Background
A 2.06 m (6 ft 9 in) tall center, Meneghin was born in Alano di Piave, Veneto (northeast Italy).
A 2.06 m (6 ft 9 in) tall center, Meneghin was born in Alano di Piave, Veneto (northeast Italy).
He is widely considered as the best Italian player ever, as well as one of Europe"s all-time greats. On November 20, 1966, when he was 16 years old, he played his first match in the Italian League with Ignis Varese. He played the last match of his career at the age of 45.
Today, he works for the Italian Basketball Federation and for the club Olimpia Milano.
On August 20, 2010, Meneghin was inducted into the International Basketball Federation Hall of Fame, in recognition of his play in international competition. In total, he played in 836 games and scored 8,560 points in the Italian Championship.
With the Italian national basketball team, he played in 271 games and totaled 2,847 points scored. Meneghin became the second player from a European league to be drafted by an National Basketball Association team when the Atlanta Hawks manager Marty Blake selected him with a late-round pick in the 1970 National Basketball Association Draft.
He never played in the United States of America, however.
In 1991, he was named the greatest European basketball player of all time by Giganti del Basket. On September 5, 2003, he became the second Italian player to enter into the Basketball Hall of Fame after Cesare Rubini, who served Olimpia Milano, both as player and coach between the 1940s and the 1970s. One of the greatest records of his career is his number of Finals appearances in the European Champions Cup (Euroleague).
He played in 10 consecutive finals with Ignis Varese, winning 5.
And later in 2 more consecutive finals with Olimpia Milano, winning both. Clubs Italian national team Individual.