Paolo Banchero's decision to represent USA instead of Italy in the FIBA World Cup has generated plenty of headlines this offseason. After all, there were expectations that the Orlando Magic forward would play for Italy–and even committed to it–before he made a U-Turn and joined Team USA. Of course it wasn't an easy decision for Banchero, but he pointed out that there's someone bound to be left out since he needed to choose.

The 20-year-old star once again opened up about his decision to choose Team USA, doubling down on his previous explanation where he said that it has always been his dream to represent the United States in international competition.

“You've got to pick one or the other. Someone's going to be left out. … It was a hard decision but it had to be made, and hopefully it was no hard feelings. … I feel like respect was shown on both sides,” Banchero told Ben Golliver of Washington Post.

While Paolo Banchero is free to choose where he wants to play and no one can say otherwise, he might want to think about his hope that there would “no hard feelings” between him and the Italian Basketball Federation. By the looks of it, there's already a fracture in their relationship.

To recall after Banchero opted to play for Team USA, Italian Basketball Federation president Gianni Petrucci shared that they felt betrayed by what he did, adding that the Magic youngster “fooled” them.  Furthermore, contrary to what Banchero said about respect being shown, Petrucci said before that the 2022-23 NBA Rookie of the Year didn't communicate with the federation at all regarding his desire to switch sides.

“It was a legitimate decision, but he could have made a call to communicate that to us. Instead, we learned about his decision from the newspapers. In the past few days, he was in Milan, and despite our agreements with his agency, he avoided the meeting with coach [Gianmarco] Pozzecco,” Petrucci said last June.

“Betrayal, especially in basketball, is a strong word. Situations like this happen, and personally, I'm used to it. But he fooled us. We were planning a great commercial strategy for him. Now, we need to turn this disappointment into positive energy. I'm sure our coach will be able to do it.”

Banchero is clearly trying to move on from the issue created from his Italy snub, and that's definitely the right way to go. Team USA needs him to be laser-focus in their bid to bring gold from the quadrennial affair. But if they end up meeting the Italians in the competition, it's safe to assume the latter will have plenty of motivation to take the Americans down.