Bio

Achille Polonara (born November 23, 1991) is an Italian professional basketball player for Žalgiris Kaunas of the Lithuanian Basketball League (LKL) and the EuroLeague. He primarily plays at the power forward position. Polonara started playing for the youth squads of the Italian national team, first with the Under-18's at the 2009 European Championship. He notably won the silver medal with the U20's at the 2011 European Championship where he was an important contributor, including being the best performer in the semifinal against France. Polonara was called up to the preliminary squad of the senior team as a temporary replacement for the injured Nicolò Melli as they prepared for EuroBasket 2013. However he himself later picked an ankle injury and was dropped from the squad. He would rejoin the senior side in 2014, scoring 20 points on his genuine (discounting the All Star Game) debut against German, he then became a regular in Italy squads. Participating in the successful EuroBasket 2015 qualification, he played in all 4 games with an average of 3.8 points and 1.3 rebounds in 8.5 minutes. He was called up to the squad that would take part in EuroBasket 2015 to start on 5 September. Achille credits his older brother Valerio, who has had a career in the Italian lower leagues, as inspiring him to become a basketball player, the brothers (separated in age by 7 years) are very close. His nephew, Michele Serpilli, also plays basketball, with the Pesaro youth teams, he reportedly is an admirer of Polonara. He cites Amedeo Della Valle, Riccardo Cervi, Giovanni Pini and Adam Pechacek as his closest teammates at Reggio Emilia.