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The game was also attended by Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra, who came to watch two Heat players face off against each other. For Serbia, Heat forward Nikola Jovic finished with five points in 11 minutes before fouling out. For Italy, fellow Heat forward Simone Fontecchio scored 15 points, knocking down three of his eight attempts from beyond the arc. Serbia’s biggest star, Nikola Jokic, also had a relatively quiet game by his standards, finishing with eight points and eight rebounds in the win.
Ira Winderman: In another World Cup qualifying game Friday, Heat forward Simone Fontecchio closed with 14 points on 5-of-12 shooting (1 of 4 on 3-pointers) in Italy's 78-75 loss to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Fontecchio added six rebounds in his 30:28, with his team done in by the 25 points and 14 rebounds of Jusuf Nurkic.
Simone Fontecchio: "We didn't even consider returning to Europe this summer. So I don't even know: we didn't look for any offers. When this opportunity in Miami came up, I just accepted." He's approaching 31 and has signed a one-year contract. What are your thoughts going forward? "Nothing at the moment, to be honest. I'm just trying to enjoy what's ahead of me: these two international matches, followed by a super exciting year professionally. I'm happy that my family can stay in the same place for two years in a row: the place where I want to be, and I feel wanted and appreciated. I'm not even thinking about next year."
Simone Fontecchio: My desire was to stay in the NBA, possibly in Miami. The club's decisions were clear from the start, making a major move to acquire a Hall of Famer like Antetokounmpo. I saw an opportunity to play for a team with real championship ambitions. It was an opportunity for me, for the organization, for the city, and for the team to try and achieve something bigger. I'm very excited and curious to meet him and see what it's like to play with him. The fact that they really wanted me even before free agency reassured me and made me even more inclined to stay.
What if we say Los Angeles 2028? Simone Fontecchio: “It's my biggest dream: to be able to participate in another Olympics, especially the one in Los Angeles like my dad did in 1984 in the 110m hurdles. But it's even more difficult, let's take it step by step.”
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Simone Fontecchio delivered a game-high 21 points to lead Italy past Estonia in a World Cup Qualifiers warm-up game in Trento. Italy secured an 83-61 victory after outscoring Estonia 27-13 in the third quarter and taking complete control after a closely contested first half.
Miami Heat training camps are considered among the toughest in the NBA, but Simone Fontecchio had already experienced something even more demanding under Dusko Ivanovic at Baskonia. “Last year, Spoelstra asked me whether Miami’s training camp was the hardest I had ever experienced,” Fontecchio told the YouTube channel La Giornata Tipo. “I said that, if it made him happy, I could say it was. In the NBA, yes. But not in my entire life.”
Fontecchio joined Baskonia immediately after representing Italy at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. His Olympic campaign ended on August 8, while Ivanovic’s preseason began two days later. “I was still in Japan and had to stop in Italy, so I very timidly asked Dusko if I could arrive later,” he recalled. “He said: ‘Of course. We start on the 10th, but you can come on the 12th.’” After a 13-hour journey, Fontecchio reached Vitoria around lunchtime and assumed he would be given time to recover. “Dusko told me: ‘Go and complete your physical tests. Practice is scheduled for 4 p.m., but don’t worry—we’ll move it to 6 p.m. so you can join us.’”
In a Zoom session with reporters on Friday morning, Heat forward Simone Fontecchio said he’s excited about playing with Giannis Antetokounmpo and said it was an easy decision to return to Miami, even on a minimum deal that will pay him $2.6 million next season. Fontecchio, who became the second person in the organization to speak extensively about the not-yet-announced Antetokounmpo trade, said the two-time MVP “can make life for other people around me so much easier. I know people who play with him in previous teams. As a shooter that’s something you look for. [There will be] more room [for shooters]: It’s going to make my life so much easier. I hope to make his life easier too.”
Speaking of his own decision to re-sign, he said: “I always wanted to stay in Miami. Last week, they said, ‘Listen we don’t have much room to operate.’ [But] my thought process was I want to stay here. I want to put some continuity to what I was doing here. There is a real big opportunity for the Heat with the Giannis trade and what it’s going to mean for the franchise and city.”
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He said he spoke to Spoelstra before re-signing at the minimum. “I wanted to talk to him directly,” Fontecchio said. “We had a great conversation. I wanted to ask him a couple things. It wasn’t like he had to convince me. I was pretty much convinced. Hearing his voice, hearing his thought process and wanting me to stay helped me.” He said he “didn’t want to ask” about whether he would be a rotation player: “I’m not the type of guy that asks for reassurance. It’s dumb for me to ask for a guarantee. I know my role last year [as an occasional rotation player]. “I’m always ready, [a guy who] doesn’t complain, always positive in the locker room.”
Shams Charania: Free agent Simone Fontecchio intends to sign a one-year deal to return to the Miami Heat, sources tell ESPN. Heat officials worked with Fontecchio's agent at Excel Sports Management, Sam Goldfeder, to bring back the shooter who averaged 8.5 points and 37.5% 3-point shooting.
