If you weren’t paying attention to NBA Summer League in 2007, it’s hard to convey just how exciting Marco Belinelli’s first game in a Golden State Warriors uniform was. This was before Summer League had sellout crowds, full days of television broadcasts, or actual NBA jerseys. But Belinelli, who the Warriors drafted with the No. 18 pick that June, came out and scored 37 points, the second-highest total in Vegas Summer League history at the time, and it looked like the We Believe Warriors had another
weapon for their Nellieball attack.
Sadly, the only footage available of this memorable game appears to be this YouTube video captioned in Italian and set to “Woman” by Wolfmother. Belinelli shot 14-for-20, went 5-for-7 from three-point range, with five rebounds and two assists. Kelenna Azubuike scored 29 points, 2006 lottery pick Patrick O’Bryant managed only three points, and Pierre Pierce scored 21 points. Because Pierce was on parole from a prison sentence in Iowa — and a registered sex offender — his two games in Nevada with the summer Dubs got him a 30-day jail sentence.
For a team that had quickly destroyed many of the good vibes from their playoff upset of the 67-win Dallas Mavericks by trading fan favorite Jason Richardson for No. 8 pick Brandan Wright (A.K.A. Mitch Richmond for Billy Owens: The Sequel), Belinelli looked like he might be the future at shooting guard. He was not.
Belinelli rarely played as a rookie for the 48-win 2007-8 Warriors, who had the second-best record in NBA history for a team that missed the playoffs. He was behind Monta Ellis, Stephen Jackson, and Azubuike on the depth chart, and ended up in Don Nelson’s doghouse for whatever reason. In his next season, he got to start 23 games, but was benched entirely for 40 of them. Belinelli averaged 8.9 points and shot 39.7% from three-point range while the Warriors added Corey Maggette and Jamal Crawford to play ahead of him. His defense was pretty lacking, but since when did Don Nelson care about that?
The Warriors mercifully traded Belinelli to the Toronto Raptors after the season for former Harlem Globetrotter Devean George. Belinelli went on to play 11 more NBA seasons. George went on to play 45 more NBA games.
Eventually, Belinelli got to play quite a bit for the New Orleans Pelicans, starting alongside future Warriors Chris Paul and David West and sharing the floor with another Warriors legend, Carl Landry. He moved on to the Chicago Bulls where he helped them knock out the Brooklyn Nets in the first round of the playoffs with a 24-point effort in Game 7 where he scored 9 of the Bulls’ last 11 points. Arguably, he was responsible for the Nets’ panicked decision to trade for Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett months later, a deal which sent the Boston Celtics draft picks that became Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
In 2013-14, Nelson’s good friend Gregg Popovich acquired Belinelli for the San Antonio Spurs, who won the title in part thanks to Belinelli’s 42.1 percent three-point shooting during the playoffs. He also defeated Steph Curry to win the Three-Point Contest at that year’s All-Star Weekend. Belinelli become the first Italian-born player to win an NBA championship.
After the championship, he remained with the Spurs for another season and appeared on an incredible cover of the Italian edition of GQ.
Later, Belinelli was on the wrong side of a “premature evacuation” of confetti after he hit a game-tying two-pointer in the 2018 playoffs that the Philadelphia 76ers arena staff thought was a game-winning three-pointer.
Belinelli left the NBA after the 2019-20 season but continued to play in Serie A for Virtus Bologna for the next five seasons, where he helped the team win three SuperCups, two league titles, and took home the league MVP trophy in 2024 for his age-37 season. At the same time, Devean George opened a factory that makes modular apartment units to lower the cost of housing — don’t tell Steph!
Belinelli announced his retirement on his Instagram, writing:
“gave it my heart.
Every piece of me.
Every single day.
Basketball gave me everything… and I gave it everything I had.
Saying goodbye isn’t easy.
But it’s time.
I carry with me every emotion, every sacrifice, every cheer.
Thank you to those who always believed.
To the next generation—I leave a dream.
Make it count.“
Goodbye, Marco Belinelli. We’ll always have Vegas.
