Maurizio Gherardini

Gherardini started his basketball career as a player playing on his hometown team of Libertas Pallacanestro Forlì from 1971 to 1975. From there he went on to become an assistant coach for Forlì and was also a director of youth teams for the club. He held those roles from 1975 to 1982, when he was then promoted to be the team's general manager in 1983. Forlì was playing in the top league (LBA) when Gherardini took over as GM.

After nine years at the helm of Forlì, Gherardini left the team in 1992 to take over as the general manager of Benetton Treviso, and molded that squad into one of the most familiar basketball clubs outside of the NBA. Benetton won four Italian League championships (1997, 2002, 2003, and 2006), three Italian Supercups (1997–98 season, 2001–02 season, and 2002–03 season), made four appearances in the EuroLeague Final Four (1993, 1998, 2002, and 2003), and helped them capture seven Italian Cups (1993–1995, 2000, 2003–2005). He was named the Italian League's Best Executive in 2006.

Gherardini also developed a sophisticated scouting system in the EuroLeague. NBA teams asked for his advice when it came to selecting players out of Europe.^{[citation needed]}

Former NBA basketball player and general manager Kiki Vandeweghe said that Gherardini was one of the best general managers in the world and said that there is no doubt that Gherardini would make a great GM in the NBA.^{[citation needed]}