Working Together Through Basketball

Basketball has been at the center of most of his life, though the sport is no longer the most important part of it. Francesco Infante, a 33-year-old Foggia native, has spent a lifetime on the courts throughout Italy, especially in the A2 league. He is now the new center of the Bocconi Sport team in interregional Serie B but, above all, he is a SDA Bocconi School of Management MBA student. "I started playing basketball seriously when I was 16. Why did I choose it? I don't know, everyone else was more interested in soccer. The fact that I was over 2 meters tall probably had something to do with it." His competitive career has brought him to important and historic teams, including Fortitudo Bologna, Rome, Roseto, Forlì and others, and an outstanding university curriculum, with a Bachelor in Foreign Languages and Literature at the University of Bari, a specialization in International Relations at LUISS and now an MBA, under the motto "academics and athletics can work together." 

"This is a really important philosophy," says Francesco, "because playing sports at a competitive level helps you in your studies, and attending university gives you an edge when playing sports. That’s your job for a few years, after all." Francesco goes on, debunking the cliché that the two areas are difficult to balance. "As an athlete I learned to manage stress," he explains. "I had a responsibility to always give my best to the club that gave me my paycheck and to the public who came to watch the games. So, at university, if an exam doesn't turn out as I hoped, I don't get discouraged, I put it into perspective and I'm sure I’ll do better next time. I don't let it get me down. The same is true for anything else outside basketball, there are bad periods, but then they pass," Francesco continues. "But it’s the same the other way around, too. Taking classes teaches us to learn, to become more receptive. And this is a big advantage even in a sport like basketball." 

Francesco stopped playing professional basketball at the age of 28 and changed careers, while still continuing to play: "I’ll keep playing as long as I can, but at the same time I realized what my limits were and that I could not be a professional basketball player forever. The MBA is also important so I can upgrade my career off the court." But basketball occupies another important place in Francesco Infante's life. In fact, through him, it plays an important role in the lives of many other people in areas of the world facing great challenges. Francesco is Director of Sports Around the World, an association founded in 2011 based on an idea from several basketball coaches. It currently operates in five African countries: Cameroon, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania and Swaziland. "We build sports facilities, in particular basketball or multipurpose courts, to improve the lives of children and their families," says Francesco. "We believe that sports brings people together and helps bridge differences more effectively than words ever could. Some of the athletes who grew up on our courts have become professionals and now help their families and their villages. Sports also brings together those who may have been divided. The case of Rwanda, a rapidly growing country that is increasingly engaged in sports — for example with the recent World Cycling Championships — is emblematic in this sense." 

A total of 25 facilities have already been built. But the work of Sports Around the World goes even further: "We built an orphanage in Cameroon for disabled children, who are often left to fend for themselves in many parts of Africa," Francesco continues. "While in Rwanda we launched the Cloth of Champions project, to help young HIV-positive and marginalized girls and young women by teaching them to work as seamstresses. Many have been hired by local companies, the first step towards full social empowerment. In Congo, we managed to build a beautiful sports facility, working with the Nobel Peace Prize winner Denis Mukwege." There are also scholarships for student-athletes who maintain strong academic performance. 

These initiatives have a great impact but also high costs, because the facilities first have to be built and then maintained. And there are also salaries of everyone who takes part in the initiatives, like coaches, for example. "We raise the funds to carry out our projects in three ways: dedicated dinners and events; donations from individuals and companies; and auctions of sports memorabilia from famous athletes and coaches. Names include NBA stars such as Kawhi Leonard, Danilo Gallinari, Marco Belinelli and Andrea Bargnani, for example. Or coaches like Ettore Messina, Sergio Scariolo and Vasilis Spanoulis. But also players of other sports, such as Gigi Buffon," Francesco continues. "One example of memorabilia that allowed us to raise a lot of money was from Scariolo, who was assistant coach of the Toronto Raptors and went on to win the NBA ring. He had gotten us some jerseys at the beginning of the season and after winning the title, their value skyrocketed."