In Oct. 2022, then rookie Paolo Banchero told former Orlando Magic teammate R.J. Hampton that he was playing for Italy's men's national basketball team rather than Team USA on The Young Person Basketball Podcast by Fubo Sports (h/t Joe Vardon of The Athletic).

However, if one believes time can be defined as the distance between a person's decisions, the months that passed since Banchero told Hampton of his plans may represent the 5,100 miles between Orlando and Italy.

Admitting that there was a “drawn-out process” between choosing between the Italian national team and the American national team wasn't easy, Banchero tells Vardon that “to represent your country is bigger than yourself.”

Paolo Banchero Camiseta,“I decided this is where I wanted to be,” Banchero says. “My mother played for Team USA, so it was always a dream of mine.”

NBA Camisetas Retro,Banchero's mother, Rhonda Smith-Banchero, was a former collegiate player that left the University of Washington's women's basketball program as the all-time leading scorer and was inducted into the Husky Hall of Fame in 2004.

Though there was no U.S.-based professional women's basketball league in existence when she left school in 1995, Smith-Banchero went on to play for the Seattle Reign in the emergent American Basketball League as a fifth-round pick in the ABL's inaugural draft in 1996. The two-time All-American, who played for Team USA in the 1990s, went on to be a third-round pick in the 2000 WNBA Draft (the first WNBA draft was held in 1997).

Banchero has mentioned the influence of his mother on his basketball career, particularly early on, before. So, while people like USA Basketball managing director Grant Hill played a major role as well, the fact remains that the bond between a mother and a son — especially between Paolo and his mother — is one of a kind.