Former NBA player affected by shark attack!

Eleonora Boi, the pregnant wife of former NBA player Danilo Gallinari, experienced a real nightmare last Thursday on a Puerto Rico beach. The 39-year-old sports journalist was attacked by a shark while swimming at the Carolina Resort, causing a 15-centimeter open wound on her thigh.

The attack occurred in particularly distressing circumstances for the family. « I was almost at the water’s edge with my husband and children – you can’t go far when you’re pregnant! Suddenly, I felt an intense burning sensation in my thigh. Being Sardinian and used to the sea, I first thought it was a jellyfish », she tells La Gazzetta dello Sport.

A trauma for the entire Gallinari family

The situation quickly turned horrific. « I touched my thigh and felt something soft, I started screaming. Running out of the water, I saw my skin chewed up and peeling off… a horrible sight », continues Eleonora Boi. Captain Ruben Moyeno of the Carolina Municipal Police confirmed the incident, stating that the victim was in stable condition.

Transported to the Río Piedras medical center, Gallinari’s partner remains hospitalized for monitoring. « They bandaged me with a special dressing so the blood could drain because they haven’t completely closed the wound yet to better clean it and avoid any risk of infection », she explains. Doctors said they had never seen a similar case in the region in 30 years.

The former Nuggets and Knicks forward, currently under contract with Vaqueros de Bayamón in the BSN, chose to stay with his wife despite the championship finals. « Danilo has been strong and present. But the trauma has been enormous for him too. I’m pushing him to return to the court to focus on the finals, but he decided to stay with me until Monday », shares Eleonora Boi.

Biologist Nilda Jiménez from the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources confirmed after analyzing photographs that the bite characteristics were consistent with those of a shark. Additional samples are awaited for definitive validation of this extremely rare hypothesis in the region.