself was small. It was short length-wise and width-wise. The width was so short that there were no corner 3’s and the 3 point line just went directly out of bounds.

The Players (5 – Young kids playing hard)

Some of my readers (and editors haha) pointed out that my previous post about London was a bit harsh and that I should be nicer to people playing basketball. I’m just telling it like it was and if you want a fair review, you’ll just have to deal with my critique.

BUT, I will say I am going to have to go neutral here for Milan because the group of kids I played with were probably all no older than 19, probably in high school or college, and still developing their game. I also had some fun because I was one of the taller players out there which never ever happens, so I enjoyed that a bit.

Almost all the players here understood the game of basketball so I did not have to endure playing with those who have never touched a ball before. A couple kids had good enough handles where I couldn’t steal it from them every play. Three kids had relatively good jump shots where they hit a high percentage of shots, and two kids used their size and strengths to their advantage – bodying up people around the basket.

The decision making on some of their passes or shots weren’t the greatest but I will let this slide as they are still developing their game. Everyone was very nice and I may have even gotten lucky to play because when I showed up, there was probably 15 people shooting around, but when they decided to play a 5 on 5 game, only 9 wanted to play so they needed one and asked me.

The Game (8 – I had fun because I was one of the tallest people there)

I honestly had no idea what we were playing up to. Everyone spoke Italian (or their native language..) and I should have probably asked someone, but I didn’t, and now have no idea what we played to. If I had to guess, we played up to 21 with 2’s and 3’s.

The games were fast paced as a lot of young kids felt like every play was a fast break. The other team even had 2 guards who pressed a lot. That was probably smart as it’s very easy to press on this court because it’s so short length wise. In any standard court, it would be like picking them up at mid court. It’s definitely a guard’s game here because of the size of players, but I had fun roaming the paint as I tried out my rarely seen post moves.

Some players checked the ball after a dead ball, while others just started playing right away. I wasn’t really sure which was correct so I always had someone else take it out at the top of the key.

Conclusion

It took a while, but I finally found a court to play basketball on in Milan. Its backdrop is the Milano Centrale train station so it provides somewhat of a scenery. The court was filled with young kids who are just out there to get better and enjoy their youth playing basketball. As someone who is a bit older and looking for a game a bit more competitive (and bigger…it’s never good if I am the biggest player out there), I would probably spend my next visit to Milan looking for another basketball court to play on. (Some of you may ask…”well maybe just come back another day to see if other people play there?” and the answer to that would be “yes I did and it was the same group of people.”)