Matteo Spagnolo

Matteo Spagnolo was born in January of 2003 in Brindisi, Italy. He began playing basketball at four years old. Later, he started his youth career with Aurora Brindisi, where he scored 155 combined points in the semifinal and final of the regional under-14 championship. At 13 years old, he joined Stella Azzurra in Rome and made his Serie B debut at age 14, becoming the youngest Italian to play at the senior level. In six games, he averaged 2.7 points and 1.2 rebounds over 9 minutes per contest. In 2018, he joined Real Madrid in Spain where he appeared in eight games for their U18 team, averaging 3.5 points, 1.9 rebounds and 1.8 assists in 11.0 minutes. In 2018, he also participated in the U16 Euro Championship A, where he averaged 9.3 points, 2.9 assists, 2.7 rebounds and 1.1 steals in 24 minutes across seven appearances. In 2019, he averaged 16.3 points, 6.7 rebounds, 3.0 steals and 2.6 assists in the same junior team event and was awarded to the All-Tournament Team. During the 2019-20 campaign with Real Madrid U18, he averaged 9.5 points, 4.3 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 1.0 steals in 22.5 minutes. He also made his Real Madrid senior team debut but played less than a minute. In 2020, he participated in the EuroBasket Qualifiers with the FIBA senior team and averaged 3.8 points and 1.6 rebounds in 11 minutes across five appearances. In 2020-21 with Real Madrid U18, Spagnolo delivered 14.2 points, 6.2 rebounds and 4.8 assists per game. In 2021, he participated in the U20 Euro Challengers FIBA junior team event and averaged 12.0 points, 6.4 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 1.4 steals in 27 minutes. He also saw limited run in the 2021 European World Cup Qualifier. For the 2021-22 season, Spagnolo joined Vanoli Cremona of the Italian Lega A. In 25 appearances, he averaged 12.2 points, 3.5 rebounds and 2.6 assists over 27 minutes per game. At the 2022 NBA Combine, he measured 6-foot-4 without shoes and 196 pounds with a 6-foot-8 wingspan. Spagnolo also recorded a 31.5-inch vertical leap. In the 2022 NBA Draft, Spagnolo was selected by the Timberwolves with the 50th overall pick.