Gianluigi "Gigi" Porelli (10 June 1930 – 4 September 2009) was an Italian basketball executive, who served as president of Virtus Bologna from 1968 until 1991. Porelli has been widely regarded as one of the greatest contributors to the growth and development of basketball in Italy and Europe. In 2007, he was inducted into the Italian Basketball Hall of Fame.
Early life Gianluigi Porelli was born in Mantua in 1930. In his youth he practiced swimming, boxing and, above all, tennis, in which he achieved good results, reaching the third category. Arrived in Bologna in 1949 to attend the Faculty of Law at the University of Bologna, he joined Virtus Tennis, a branch of SEF Virtus Bologna, first as a player and later as a manager.
Basketball management career Beginnings In 1968, the lawyer Gianluigi Porelli was appointed by the then president of the multi-sport club, Giovanni Elkan, at the head of the basketball section of SEF Virtus Bologna.Addio a Porelli, anima della Virtus, Corriere di Bologna Alternately nicknamed "Torquemada" or "Robespierre" for his quick and often dictatorial methods, or, more frequently, L'Avvocato ("The Lawyer"), Porelli has been one of the most prominent figures in the history of Virtus which, through initiatives often unpopular but almost always winning, definitively carried towards professionalism.Quella volta che l'Avvocato..., la Repubblia di Bologna As soon as he arrived, at only 38 years old, Porelli sacked coach Šíp and appointed Renzo Ranuzzi, a former player. However, Ranuzzi lasted one year only, due to the poor result of the team, which ended the season at the 10th place. After another poor result in the 1969–70 season under coach Nello Paratore, in 1970, Porelli hired Black V's legendary coach Vittorio Tracuzzi and sold the best player of the time, Gianfranco Lombardi, unleashing a popular uprising that even ended up in court. Despite Tracuzzi's comeback, the team placed 10th once again.Almanacco illustrato del basket '90 Modena, Panini, 1989 In 1970, thanks to Porelli, Virtus was also one of the main proponents and founders of the Lega Basket, the governing body of the top-tier level professional Italian basketball league.Euroleague mourns ULEB founder Gianluigi Porelli. In the same year, Virtus broke away from the multi sports club, becoming a joint-stock company. Thanks to this choice, which was highly criticised at the time, Porelli definitively healed the club's finances. In 1971, Porelli hired the American player John Fultz who, supported by important Italian players like Gianni Bertolotti and Luigi Serafini, succeeded in placing the team 5th in the national championship, the best result since 1967–68. In the following season, the team, composed by the same players and coached by Nico Messina, arrived 6th.Classifiche dal 1971 al 1975
A season of triumphs In 1973, Porelli opened a new season of triumphs, thanks to a partnership with Sinudyne, a famous Italian domestic appliances company, and especially with the engagement of the young American coach Dan Peterson, coming from the Chile's national basketball team.Dan Peterson, Virtuspedia Virtus immediately won its first Italian Cup in 1973–74 season, which was club's first title since 1955–56.La Virtus Sinudyne vince il campionato di basket, Biblioteca SalaBorsa In the following season, Virtus signed Tom McMillen, a 22-years-old player from the University of Maryland, who was selected with the 9th overall pick by the Buffalo Braves during the 1974 NBA draft. He signed with the Braves but postponed his entry into the NBA to attend the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. McMillen lived and studied in the UK, but he moved to Bologna during the weekends to play basketball. At the end of the season, characterized by outstanding performances by McMillen, the team placed 4th in the national championship and was eliminated at the quarterfinals of the European Cup Winners' Cup.Centomila canestri – Storia statistica della Virtus Pallacanestro, Renato Lemmi Gigli, La Fotocromo Italiana, 1988
In 1975, McMillen started his career in the NBA, so Porelli and Peterson signed Terry Driscoll, a former NBA player and 4th overall pick in 1969 draft.Fairbank, Dave. "Driscoll's Tribe," Daily Press (Newport News, VA), Sunday, 23 February 2003. Retrieved 27 April 2020 Thanks to Driscoll's leadership and the fundamental support of Italian players like Carlo Caglieris, Gianni Bertolotti, Marco Bonamico and Luigi Serafini, Virtus won its seventh national championship, the first one after twenty years.Virtus 1975–1976: dopo vent'anni, lo scudetto , BasketCity, www.legabasket.it In 1976–77, Virtus ended first in the regular season, however it lost the championship finals against Varese, by 2–0. In the following season, the Black V succeeded in reaching the national finals, but nonetheless it lost 2–1 against Varese again.Classifiche dal 1975 al 1980 The team also reached the final of the Cup Winner's Cup, but lost 84–82 against Gabetti Cantù. In 1978, after two consecutive second places, coach Peterson left the Black V to sign with Virtus historic rival, Olimpia Milan. This move was heavily criticised by Black V's fans, but it was approved by Porelli himself.Olimpia–Virtus: il derby d'Italia , Olimpia Milano However, despite the controversies which rose around his farewell, Peterson's legacy was huge: the American coach deeply changed the team's organization and contributed in bringing back Virtus to the top of Italian basketball after twenty years of struggles.Le pillole quotidiane di coach Peterson: il rapporto con Gigi Porelli ai tempi della Virtus Bologna , Super Basket
After Peterson's departure, Terry Driscoll was appointed new head coach. Porelli signed also Krešimir Ćosić, one of the best centers in Europe; the team was also composed by great Italian players as Renato Villalta, Carlo Caglieris and the captain Gianni Bertolotti. In the national finals, Virtus faced its former coach, Dan Peterson and his new team, Olimpia. Despite the great expectations around a hard-fought final, the Black V easily won the title in only two games.Almanacco Ufficiale del campionato italiano di basket, Libreria dello Sport, 2006 The team also reached the semi-finals of the Cup Winners' Cup, where it was eliminated for only one point by the Dutch EBBC. In the following season, Porelli signed Jim McMillian, a 1972 NBA champion with the Los Angeles Lakers. McMillian, who was immediately nicknamed by Virtus fans as Il Duca Nero ("The Black Duke"),Basket: addio al Duca Nero Mc Millian: dai Lakers al tricolore con la Virtus, Gazzetta dello Sport led the team achieving a back-to-back, winning its ninth titles against Cantù. The team took part also in the European Champions Cup, where it was eliminated in the semi-finals group stage. At the end of the season, Driscoll’s two year contract had expired. Porelli and Driscoll could not agree on a contract. Despite Driscoll’s great successes, first as player, one championship, and two championships as a coach in five years, when no agreement was reached, Driscoll chose to return to retire from basketball. Terry Driscoll, Virtuspedia
At the beginning of the 1980–81 season, Driscoll's assistant, Ettore Zuccheri, became the new head coach, but he was later replaced by Renzo Ranuzzi. The team reached once again the national finals, but it slightly lost the playoff series by 2–1 against Cantù. Returning to the top in Italy, the Black V attempted to become a major team in Europe too, and in 1981, Virtus reached the final of the FIBA European Champions Cup in Strasbourg. However, a few days before the final, McMillian suffered a serious injury against Brindisi and was forced not to play in the final, which then Virtus lost by only one point against Maccabi Tel Aviv, after a very contested game and dubious referees' choices.Bonamico, una notte lunga trent'anni. "Così ci tolsero la Coppa Campioni", la Repubblica
After the defeat in the Cup, Porelli sacked Ranuzzi and hired coach Aleksandar Nikolić, worldwide known as "The Professor". The team was composed also by young and talented Italian players like Roberto Brunamonti and Augusto Binelli, as well as important foreign players, like the Bahamian center Elvis Rolle. Despite his fame, Nikolić did not succeed in bringing Virtus back to title, so in 1983, after the brief experiences of George Bisacca and Mauro Di Vincenzo, the 35 years-old Alberto Bucci, from Bologna, became the new head coach. In the same years, the club signed a deal with Granarolo, a milk and dairy production company, which became the new team's sponsor.Granarolo Felsinea, Virtuspedia Virtus ended the regular season second, after Peterson's Olimpia. The two teams faced themselves in a historic final, always remembered as one of the best in Italian basketball history, in which Virtus defeated Olimpia by 2–1, reaching its 10th national title, also known as La Stella ("The Star"), due to the star which is attributed to teams that manage to win ten national championships.Alla Virtus Granarolo lo "scudetto della stella", Biblitoeca Salaborsa In the same year, the team completed a domestic double by adding a National Cup. In 1984–85, Virtus reached the semi-final group stage of the Champions Cup, where, however, it was eliminated. After a defeat in the playoffs' quarterfinals against Olimpia, Bucci was sacked and Sandro Gamba became the new coach. Gamba, one of the most successful Italian coaches of all time, did not succeed in winning with Virtus too, exiting in the first round of 1986 playoffs and being eliminated in the quarterfinals of 1987 playoffs.Classifiche dal 1985 al 1990 In 1988, Krešimir Ćosić, a former Virtus star, replaced Gamba. Despite the head coach's change, the team continued collecting poor successes, being ousted in the Korać Cup's quarterfinals and in the first round of national playoffs.Krešimir Ćosić, Virtuspedia
The "Sugar-mania"