Her name is Vitória and she has just turned five. It is the name chosen by her parents, basketball player Achille Polonara and his wife, Erika Bufano, when the girl was born in 2020 in the capital Álava, a gesture of affection from the couple for the city that welcomed the family during the two seasons in which the Italian striker played for Baskonia (2019-2021).
Vitória celebrated a very special fifth birthday these days. For just a few hours, his father was allowed to leave Bologna’s Sant’Orsola hospital after being on the verge of death. Polonara recently woke up from a nightmare of 10 days in a coma, the result of a blood clot that affected him during his fight against leukemia. Papa Achille opened his eyes just in time for his daughter’s party, while even the doctors feared the worst.
“They told us that I had a 90% chance of dying,” Polonara recalls to the Italian media. Le Iene; “I remember almost nothing of what happened. It’s as if I was sleeping. It was difficult. The doctors gave us little hope. When I woke up, I couldn’t do anything. Then I got better. Now breathing outside the hospital is wonderful.”
Polonara underwent surgery in October 2023 due to a testicular tumor. He returned to the track just two months later, but cancer left marks on his athlete’s body and today, at the age of 33, he competes in a final against leukemia. In the summer he received chemotherapy in Valencia and on September 25th he underwent another operation (he received a bone marrow transplant from an American). A blood clot while he was recovering in a hospital in Bologna put him back on the ropes. “I wasn’t a believer, but I prayed a lot,” commented his wife, Erika. “I told him, ‘Please don’t abandon me, I need you.’
The basketball world turned to Polonara. During the last Eurobasket, the Italian team led by Gianmarco Pozzecco recorded a ritual: a video call with his former teammate before each group stage match in Limassol. The first time, Achille didn’t respond. His cell phone was on silent and he didn’t notice. Since then he has been attentive and the plot has worked. Italy won the next three games in which Polonara was called up in the dressing room, including a decisive duel against Spain. The image of beloved Achille, hairless and very thin, injected pride into the Azzurri. If that man was fighting with all his might for his life, how could they not give their all to win a basketball game? “Achille is part of our family. We suffer and we play for him,” explained Pozzecco.
Polonara played the last two seasons for Virtus Bologna, after spells at Fenerbahçe, Anadolu Efes and Zalgiris Kaunas, following a spell in Spain. Precisely, the Italian team coached by Dusko Ivanovic visits Baskonia this Thursday in the Euroleague (8:30 p.m., Movistar), a team that left so much personal memory in Polonara. A banner will be prepared at Arena Buesa to send energy to the defender of both shirts and the two teams will come together in a gesture of support. In the city of Álava they remember him as a “very dear” person who left a big impression on his family in those two courses where he wore shorts in 66 ACB games. “He who carries the fire never gives up”, Baskonia published this Wednesday in a message on his social networks. Polonara continues to play the final of his life.