Ettore Messina (born 30 September 1959) is an Italian professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

coach who is the head coach of

Olimpia Milano Pallacanestro Olimpia Milano, commonly known as Olimpia Milano or as EA7 Emporio Armani Milan after its title sponsor, is an LBA Italian professional basketball team, based in Milan, Italy. Its colors are white and red, and the team is sometimes ...

of the Italian

Lega Basket Serie A The Lega Basket Serie A (LBA) is a professional men's club (sport), club basketball list of basketball leagues, league that has been organised in Italy since 1920. Serie A is organised by Lega Basket, which is regulated by the Italian Basketball ...

(LBA). He has won four EuroLeague championships as a

head coach A head coach, senior coach, or manager is a professional responsible for training and developing athletes within a sports team. This role often has a higher public profile and salary than other coaching positions. In some sports, such as associat ...

. Messina is regarded as one of the best European basketball coaches of all time, having been named one of the 50 Greatest EuroLeague Contributors in 2008. He was named the Italian League's Best Coach three times, in the years 1998, 2001, and 2005. Furthermore, he has been named EuroLeague's Coach of the Year twice, in 2006 and 2008. He was inducted into the Italian Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008, and into the Russian VTB United League Hall of Fame, in 2019. Messina also previously worked with the

San Antonio Spurs The San Antonio Spurs are an American professional basketball team based in San Antonio. The Spurs compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southwest Division (NBA), Southwest Division of the Western Conference (NBA ...

, as an assistant coach for

Gregg Popovich Gregg Charles Popovich (born January 28, 1949) is an American professional basketball executive and former coach who is the president for the San Antonio Spurs of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was the List of current NBA head co ...

, from 2014 to 2019.

Club coaching career

Virtus Bologna

Messina had two different stints (1989–1993 and 1997–2002) as the

at the Italian League team, Virtus Bologna. In the 1989–90 season, he won the Italian Cup and also the second-tier level European-wide league, the FIBA Cup Winners' Cup, against

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

, in

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

. He also won the Italian League national championship in 1993. During his second stint at Virtus, he coached the team to win the first-tier level European-wide EuroLeague championship, in both 1997–98 and 2000–01. He also added two Italian League championships to his trophy case in 1998 and 2001, as well as three Italian Cup titles in 1999, 2001, and 2002.

Benetton Treviso

Messina then served as the head coach of the Italian League club Benetton Treviso, where he succeeded Mike D'Antoni as head coach, in 2002. He stayed there for 3 seasons. With Treviso, he won the Italian League championship in 2003, and also the Italian Cup title thrice, adding them to a total streak of 5 consecutive titles, with two different clubs.

CSKA Moscow

Messina then joined the Russian club CSKA Moscow in 2005, and led the team to the EuroLeague's 2005–06 title, and the coveted Triple Crown, in his first season there. On 4 May 2008, CSKA won the EuroLeague championship again under Messina - the club gained its sixth EuroLeague title by downing Maccabi Tel Aviv at the 2007–08 Madrid edition of the EuroLeague Final Four. He resigned from CSKA immediately after leading them to a Russian Championship and the EuroLeague Final, during the 2008–09 season. He was offered a position as the technical director at CSKA, but at the time of his resignation, he had not decided whether or not he wanted to stay with the club.

Real Madrid

Messina was announced as the new head coach of the Spanish League club

, on 18 June 2009, and signed his contract with the club the following day. After Real Madrid had several poor performances, Messina resigned from the club's head coach position, in March 2011.

Los Angeles Lakers

Messina was frequently the subject of speculation linking him with vacant coaching jobs in the NBA. For example, he was one of the many coaches in the discussion for the

Sacramento Kings The Sacramento Kings are an American professional basketball team based in Sacramento, California. The Kings compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division (NBA), Pacific Division of the Western Confere ...

head coaching role, and it was also rumored that he would join the

Toronto Raptors The Toronto Raptors are a Canadian professional basketball team based in Toronto. The Raptors compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NBA), Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference (NBA), E ...

and

coaching staffs. Messina eventually agreed to join the

Los Angeles Lakers The Los Angeles Lakers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Lakers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division (NBA), Pacific Division of the Western Conference (NBA ...

, as part of head coach Mike Brown's coaching staff, as a full-time consultant to the head coach, for the 2011–12 season.

Return to CSKA Moscow

In June 2012, Messina decided to leave his job as a consultant for the

, and he returned to CSKA Moscow, to become the team's head coach. In June 2014, he parted ways with CSKA Moscow.

San Antonio Spurs

On 15 July 2014, Messina was hired by the

, as an assistant coach. On 16 October 2014, Messina would coach the Spurs in a 121–90 preseason win against the Phoenix Suns, due to

being unable to travel with the team at the time. Messina would later take on the role of the World Team's head coach in the

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

NBA Rising Stars Challenge. On 7–8 March 2016, Messina again served as head coach of the Spurs, for two games, due to

leaving the team for a family emergency. On 19 April 2018, Messina temporarily took over head coaching duties of the team in their playoff series versus the

Golden State Warriors The Golden State Warriors are an American professional basketball team based in San Francisco. The Warriors compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference. Founded in 1946 i ...

, due to Popovich having left the team in light of his wife's death the previous night.

Olimpia Milano

On 11 June 2019, Messina signed a three-year contract, and agreed to become the new head coach and President of Basketball Operations of the Italian club

National team coaching career

From 1993 to 1997 Messina was the head coach of the senior men's Italian national basketball team. He coached Italy at the 1993 EuroBasket and the 1995 EuroBasket, and he also led Italy to the silver medal at the 1997 EuroBasket. In 2016, Messina took a short leave of absence from the San Antonio Spurs, in order to return as the head coach of the Azzurri, with the goal of qualifying for the 2016 Rio Summer Olympic Game. Messina coached Italy at the 2016 Turin FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament. At the qualification tournament, Italy lost to

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

, and thus failed to qualify to the 2016 Summer Olympics. He also coached Italy at the 2017 EuroBasket.

Coaching record

, - , align="left" rowspan=6, Virtus Bologna , align="left" , 1991–92 , 19, , 13, , 6, , , , align="center" , Lost in Quarterfinal Playoffs , - , align="left" , 1992–93 , 16, , 8, , 8, , , , align="center" , Lost in Quarterfinal Playoffs , - ! style="background:#FDE910;" , align="left" , 1997–98 , 22, , 19, , 3, , , , align="center" , Won EuroLeague Championship , - , align="left" , 1998–99 , 23, , 15, , 8, , , , align="center" , Lost in EuroLeague Finals , - ! style="background:#FDE910;" , align="left" , 2000–01 , 23, , 20, , 3, , , , align="center" , Won EuroLeague Championship , - , align="left" , 2001–02 , 22, , 17, , 5, , , , align="center" , Lost in EuroLeague Finals , - , align="left" rowspan=3,

Treviso Treviso ( ; ; ) is a city and (municipality) in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 87.322 inhabitants (as of December 2024). Some 3,000 live within the Venetian wall ...

, align="left" , 2002–03 , 22, , 18, , 4, , , , align="center" , Lost in EuroLeague Finals , - , align="left" , 2003–04 , 20, , 14, , 6, , , , align="center" , Eliminated at Top 16 Stage , - , align="left" , 2004–05 , 22, , 12, , 10, , , , align="center" , Lost in Quarterfinal Playoffs , - , align="left" rowspan=5, CSKA Moscow , - ! style="background:#FDE910;" , align="left" , 2005–06 , 24, , 19, , 5, , , , align="center" , Won EuroLeague Championship , - , align="left" , 2006–07 , 25, , 22, , 3, , , , align="center" , Lost in EuroLeague Finals , - ! style="background:#FDE910;" , align="left" , 2007–08 , 25, , 20, , 5, , , , align="center" , Won Euroleague Championship , - , align="left" , 2008–09 , 21, , 16, , 5, , , , align="center" , Lost in EuroLeague Finals , - , align="left" rowspan=2,

, align="left" , 2009–10 , 20, , 12, , 8, , , , align="center" , Lost in Quarterfinal Playoffs , - , align="left" , 2010–11 , 16, , 11, , 5, , , , align="center" , (resigned) , - , align="left" rowspan=2, CSKA Moscow , align="left" , 2012–13 , 26, , 21, , 5, , , , align="center" , Lost in EuroLeague Semifinals , - , align="left" , 2013–14 , 31, , 22, , 9, , , , align="center" , Lost in EuroLeague Semifinals , - , align="left" rowspan=3, AX Armani Exchange Milan , align="left" , 2019-20 , 28, , 12, , 16, , , , align="center" , Season was cancelled due to the

Covid-19 Pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, - , align="left" , 2020-21 , 41, , 25, , 16, , , , align="center" , Lost in EuroLeague Semifinals , - , align="left" , 2021-22 , , , , , , , , , , -class="sortbottom" , align="center" colspan=2, Career, , 377, , 279, , 98, , , ,

Domestic Leagues

, - , align="left" , PBC CSKA Moscow , align="left" , 2007–08 , 32, , 31, , 1, , .9688 , , align="center", Won 2008 Russian Super League 1 Finals , - , align="left" , PBC CSKA Moscow , align="left" , 2008–09 , 32, , 30, , 2, , .9375 , , align="center", Won 2009 Russian Super League 1 Finals , - , align="left" ,

, align="left" , 2009–10 , 42, , 31, , 11, , .7381 , , align="center", Lost 2010 Liga ACB Second Round , - , align="left" ,

, align="left" , 2010–11 , 40, , 29, , 11, , .7250 , , align="center", Lost 2011 Liga ACB Second Round , - , align="left" , PBC CSKA Moscow , align="left" , 2012–13 , 31, , 24, , 7, , .7742 , , align="center", Won 2013 VTB United League Finals , - , align="left" , PBC CSKA Moscow , align="left" , 2013–14 , 29, , 24, , 5, , .8276 , , align="center", Won 2014 VTB United League Finals , - , align="left" , AX Armani Exchange Olimpia Milan , align="left" , 2019–20 , 21, , 14, , 7, , .7500 , , align="center", League cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, - , align="left" , AX Armani Exchange Olimpia Milan , align="left" , 2020–21 , 38, , 28, , 10, , .7368 , , align="center", Lost 2021 Italian League Finals , -class="sortbottom" , align="center" colspan=2, Career, , 265, , , 213, , , 52, , .8038, ,

References

External links

Euroleague.net Coaching ProfileSpanish League Coaching Profile

Italian League Coaching Profile

50 Greatest EuroLeague Contributors Ettore Messina
{{DEFAULTSORT:Messina, Ettore 1959 births Living people EuroLeague–winning coaches Italian basketball coaches Italian expatriate basketball people in Russia Italian expatriate basketball people in Spain Italian expatriate basketball people in the United States Italian expatriate sportspeople in Russia Liga ACB head coaches FIBA Hall of Fame inductees Olimpia Milano coaches Pallacanestro Treviso coaches PBC CSKA Moscow coaches Real Madrid basketball coaches San Antonio Spurs assistant coaches Virtus Bologna coaches