Bologna, 20 March –
Nico Mannion was interviewed on Euroleague’s microphones and talked about his life experience, his family’s support, and much more: ‘Actually, when I was born, my father was an Italian citizen, so technically I was born of two Italian parents. My father was already here for 13 years, now speaks fluently and embraced the culture just as I did growing up. I spent a month of every summer in Rome. My mother’s entire family still lives in Rome. I think my mother has done a great job of maintaining Italian culture. In America, for example, family dinners are not a big thing. People live their day, they eat when they can. My mother made sure that we sat together every night as a family. She cooked or my father grilled, but we sat together as a family. Of course we had dinner later, like Italians. Americans like to eat earlier. When I was little and started speaking, I mixed languages, because I didn’t know the difference between Italian and English, because I heard both. Growing up, my mother only spoke to me in Italian and my father in English, so I learnt to separate them. I never learned a language, but I had to learn to separate them, which was interesting. My mother is tough, she’s super competitive. Both my parents were athletes, of course, and I think I got my competitive side from both of them, but my mother is very competitive, she played volleyball. I always joked with my dad that I got my athletic ability from my mum, he’s not that athletic, to tease him. She is my rock, one of the best people I have ever been around. She’s there for me through thick and thin, she’s really my support. To me she is like a superwoman, she can do anything. He used to tell me stories and say: ‘You’ll like it over there’, because when I decided to come here he told me how much he liked it and said that when I got here I would never want to go back to the United States. He’s not wrong, I love it here too. You never know where life will take you and I have had my share of ups and downs. Having that open mindset, knowing that there will always be a brighter day and also knowing that when you’re having a good day you can think ‘It’s OK to have a bad day or not feel good one day’ helps you with everything. Nothing is final, you have to take the good with the bad, move forward step by step and keep fighting and doing what you love to do.”
Full interview on the Euroleague website
