Maurizio Gherardini has been lauded with praise during his impressive career in professional basketball. He has been called a visionary, a futurist, and a mastermind. Former Toronto Raptors’ commentator Chuck Swirsky used to refer to Gherardini as the “Godfather” as an uninspired play on his Italian heritage and the considerable power he holds in the international basketball scene. Many now project that the man from Forli will add another moniker to his growing list of titles: NBA General Manager.

That idea may catch the casual NBA fan by surprise. After all, in the 62 year history of the NBA there has never been a General Manager that was not American by birth. While recognizing all of the internationalization the game has experienced, one must remember it was only a short decade ago that the number of foreign-born NBA players could be tallied on one hand.

Further, the infusion of foreign talent on the floor needn’t be correlated with a rise in foreign scouting and executive talent. The success of the players themselves does not directly signal that league boardrooms will soon fill with overseas talent.

Common thinking suggests then that we are still years away from seeing a team being run by a non-American. A quick look at Gherardini’s record of accomplishment suggests otherwise.

Gherardini is presently the Vice President and Assistant General Manager of the Toronto Raptors, serving faithfully at the side of Bryan Colangelo, a post he has held for three years. During that time, the Raptors won their first Atlantic Division title, returned to the playoffs, and rebounded from the toxic fallout the Vince Carter trade had brought the franchise.

That success has not gone unnoticed: this summer, it was rumoured throughout basketball inner circles that Donnie Walsh and Mike D’Antoni were seriously considering Gherardini for the position of General Manager with the New York Knicks.

While he ultimately did not win the job, the idea that he could go from Treviso to New York, from dominating the Euroleague to running the most visible team in the world, in under three seasons is incredible.

That speaks to his incredible talents and eye for the game. He foresaw and propelled the globalization of the sport in ways no one else did and he stands to have that recognized soon via full control of an NBA team.

Gherardini was born in Forli, Italy on in 1955 but his passion and knowledge for the game was sparked when he attended McCluer High School in Florissant, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis, as a foreign exchange student. It was during this time that he had a vision not just of how beautiful the game was, but of how a great team should be administered. It was that vision that forever changed basketball throughout Europe.

Upon his return to Italy, he began translating a long list of essential basketball teaching books into Italian and distributed them to coaches around the country in hopes of improving the quality of training and conceptualization for the game in a country where basketball had mostly been a sporting afterthought.

From there he began organizing basketball clinics and teaching camps in the model of the elite American programs such as Five Star. He further evangelized the game by running the first ever premier coaches clinic in Europe which saw legendary NBA head coach Hubie Brown arrive in Italy to teach, as well as Hall of Fame players Bob McAdoo and Bill Walton.

He was at the time the assistant coach and Director of Youth Teams for Forli, a Serie A team, from 1975 through 1983 when he was promoted to General Manager. He would lead Forli for nine years before leaving in 1992 to take over at Benetton Treviso, one of the most popular basketball clubs in all of Europe.

Under his stewardship, the club became one of the most success teams in Euroleague and one of the most famous non-NBA franchises in the world. This fame came as a result of Benetton’s incredible success during his tenure: four league championships (1997, 2002, 2003 and 2006), three Italian Supercups (1997, 2001 and 2002), seven Italian Cups (1993-1995, 2000, 2003-2005) and four appearances in the Euroleague’s Final Four (1993, 1998, 2002, and 2003).

Equally important to Gherardini’s legacy with Benetton is the way the team became a destination for NBA personnel to scout players through his continued basketball camps and clinics. Over time he had grown that first coaching clinic into the prestigious Reebok Big Man camp and Reebok Eurocamp, the European equivalent to the elite ABCD camp in the US.

With his success in establishing these camps, Gherardini was considered to have developed the most sophisticated scouting system in Europe. So great was his success that in 2003 he was a finalist for the General Manger position with the NBA expansion team, the Charlotte Bobcats. This was the first time ever that a non-American citizen was interviewed to potential run an NBA team.

Two seasons later, the Toronto Raptors hired Gherardini and made him the first European to hold a senior management position in the NBA. The team gushed about how pleased they were to have hired a “globally esteemed basketball executive” in what they considered a ground breaking move for the entire league.

That Gherardini is respected by his colleagues is clear: former NBA star and current General Manager Kiki Vandeweghe is on record as saying that he is one of the best basketball executives in the world and said there should be no doubt that Gherardini would make a great GM in the NBA.

The question now seems to be not if Gherardini will be given the reigns of a NBA team, but rather when that will happen. Most recently, he was tapped by Basketball Canada to become Managing Director of the Senior Men’s Program, a move that is similar in nature to the one made by USA Basketball in 2005 to place Jerry Colangelo in charge of all oversight for the men’s national team.

He was also named to Basketball Canada’s new nine-member Council of Excellence, a governing body that will serve as an advisory committee for the men’s and women’s national programs. He is joined on that council by former Raptors GM Glen Grunwald and Raptors Head Coach Jay Triano. It is hoped that the council will bring a fresh perspective on the vast amount of work needed to achieve Basketball Canada’s stated goal of being a worldwide top 10 team by 2012 for the London Olympics and top eight by 2016.

Gherardini’s experience with FIBA is clearly the major selling point for Basketball Canada, who correctly views his knowledge of the international game as invaluable to the organization future chances for improvement.

The Toronto Raptors turned to Gherardini during their time of need because of his demonstrated achievements at every international level and his approach to building a winning culture. Basketball Canada has now done the same, looking to lean on him for his prudent approach to scouting and talent development.

It will not be long until a NBA team follow suit.

Photo Credit: Chris Creamer’s Sports Logos