On the last day of the year he made his voice heard for the last time. He had wished everyone a happy birthday in the employee chat a few hours beforehand. With his usual self-deprecation, he had confessed that he would barely be able to stay awake until midnight. 24 days later, Dr. Ezio Giani off. We loved him. Everyone wanted him. He was polite, friendly, measured, sarcastic. He has worked in basketball for almost thirty years, at Olimpia for eleven years. He also had experience in football. He had a beautiful family, two children: today the hug goes to Davide and Sara, his wife Antonella, his grandchildren.
Doctor Giani smoked a pipe, was a voracious reader, and when he was away he liked to take long walks and chat after dinner. Once the then Olimpia coach caught him warming up at the end of the bench reading a book. Ezio was like that. He enjoyed the little things in life and never wasted a minute.
One day in Caserta, after winning a game, even though the local fans were complaining and we were all anxious to get back to the dressing room, he sat on the bench and ignored the chaos that surrounded him. After a few minutes of seraphic calm, he stood up and returned to the locker room in complete calm. “It is an experience – he emphasized – after a few minutes I knew that they would calm down and I would go back in without being disturbed.”
But the experience wasn't enough for him in Rimini after winning the Italian Cup in 2017. The champagne spilled on the floor surprised him and sent him sprawling across the parquet to the laughter of those present.
He spent the day of his last birthday at the game. We surprised him by showing it on the big screen. He smiled in amazement as he accepted the forum's greetings. And he greeted his people, the basketball players, who loved him.
Manners, style, education and culture are the human qualities that distinguish him, but he does not stay in an environment without high professional qualities for more than thirty years. Giani was a proven doctor and in recent years also a mentor to his young colleagues, a wise man to anyone who needed his point of view. Practically everyone. He was the doctor of Olimpia, but not only the Olimpia player. It was Eziun, as we called him. He was a nice person.
