LARRY WRIGHT - 101 Greats of European Basketball

Larry
Wright
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The man with
two rings
During the 1970s and 1980s, most of
the European clubs signed foreigners
who were big men, power forwards
or centers, most of them American.
The FIBA regulations allowed for two
non-national players, and since big
men were scarce in Europe, the solution was to try to
“fish” something from the American market. One of
the few exceptions was Banco di Roma, which in the
summer of 1982 had signed the best Italian coach
at the time, Valerio Bianchini, after he had been successful
with Cantu in the previous years. The first
thing that Bianchini decided to do was... sign a guard.
He went for Larry Wright, born November 23, 1954, in
Monroe, Louisiana. He was a player with five years of
experience in the NBA, first with the Washington Bullets
and then with the Detroit Pistons. Why a guard
and why Wright? Bianchini himself explained it to me:
“Before coaching Rome I spent three years in Cantu,”
he said. “We won several titles, including a European
title in 1981. One of the key pieces in that puzzle was
point guard Pierluigi Marzorati. Since I could not sign
him, I decided to take the risk and go for an American
guard. I had good reports about Larry through Darren
Dale, a then very well-known American agent, so we
offered Wright a contract. He doubted it a little and I
had to travel all the way to Monroe, his hometown, to
convince him.”
Time proved Bianchini – and his scouts – right. They
had seen great potential in Wright that the NBA could
not fully exploit. He previously enjoyed a great career of
three years at Grambling State University, with an average
25.4 points, a rookie of the year award of the Southwestern
Atlantic Conference. He was the best player in
the conference in 1976 and a two-time selection to the
NCAA all-small colleges team. He was drafted in 1976
and chosen 14th by the Bullets. Two years later, the
Bullets beat the Seattle Supersonics in the NBA Finals
(4-3) and Wright won his first title. His contribution in
those seven games was nothing to write home about.
He scored 6 points in the first game, 2 in the second,
5 in the fourth, 10 in the sixth and 2 in the seventh: 25
points total. His season average was 9.2 points and
3.7 assists, enough to let his potential be seen, but not
enough to convince his coach, Dick Motta, to give him
more minutes. He decided to move to the Pistons, but
in the 1980-81 season, his numbers didn’t increase: 7.4
points and 3.4 assists. The following season he hardly
played. Behind him, he had played in 343 NBA games,
averaging less than 20 minutes per game, 8.2 points,
3.4 assists and 1.6 rebounds. That’s when the Rome
offer arrived.
Taking over a title game
In a short span of time, all of Italy saw that Rome had
signed a great player. He was a scoring point guard, but
he also played shooting guard, something that Bianchini
used to perfection combining the roles of Wright
(22.2 points) and Enrico Gilardi (15.2). Banco di Roma,
the name of the team then, won its first and only Italian
League title and the following season it would make its
debut in the EuroLeague.
After easily rolling through the two preliminary
rounds against weak opponents (Dudelange of Luxem-
101 greats of european basketball
Larry Wright
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Vladimir Stankovic
burg and Partizani Tirana of Albania), Banco di Roma
qualified for the final group with six teams. The first
two would play the title game. FC Barcelona and Rome
finished with 7-3 records and they would face each other
for the title, on March 29, 1984. In the group stage,
Barcelona had beaten Roma at home by 81-74 with 31
points by Juan Antonio San Epifanio, but in Rome, the
Italian team won by 74-71 with Wright scoring 18. The
tiebreaker would be the final with the title of European
champion going to the winner.
Barça started the game way better, and in minute 16
was winning by 13 points, 35-22. At halftime, there was
still a double-digit difference, 42-32. What happened
in the halftime break and the second half is told by Bianchini
himself.
“In the corridor to the locker rooms, Barca’s big man
Mike Davis made a mistake. The players from both
teams were walking together and David said something
to Wright. Something that sounded like: ‘Hey
man, there’s no prize for you tonight.’ Wright entered
the locker room really angry and started screaming at
his teammates telling them to wake up. He raged into
the second half and almost won the game by himself.”
Larry Wright put his best weapons to good use:
speed and unstoppable one-on-one skills. When he
didn’t penetrate, he made outside shots. In minute 31,
Banco di Rome jumped ahead for the first time, 57-56,
and even though Barcelona would have options until
the last seconds, an offensive rebound by Clarence Kea
solved the game for Rome, 79-73. Wright finished with
27 points – 2 more than he had scored in the full seven
games of the NBA Finals of 1978 – and, of course, was
the MVP. Jose Manuel Fernandez, the journalist who
covered the game for Spanish newspaper “Mundo Deportivo”,
wrote in his recap:
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“This small genius, as we had been saying for some
time, made the difference between the two teams. His
last baskets were his trademark... Wright was the hero
of the game and an idol cheered by the Roman ‘tifosi’.
At 67-69, Wright left his genius and class indelibly imprinted
on us with two otherworldly baskets and gave
all hope back to his team at 67-73... Wright put an end
to the game playing a reggae groove that was worth
a European crown. Barcelona’s champagne bottle remained
unopened.”
That was Wright’s stellar moment in Europe. It was
his “second ring” and a great personal satisfaction for
his two seasons in Rome.
“Larry was an offensive guard, a natural scorer, a
fighter,” Bianchini remembered. “He was not a pure
point guard, but a mix of point and shooting guard
and that only made his potential greater. His fighting
character came from his difficult childhood, marked by
family poverty. He was a very responsible man and he
always cared a lot for his family.”
From Rome to Udine and back
Even though some sources say that Wright also won
the Intercontinental Cup with Banco di Roma in September
of 1984 in Sao Paulo against, again, FC Barcelona
(86-85), it is not true. He wasn’t on the team anymore
because the previous season he had to deal with injury
problems. He basically only played in the EuroLeague
and the club decided not to renew him.
He missed the whole 1984-85 season due to injuries,
but he was back for the next one and had his best
year in Italy. He was wearing the jersey of Fantoni Udine,
where he averaged 31.9 points, 4.4 assists and 3.1
boards. He stayed with Udine for one more season, also
with good numbers: 26.8 points, 3.6 assists and 3.3
rebounds. For the 1987-88 season, already at 34 years
old, he was back to Rome and delivered 22.7 points, 2.5
assists and 3.4 rebounds. It was his last active year in
the elite. He had played 149 games in Italy averaging
25.1 points, 2.9 assists and 3.2 boards in 38.8 minutes.
He hardly ever left the court!
Wright retired in 1990. He stayed in the basketball
world as a scout for several NBA teams and later
worked as coach of the Grambling State Tigers for nine
seasons. He was back to Rome on October 6, 2006, for
a game between Lottomatica Roma and the Phoenix
Suns that the EuroLeague organized with the NBA on
the NBA Europe Live Tour. Of course, the older Rome
fans who had told their sons about him gave Wright a
warm ovation.
The man with two rings.
101 greats of european basketball
Larry Wright
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