In his ninth season as an overseas professional basketball player, former Armwood Hawks star Adam Sollazzo won a championship with his Spanish league club, Rio Breogan, located in Lugo, Spain.
“When the buzzer went off, it was like a dream come true, looking around and seeing the fans,” said guard Adam Sollazzo. “My wife was at the game and seeing her in the crowd crying was an amazing moment, to know that, after 10 months, all the work paid off.”
During the run to the championship, Leche Rio Breogan won the first two best-of-three series at home as the number two seed, and won the final championship series on the road to close things out. All three series came down to an elimination game three. Sollazzo was named Finals MVP, recording 15 points, six rebounds and three assists in the dominant 83-57 elimination game win against Coviran Granada. In the playoffs, he averaged 10.6 points per game, 3.6 rebounds and 1.6 assists.
“It was an amazing feeling. It just kind of makes you feel like all your hard work has paid off, and to play your best basketball at the most important moments is just a great feeling,” said Sollazzo. “To be back-to-back champions and the MVP was just the cherry on top of an amazing year and season.”
The Hawks superstar graduated from Armwood in 2008 and has had a decorated basketball career so far. In high school, he won Hillsborough County Player of the Year, Student Athlete of the Year and the North vs. South Florida All-Star game MVP. The Armwood basketball program retired Sollazzo’s number five years ago and plans on raising a banner with his name and number into the rafters this summer.
Sollazzo then went on to play Division I college basketball at East Tennessee State University. In his first two seasons, his team won back-to-back Atlantic Sun titles and went on to play in two NCAA tournaments versus future NBA All-Stars, such as John Wall of the Houston Rockets, Demarcus Cousins of the Los Angeles Clippers and Eric Bledsoe of the New Orleans Pelicans. In his senior year, he made 1st Team All-Conference and was named the National Scholar Athlete for all sports in Division I.
Following NBA workouts with the Atlanta Hawks and New York Knicks after college, he has spent the last nine years playing in countries such as Germany, Italy, France and, most recently, Spain. This was his second season in the LEB Oro league. The season before last, his Gipuzkoa (San Sebastian) team was awarded the championship after the season was cut short due to COVID-19.
Sollazzo will be back in Spain next season with Rio Breogan starting in September. This will be the first time in his career that he will have played for the same club in back-to-back seasons. With the championship win, Rio Breogan will move up to the first division (Liga ACB), which many consider the second-best league in the world behind the NBA.
Sollazzo runs basketball camps in the summer and is always doing private lessons during the off-season. If you are interested in reaching out for a private lesson, email him at campsollazzo@gmail.com.
