Alba Berlin has signed the first new signing for the coming season. The Italian Gabriele Procida comes from Fortitudo Bologna. The 20-year-old shooting guard is one of the greatest talents in his age group and will receive a three-year contract with Alba. However, this certainly contains an exit clause, because a few weeks ago Procida was drafted 36th in the NBA draft, his rights are held by the Detroit Pistons. If the 1.98 meter guard develops as player and club hope, his path will lead to the North American professional league sooner rather than later.
Nevertheless, or precisely because of its development potential, Procida fits well into the strategy of the German champions. “We’ve had Gabriele under observation for a while. He is an athletic shooting guard who will complement our roster well. Gabriele is ready to perform at the highest level and we want to help him take his game to the next level,” said Alba’s sporting director Himar Ojeda.
At the age of 20, Procida has already completed two and a half seasons in the Italian Serie A and has always shown his outstanding talents. In January 2021 he scored 24 points in a game for Cantù at the age of 18 – only Gigi Datome and Carlos Delfino were younger with such a yield. Both later played at least part of the time in the NBA and won big titles with their clubs or the national team.
However, as is usual at that age, Procida still lacks consistency. In Bologna he experienced a difficult season, at the end of which the team was relegated to the second division. Procida averaged seven points in 28 minutes. His strengths are the athleticism, the fast game in the fast break and the solid jump shot. However, he still has to work on his passing game and creativity in half-field attack.
Many examples in recent years have shown that Alba and the team around coach Israel Gonzalez are a good address for young, developing players and that was also one of the reasons for Procida’s change. “I’ve heard a lot of good things about the club. Alba offers great training conditions and takes good care of players – so I can’t wait to come to Berlin.”
