MyGen | Davide Marini, Reyer Venezia

Basketball is a matter of time and space, yet it’s also the only Game capable of living, and adapting, in every time and every space. Generation after generation. To understand where the Game stands today, and where it’s headed, there’s no lens sharper than the voices of the LBA NextGen Cup, the highest expression of Italy’s youth basketball system. 

They embody the quintessence of that so-called poetry in motion: the vocation of a sport that, by its very nature, leans forward, toward progress, toward evolution. In the shifting rhythms and expanding spaces shaped by this new wave, basketball becomes a mirror of contemporary culture: something to listen to, to explore, free from stereotypes and outdated frameworks. This is MyGen. A series of visions of the Game as it is, and as it will become.

Our guest: Davide Marini, class of 2007, Reyer Venezia

“I first came close to basketball because of my dad. When I was born, he was playing for a club in Venice: Marghera. Then, he played for Reyer Venezia the year they earned promotion to B1 (3rd Italian League) against Trento. I obviously don’t remember those seasons; I was zero, one year old. But as I grew up, I was always with him at the gym. Always watching. Always following. He opened that world for me. He put a ball in my hands, took me with him to games, and for that I’ll thank him forever.

Reyer Venezia is the club that raised me. As a player and as a person. I owe them something fundamental, something enormous.

Representing Reyer in competitions like the NextGen means everything to me. There is no other club. I’ve been here eight, nine years, I even lose count, and every day I’m more proud to wear this jersey.

Growing up near the Taliercio shaped me even more. Seeing players walk in every day, being so close to that world… it leaves a mark. I live two minutes away. I enter the arena and I still feel something. I still get chills. I see the banners, I think about the big shots: like Bramos’ in Game 5 against Trento in 2017. I can still picture it. That feeling doesn’t fade.

There are a thousand things I love about basketball. The dunks, the threes, sure, but also everything around them. Arriving an hour early to warm up, being in the locker room, talking with teammates before tip-off. From the moment you walk into the arena to the moment you step out… it’s a unique feeling. Nothing else gives me that.

People say our generation approaches the Game more superficially. I think it’s true, at least a little. I grew up on old-school models. I watched tons of old games, really old ones, even on VHS and DVD. I learned from a different basketball culture. So a lot of what I see now feels… too showy, too Americanized for my taste. It’s the direction the Game is taking, and maybe it will stay this way forever. But adapting to it, for someone like me, isn’t always easy. When I see players dancing before games, for example, I lose my mind a little. It bothers me. I say nothing, I watch in silence, but inside I’m thinking: “What is he doing?” It’s not just dancing, there’s a whole collection of little things that feel foreign to me.

My icon, my model, my idol is Marco Belinelli. He’s unbelievable. Out of this world, to me. Then of course my dad: there are tapes of him playing that I still watch. And Danilović, the few games I’ve been able to find… unreal. But Belinelli is the one.

As a player, I don’t feel a perfect comparison to anyone right now. My strengths? Definitely the three-point shot. Then my movement: trying to be as quick and agile as possible, taking the defender’s timing, thinking one step ahead. Always trying to see the Game slightly before others do. 

I work constantly on my shooting. Progress must be continuous: speed, execution, footwork. If I think about a simple action like coming off a screen… that motion made me fall in love with the Game. I try to replicate Marco Belinelli, even though it’s incredibly hard. Maybe one shot out of forty feels like the one I imagined. But just being able to try, and occasionally succeed, is everything.

The best thing about my generation is courage. We want to step forward. We want to show our value. You see it in Trento’s first team right now: guys our age who want to prove they belong. Talent depends on a thousand details, but that desire to emerge? That’s what I like the most about us.

My dream is to be happy. As long as I enjoy the Game, as long as basketball gives me joy, I’ll keep playing. Happiness is the real goal.”