I'm a working mother, proud of my job and prouder still of being a mom—the mother of two boys, Stefano and Edoardo, who show me every day why I was meant to be here.
I was walking Stefano into preschool on his third birthday. I'd baked a cake with candles for a party with his classmates when my water broke. It was far too early—more than fourteen weeks before Edoardo was due. We weren't supposed to wait that long to bring him home.
I was admitted to the hospital and, five days later, Edoardo was born like a meteor, upending all our plans, our dreams, our lives—mine, his father Marco's, and Stefano's.
Edoardo has spastic tetraplegia caused by infantile cerebral palsy—what's called a complex disability. And Stefano is the brother living with everything that means.
What binds my boys together (besides Baskin) is their capacity for resilience—the ability they've developed to withstand shocks, to face life's hardships, to respond well to difficulty. Living constantly with an imperfect body or situation has given them time to rethink what limits are, and what relationships matter. It's taught them to see the world in realistic rather than all-powerful terms.
And what does Baskin have to do with all this? Baskin is the sport of our family: both boys chose it. Stefano is also an assistant coach for a mini-basketball team. His father Marco is an official and a player. And I'm their biggest fan.
Baskin—short for "inclusive basketball"—is an innovative sport created in a school in Cremona
Baskin won my family over gradually, though its promise was clear from the start: it's a new sport inspired by basketball but designed completely differently. A rulebook of ten simple rules governs the game, creating something dynamic and unpredictable. Baskin was created so that able-bodied and disabled players can play on the same team—men and women together—with athletes of any physical or intellectual disability who can shoot into a basket. True inclusion for everyone.
The rules celebrate every player's contribution, breaking through that "charity-based" attitude that haunts most sports programs for disabled athletes. The rulebook adapts equipment, court space, and roles so each player faces a direct opponent at their own level and has tasks suited to their abilities. A teammate can also serve as a tutor, guiding a disabled player's actions when needed.
Baskin's design adapts four elements: equipment (six baskets), court space (two protected zones), rules (five positions), and communication (tutoring)
Able-bodied players learn to fit into and organize a group with many different skill levels. They develop new communication skills and creativity, forming sometimes intense friendships. Sharing athletic goals with disabled teammates helps them recognize the gifts and talents that difference brings.
Disabled players gain confidence and learn to balance hard work with joy. They're challenged to grow their motor skills and their ability to connect with teammates and coaches. Baskin offers rehabilitation suited to each person's capacity. It teaches social connection, builds motivation, and fills free time with purpose.
Sport becomes an active tool to use and express the skills you've developed in the real world. The team itself is a transitional home—a place where young athletes forge deeper bonds than family or care relationships alone can offer. They taste the sting of defeat and the joy of victory, and the simple pleasure of being together. They have fun.
Today Baskin is played in ten Italian regions by more than 8,000 students in elementary and secondary schools
Edoardo is a deeply sensitive boy who can control only some parts of his body with great effort. But he has decent use of a few fingers on his right hand—enough to shoot a ball designed for his grip into a low basket. Playing Baskin lets him live a team life naturally, alongside his brother, without either of them having to adjust for the other. That's what seems miraculous to me.
This sport has been a cure for Marco too. After a while of watching the boys play like any parent does, he discovered he could do more. He began coaching a senior team, bringing other people in, spreading the word. Welcome, Baskin, to our house—and more than that, to our still-immature society, one that has so much to learn about true inclusion.
Nadia Pastori, 2017
Baskin at a Glance
Open to All
Baskin—short for "inclusive basketball"—is an innovative sport born in a school in Cremona. Open to everyone: boys and girls, people with and without disabilities (physical or intellectual), with any amount of sports experience. In 2011 it won the Design for All Foundation's first international award.
Balanced Rules
Baskin's design adapts four elements: equipment (six baskets), court space (two protected zones), rules (five positions), and communication (tutoring). Each player is assigned a specific role, clearly coded and shown on their jersey number. This gives the game structure and allows teams to be balanced fairly.
Baskin in Italy
Today Baskin is played in ten Italian regions by more than 8,000 students in primary and secondary schools that recognize its educational value, and by almost 2,000 players in about 100 sports clubs that compete in tournaments organized by the Baskin ONLUS Association.
Learn More
To truly understand Baskin, you need to see it played. Photos and videos are available at the official site baskin.it
