MyGen | Mattia Santinon, Pallacanestro Brescia
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basketball becomes a mirror of contemporary culture: something to listen to, to explore, free from stereotypes and outdated frameworks.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: Mattia Santinon, class of 2006, Pallacanestro Brescia
“Basketball is a passion my father passed down to me. He used to bring me to the arena to watch Varese play in Serie A1, and I fell in love instantly. It truly was love at first sight: the crowd erupting after a big play, the players lifting each other up, that whole raw electricity. I was four when they put me into minibasket, still tiny, and from there the path just stretched longer and longer, all the way to where I am now, here in Verona for the NextGen.
Leaving Varese for Stella Azzurra Roma changed me. It was the first big step. It made me grow up. At fifteen, I left home, stepped into a new life, a new rhythm. I had to adapt. And it was beautiful, full of experiences that will stay with me forever. Basketball let me travel, see things, discover things. It was honestly… incredible.
Was I afraid? Good question. At the beginning, sure, you get that doubt: “Will I really make it?” Real fear? No. But uncertainty, yes. And I still feel it sometimes.
You never truly know what’s coming next. But I think that’s part of the beauty of it: it keeps you working, keeps you sharp. Keeps you alive.
What basketball gives you… that’s everything. That emotion that makes you feel awake, present, alive. For me, basketball is literally everything. I spend my whole day in the gym, from morning to night. What this ball gives me is something unique. It makes me feel alive. Exactly that.
In Brescia, I’m lucky enough to train with the first team. It feels like being at the university of basketball. I chose to leave Rome because I wanted to learn: expand what I can do, understand the Game at a deeper level. And now I’m on a roster with Amedeo Della Valle, Nikola Ivanović, Miro Bilan… players with years and years of experience.
It’s incredible to watch the tiny details that separate them. For example, Della Valle’s off-ball movement, the way he creates just enough space to get off that famous shot. Or Ivanović helping me understand reads, pace, timing. These are things you only learn by being there. By living it every day.
Every time I step into the Serie A arenas, I see the kid I used to be: sitting in the stands with my dad watching Varese. And now I’m on the court. The emotion is the same, just louder. So I watch, I study, I absorb. And when I get the chance, I try to show who I am.
Being the twelfth man, the young guy pulled up to the first team, is not easy. In practice you must always be ready, or you get swallowed. You need a strong mind. Even in games: the coach might suddenly call your name, and you walk onto the court with 5,000 people watching. It’s not simple. It’s mental work: constant mental work. I’m learning.
Playmaking is an art form. The playmaker is the engine: the one who gives rhythm, who reads situations, who brings everyone together. The pick-and-roll itself is a specific art. You only master it through work, repetition, experience: hundreds of games, even youth games like the NextGen ones. Having teammates like Ivanović or Della Valle is definitely helping my evolution in this position.
I have to agree with those who say modern point guards aren’t ‘true playmakers’ anymore. The role is changing. Today’s point guards can do everything: score, create, initiate, finish. The pure playmaker is fading a little. Whether that makes the game more beautiful or less… I’m not sure. But it’s changing.
Now the ‘real’ playmakers tend to be taller, over 1.90, players who can see, read, and manipulate the floor differently than someone my height. That’s why I feel a point guard more than a playmaker. Basketball is faster, more physical, maybe less graceful. But still beautiful in its own way. And definitely fun to watch. So yes: we take it as it is. That’s evolution.
Outside basketball, my biggest passion is travel. The Game has already allowed me to see so much, and I love discovering new cultures, new cities, new styles. As soon as I get time off, that’s the first thing I want to do: travel.
My dream has always been to play in Serie A1. It’s the dream I’ve carried since I was a kid in the stands. And now, yes, I’m technically ‘there’, I’m on the bench, I’m part of it. But the real dream is to play. To be a protagonist. And I believe I’m on the right road.”
