Mason Rocca

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Richard Mason Rocca (Highland Park, Evanston, Illinois, November 6, 1977) is an Italian-American basketball player, who currently plays for Eldo Napoli. He is 204 cm tall, weighs 98 kg, and plays as a center.

[edit] Club Career

Rocca attended Princeton University taking a degree in engineering and playing for Princeton Tigers in Ivy League and NCAA. After the college he joined in 2000 Trenton Shooting Stars, a team of IBA, but that unlucky season was full of injuries for him.

In 2001 he moved to Europe joining Aurora Jesi, a team of Italian LegaDue; the talent of Rocca began to be more evident through the years and in 2004 he moved to Naples, becoming in the following three years one of the most important players of the team, an idol of the supporters. In 2006 playing with Napoli he won Italian Cup and he reached the Playoff semifinal (lost against Fortitudo Bologna). In 2007 his team has partecipated in Euroleague and lost Italian Supercup in the match against Benetton Treviso.

[edit] National Team Career

Rocca obtained Italian citizenship in 2004 and in 2006 he wore Italian jersey on World Championship held in Japan, playing face to face against top champions such as Yao Ming and LeBron James.

[edit] The player

Mason Rocca is considered a gladiator of basketball. He sacrifices himself with no fear using his agonistical talent more than technical skills. Thanks to his attitudes he has a great defensive play, he can face opponent physically much more stronger than him and he manages to catch a high number of defensive and offensive rebounds. A Mason’s typical play is hook shot, which in modern basketball is very rare to see. Due to his constant performance he was nicknamed “Il Sindaco” (The Mayor) by Neapolitan fans.