'Monument' Meneghin grew up with basketball and glasses
Dino Meneghin is considered to be a 'monument' to Italian basketball and the greatest player Italy has ever had. It's no accident that since 2003 he has been the only Italian player to be among the world's big names in the basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts. His record says it all: 271 national games, four Olympics (a silver medal at Moscow '80), two world championships and eight European championships (a gold medal at Nantes '83 and a bronze medal at Essen '71 and Belgrade '75). An extraordinary career with the Varese, Milan and Trieste clubs, where he won 12 shields (7 at Varese, 5 at Milan) and 7 Championship cups (5 at Varese and 2 at Milan), as well as minor trophies. He was also the first Italian to arouse the interest of the renowned NBA at a time when the American league seemed to belong to another planet.
At 58, and after a career that only ended when he was 44, he is still a charismatic person: manager of Italy's national team since 1996, he is the chairman of the players' committee of the International Federation and the Italian Federation.
But another of Dino Meneghin's characteristics makes him of special interest to Eyesway: his family has always been involved in eyewear. As he told us: 'My brother Renzo is an optician in Varese and my father has always worked in this sector. I was born in Alano di Piave, in the province of Belluno, so where do you work in that area if not in the eyewear industry? My father began working when he was 15 and his whole life has been dedicated to it. When we moved to Varese he was the manager of a plant at Besozzo, but then he opened his own business as the representative for another company which produced what was at that time innovative material for frames'.
Raised on 'bread and glasses', it's only in recent years that Dino Meneghin has begun to wear glasses: 'For reading, but it really depends on the day. I can see distance better with one eye and I'm shortsighted in the other. So I never miss anything!' However, he has always worn sunglasses. He explained in his usual good-humored way: 'I can't really choose any model because of this nose of mine. Years ago, my father gave me a pair of old Ray-Bans and they were perfect. But over the years they became worn eventually, so I went to a friend of mine who works in the sector in the Veneto area and said to him: 'make me a pair the same''.
Basketball players rarely wear glasses during a game, at least not in Italy. 'Well, I remember that Ciccio Della Fiori used to play wearing big glasses before he changed to contact lenses. In the early days, it was quite funny because every so often they had to stop the game to look for a contact lens that he'd had lost on the court. Another time, he walked onto the court saying 'perhaps I'm not well, I can't see too good'. He had picked up his wife's contact lenses by mistake…'. In world basketball, however, glasses have been the distinctive mark of some great NBA players, starting with the legendary Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. 'But he' Meneghin remembers - 'wore glasses more for protection than anything else!'.
Do you think glasses are necessary or are they more a fashion item? 'Reading glasses are necessary. If you can't see, you can't see, and that's all there is to it, although there are alternative solutions nowadays. Sunglasses follow fashion. But, in one way or another, and especially for women, they have to be chosen with care: even more than for bags and belts'.
