Ettore Messina

Club coaching career

Messina had two stints as head coach of Virtus Bologna, from 1989 to 1993 and from 1997 to 2002. In his first stint, he won the Italian Cup and the FIBA Cup Winners' Cup in the 1989–90 season, defeating Real Madrid in Florence, and added the Italian League championship in 1993. During his second stint, he led Virtus to EuroLeague championships in 1997–98 and 2000–01, along with Italian League titles in 1998 and 2001, and Italian Cup titles in 1999, 2001, and 2002.

He then moved to Benetton Treviso in 2002, succeeding Mike D'Antoni, and won the Italian League championship in 2003 and three Italian Cup titles, extending a streak of five consecutive Italian Cup titles across two clubs. In 2005, Messina joined CSKA Moscow and secured the EuroLeague title and the Triple Crown in his first season. He won a second EuroLeague championship with CSKA on 4 May 2008, defeating Maccabi Tel Aviv at the Final Four in Madrid.

He resigned from CSKA during the 2008–09 season after leading the team to a Russian Championship and the EuroLeague Final, and was offered a technical director position but had not decided whether to stay. On 18 June 2009, he was announced as head coach of Real Madrid, signing the next day, but resigned in March 2011 after poor performances. Messina was frequently linked to NBA coaching vacancies, including discussions for the Sacramento Kings role and rumors of joining the Toronto Raptors and San Antonio Spurs staffs. He eventually joined the Los Angeles Lakers as a full-time consultant to head coach Mike Brown for the 2011–12 season.

National team coaching career

Messina was head coach of the senior Italian national team from 1993 to 1997, coaching at EuroBasket in 1993 and 1995, and leading Italy to a silver medal at the 1997 EuroBasket. He coached Italy at the 2016 Turin FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament, where they lost to Croatia and failed to qualify. He also coached Italy at the 2017 EuroBasket.