Cubaj and the power of the blue jersey: “We in basketball want to make our mark”

The first image that springs to mind when thinking of basketball is that of a little girl waiting for half-time during her uncles’ match so she can run onto the court and grab a ball. Lorela Cubaj started out like Kobe Bryant, and that in itself is a great start. The daughter of Albanian immigrants, she was born and raised in Terni, where she discovered basketball and has never looked back. She was never drawn to volleyball, a sport that has taken so many girls of her generation away from the world of basketball. Lorela was born in 1999 and soon began travelling around Italy and the world in pursuit of a basketball. By the age of fourteen, she was already in the national team – in the Under-16s, no less – alongside older girls. That was the moment she began to realise that basketball could become something more. “At first, you play because you enjoy it and don’t think too much about it. With the national team, I started to realise that it could become something serious – a career.”

At the age of fifteen, she received an offer from Reyer, and moving to Venice was her first real break from home. Five hours away from her family, a young girl forced to grow up quickly, and two parents who had to come to terms with seeing their daughter, still so young, leave home. “The first year was tough. I remember the first few months – I used to cry.” But her passion was stronger than her homesickness. She wanted to test herself against the best, to see just how far she could go. And Venice, she says, knew how to look after her: her teammates and the coaching staff made her feel “very well looked after”. Then came America. Georgia Tech, Atlanta – five years that transformed her as both a player and a person. Partly because American basketball demanded something different from her: greater physicality, a new role, different rules, a different interpretation of the game. “The first year was the hardest because I had to adapt.” But it was in the United States that she truly came of age. “I went there at eighteen, when you really start to come of age. They were five wonderful years and I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat. Now I’m focusing on the World Cup, then we’ll see…”. Playing in the States gave her the chance to compete at the highest level without neglecting her studies. She graduated with a degree in business because she always knew that, sooner or later, the ball would stop bouncing. “It was very important for me to finish my studies. Once you’ve stopped playing, you never know what you’ll do, but having a degree helps a lot. Then maybe I’ll become a coach – I’d like to. My coach at university inspired me, and I’ve been thinking about it ever since.” Terni has always been home. That’s where she was born and raised. Two cultures naturally coexist within her: the Italian one and the Albanian one she inherited from her family. “I was born and raised in Italy, but I speak Albanian and culturally I’m also part of Albanian culture. I’ve got a bit of both.” She returns to Albania whenever she can, mainly to visit her grandmother and relatives.

She left another piece of her dream behind in America. When she was called up to the WNBA in New York, she was sidelined by injury and her story remained unfinished. Today, that league has exploded in popularity, and who knows, perhaps one day… In the meantime, there’s the Azzurro. “You can never take the Azzurro jersey for granted. It’s always a thrill and a source of pride. It has a special power over us, because it represents something greater than yourself or a club.” At the European Championships, they secured a bronze medal that turned the spotlight on these girls who, centred around Cecilia Zandalasini, our star, have built a real team. Lorela wept on the pitch over that medal: “When I scored, I thought: it’s over. I was able to let go of all the tension I’d been carrying.” It was an even more intense moment because, at the start of the training camp, nobody really knew how far that team could go. “We were coming off the back of a European Championship where we hadn’t done particularly well and often went out straight after the group stage. I’ll always cherish that moment.” Then, after 32 years, the Italian women’s team is back at the World Cup and tomorrow, Sunday, they face an uphill battle against the Americans straight away. “We don’t want to stop here. We have the ability, the talent and the team to do well again. We want to do well for Italy, because in my opinion the women’s game deserves it.” Caitlin Clark is almost unstoppable, but who knows. Twenty years ago, a certain Marco Belinelli changed the course of his career against LeBron’s USA side at the World Cup. Lorela is the captain of the defence. That’s how they’ve described her. “It’s a source of pride for me. I like being vocal on the court, being the one who provides energy, that spark that can help when we’re a bit stagnant in attack.” But she has now also become a key figure in certain attacking plays. A centre we’ve never had before. “Our strength lies in knowing that, if someone is going through a difficult patch, there’s someone else there to help. I hope to be that anchor the team can lean on when things aren’t going well.” The test against the United States lies ahead for our girls. The hope is to inspire other young girls. “We need that.”