Gallizzi: 'I won’t be Luis Scola; I’ll be Taya Gallizzi'

ARGENTINA (FIBA AmeriCup 2017) - Tayavek Gallizzi is a center for the Argentina national team who played in his first FIBA Basketball World Cup when he least expected it.

Invited as a sparring partner by former national team coach Julio Lamas, he managed to secure a spot in the team to join his idols at the tournament staged in Spain three years ago. He got a change to be a teammate of members of Argentina's golden generation - Luis Scola, Andres Nocioni, Leo Gutierrez and Walter Herrmann.

If there's one thing that fans and reporters have remarked on when it comes to the Santa Fe-born Gallizzi, it's the unusual sound of his name. He's glad that his parents, Fabiana and Jorge, chose it for him.

"I really like my name," he said. "It's hard sometimes to tell people what my name is, so I say: 'My last name is Gallizzi, my name is Tayavek.'

"My name makes me feel special; it's a good thing to be out of the ordinary and to try to be different. When you take those words, and put them into practice, it makes you grow as a person and achieve what you set your mind to do."

Gallizzi will play at FIBA AmeriCup 2017 for Argentina

Besides Tayavek, they have three other children: Jorge, Ayrton, Atenas, and Nayibe. The name Gallizzi raised a lot of eyebrows in Argentina when he unexpectedly made the national team for the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup.

"Before being on Argentina's national team as a guest, I had been training for a South American Tournament and together with Luca Vildoza (a point guard), we were the last two cuts. I was sad about it, but part of the good news about the cut was that I was able to train with the national team."

Indeed, being cut led to the biggest opportunity of his career, an invitation to train with Argentina's main team ahead of the FIBA Basketball World Cup.

"I was there to learn as much as I could and to spend time with some of the golden generation players," he said. "I was happy and very excited. At one point, Lamas said he wanted me on the shortlist. From that point on, everything changed for me. I never thought that one could be a guest on the shortlist."

My family gave me a great upbringing: they raised me humbly and taught me to value the little things. Their hearts broke every time I left, but they knew that that's what I wanted and they always supported me.GallizziGallizzi

It got even better for Gallizzi. He kept playing well.

"I couldn't believe it; there was such a joy," he said. "It inspired me to keep going and make the most out of being around Scola, Nocioni, (Pablo) Prigioni, (Manu) Ginobili and the others," said Tayavek, who's also known as Taya.

"It was the first time I met Manu Ginobili in person." No one can feel so many beautiful emotions. It was spectacular and when they told me I was in the 12, it was just incredible. We were in the bus coming back from a game between two Argentina teams that we had played in Bahia Blanca, and I got a message from Nico Richotti, a point guard in the national team's WhatsApp group, wishing us success and telling us that he wasn't going to play.

"I thought, 'Now they’re going to ask me to get off the bus and I'm going to feel bad' but I'll try not to cry'... later, Franco Giorgetti, another player at the time, also sent me a message wishing me all the luck in the world. That's how I found out I was summoned. Nobody told me anything. The news that I made it to the national team was everywhere, but I was with my teammates so I contained my feelings out of respect for them. Once I was with my family in Santa Fe, I was able to enjoy it a bit more. They were very happy and proud."

"I thought I could make it to a shortlist at 28 years of age, but I did it at 21. I had admired Luis Scola and Andres Nocioni since I was a child and suddenly, I'm playing with them. When I got to my first practice, they were all there having breakfast; I saw them and my eyes lit up.

"Pablo Prigioni greeted me and introduced himself as Pablo. I was surprised to see how they really are. They are same both on and off the court. Those are the things that I'll cherish forever."

Gallizzi has had to endure a lot in his life to make it as far as he has. He was in Santa Fe in May of 2003 when floods wreaked havoc and separated him from his mother and sister. They were apart from each other for days before the Red Cross reunited them. They lost everything.

It hasn't been easy to make it as far as he has and Gallizzi might now have done so had he not received a helping hand from time to time.

"I made a few mistakes when I was a kid," he said, "but there were a lot of people around to help me, to lend me a shoe or a bicycle so I could play. The effort that these people made was bigger than my own."

While he has rubbed shoulders with his country's greatest players, Gallizzi says he will not try to replicate those he has met and learned from.

"I won't be Luis Scola," he said. "I'll be Taya Gallizzi, but I want to learn from them as much as possible. In the previous teams, I tried to enjoy the Golden Generation players more. For me, they are and will always be the best. Now I feel we're teammates. If I have to have a strong defense and demand more of myself, I will do it."

Gallizzi knows there are no guarantees when it comes to making Argentina's team for tournaments. Competition is fierce. He did not make the Olympic roster in Rio, for example.

"Argentina will always take those who are apt and are the best players when they start building," he said. "Last year it was my turn to be left out. I'm happy that I'm in for the AmeriCup, but I don't want to take it lightly.

"I began this process trying to make the most out of it and trying to incorporate their eating habits and taking all the advantages I may, as well as doing something that I may use during the season and doesn't end at the national team. Not having a secure place makes you want to win it."

Gallizzi and his family have had to make a lot of sacrifices so that he can achieve what he has so far.

"My family gave me a great upbringing: they raised me humbly and taught me to value the little things," he said. "Their hearts broke every time I left, but they knew that that's what I wanted and they always supported me. Each farewell was difficult, but my father always told me: 'I don't want you coming close to home,' in a good sense, of course, so that I could travel without worries."

So what does he want to achieve in his his career?

"I have lots of goals, I don't want this to end in the national league or the Argentine national team," he said. "I want to be an important and established player. It goes unnoticed on the court, but I make an effort to be better, and that's my goal."

FIBA