101 Greats of European Basketball

cult to top by playing in its 10th straight European final.
The great novelty this time was the rival. It was not the
usual Real Madrid, CSKA Moscow or even Maccabi Tel
Aviv, but rather a young and ambitious Bosna Sarajevo.
Led by the great Mirza Delibasic on the court and young
coach Bogdan Tanjevic on the bench, the team had gone
from the Yugoslav second division to the continental final
in just seven years. Bosna took the title 96-93 in an offensive
festival. Zarko Varajic scored 45 points – an individual
final-game record still standing to this day – while Delibasic
had 30 and Ratko Radovanovic scored 18. A guard on
that team who didn’t play much due to injury was a young
Svetislav Pesic. Morse had his usual numbers, with 28
points, and Charlie Yelverton had 27, but the 75 points
scored by the duo of Delibasic and Varajic was too much.
Eleven years later, I met Morse at the 1990 World
Cup in Buenos Aires, where he was working with an organization
for players shorter than 2.00 meters. During
our talk in Luna Park, Varajic, who was then a member
of the Yugoslav national team, walked by at a distance. I
asked Morse whether he knew who that “tall man” was.
He was not sure. I told him: “That is Zarko Varajic, the
guy who scored 43 points against you in the final.”
“No, he scored 45,” Morse corrected me, proving
that he had not forgotten that day.
Morse’s stint in Varese ended like it had started,
with a triumph. In the 1980 Saporta Cup final in Milan,
an Italian duel between Varese and Cantu – two teams
with a collection of European and national trophies over
the previous decade – took place. Varese won 90-88 in
overtime. Bruce Seals scored 26 points and Morse 22.
From Italy to France and back
During nine seasons in Varese, Morse won four
Italian Leagues titles (1973, 1974, 1977 and 1978), one
Italian Cup (1973), three EuroLeague titles (1973, 1975
and 1976), an Intercontinental Cup (1973) and a Saporta
Cup (1980). He was the best scorer in Italy for six years
with a total average of 26.5 points over 259 games. His
personal record of 62 points took place in a 108-86 win
over Napoli. With 9,785 points, he ranks fourth in Italian
League history, though his 302 games played are
far fewer than the players above him – Antonello Riva,
Oscar Schmidt and Carlton Myers.
For the 1980-81 season, Morse decided to not only
switch teams, but also switch countries. He joined
Olympic Antibes of France. Curiously, in a league theoretically
inferior to the Italian one, Morse never won the
award as the top scorer despite similar numbers from
his Italian days. With 23.0 points in the first year, he
was the seventh-best scorer. The following year he improved
to 24.7 and was fourth. In his last season there,
1983-84, he averaged 26.9 points but was third as Ed
Murphy (32.3 ppg.) of Limoges won the scoring title.
After that season, Morse decided to travel back to
Italy and signed for Pallacanestro Reggiana. He was just
in time to score the first three-pointer ever in the Italian
League following the regulation change established by
FIBA that season. At the end of that season, he became
the first three-point shooting leader ever in Italy with impressive
numbers – 46 of 77 (59.7%)! He was also great
on free throws – 100 of 108 (92.6%). Can you imagine
Morse’s numbers with three-pointers from 1979, when
they were introduced by the NBA, instead of 1984? His
main weapon was his shot from anywhere and he was
a nightmare to guard, but a joy for basketball lovers
to watch. Today he is an Italian teacher, a language he
learned, one could say, in Varese’s locker room.
Bob Morse, the Varese legend.
101 greats of european basketball
Bob Morse
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