Focus on tall teen Robert Bobroczky is weight and fitness this season
ROME — At 7-foot-6, 15-year-old Robert Bobroczkyi is already taller than New York Knicks sensation Kristaps Porzingis – or any other current NBA player.
ANDREW MEDICHINI/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Robert Bobroczkyi, a 15-year-old who is 7-foot-6 and 184 pounds, is at a Rome basketball academy where he is the subject of a fitness program.
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He’s got a nice shooting touch and solid passing skills, too.
So it’s no wonder that Bobroczkyi is generating buzz among youth league scouts in Europe.
What the Romanian lacks, though, are any traces at all of muscle on his 184-pound frame. He runs awkwardly, and tires easily.
That’s why the Rome academy where Bobroczkyi is based – the same youth club that produced Brooklyn Nets player Andrea Bargnani – has decided to dedicate this season exclusively to fitness and strength.
This being Italy, the recipe is simple: pasta, pasta and more pasta.
Following an individual nutrition plan created for him by specialists at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Md., Bobroczkyi is eating more than 2 pounds (an entire kilogram) of pasta per day.
“We’re not interested in basketball right now. The top priority is his health,” Stellazzurra Basketball Academy general manager Giacomo Rossi said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. “For someone with his physical stature, the usual practice sessions are just not enough. He needs individual attention.”
Having helped Stellazzurra to the under-15 national title in Italy last season, Bobroczkyi is sitting this season out and playing in only select tournaments.
“We’ve got to make sure that five years from now not only can he play basketball but that he’s also a fairly normal person,” Rossi said. “This is going to be a long and difficult season for him but it’s also going to be the most important season of his life. Because every day, all day, he’s following an individual project created specifically for him with a staff of physicians.”
Bobroczkyi is living with a host family in Frosinone – about an hour drive south of Rome – near a fully equipped physical therapy and rehabilitation center. His nutritionist also works for the Frosinone soccer club in Italy’s top division.
“He eats seven times per day,” said physiotherapist Daniele Comandini, who is looking after Bobroczkyi. “He’s not eating McDonald’s or kebabs. That’s banned.”
Since he arrived in Rome last year, Bobroczkyi has gained 30 pounds (14 kilograms). And he is still getting taller.
In August, Bobroczkyi visited with Child Health and Human Development specialist Lyssikatos Charalampos and other physicians at the NIH.
“They performed every possible exam on him,” Comandini said. “He’s in perfect health.”