101 Greats of European Basketball

Vladimir Stankovic
the legendary Mirza Delibasic), Varese beat CSKA Moscow
79-74 and won its first continental crown.
That began a golden decade in which Varese would
play 10 straight finals, still a record. Raga scored 19
points, one fewer than Meneghin. On the other side,
the legendary Sergei Belov scored 21 points and Aleksandr
Sidjakin posted 18. Before beating CSKA in the
title game, both teams had met before in a quarterfinals
group. In Moscow, CSKA took the win by the score
of 83-60 despite 26 points by Raga, and Varese won
on its own court 79-59 with 17 points by Raga. Both
teams advanced, and in the semifinals CSKA got rid of
Slavia Prague while Varese outlasted Real Madrid 90-
86 in Madrid (Raga with 22 points, Ricky Jones 29) and
108-73 in Varese (Raga 18 points, Jones 36).
Love in Sarajevo
The 1970 title game in Sarajevo was also a turning
point in the private life of Raga. It was there where he
met Esma Smais, a player at the local Zeljeznicar club,
and shortly thereafter they got married. They had
two children, Fidel and Manuel Jr., the latter of whom
would become an outstanding player at Lugano of
Switzerland and played in the EuroLeague in 2000-01.
Lugano was also the city where his father put an end
to his career.
The following season, 1970-71, Varese repeated
the national club title with Raga as the second-best
scorer in the league, averaging 25.6 points, behind
only Elnardo Webster of Gorizia’s 26.9 per game. In
the EuroLeague, Varese and CSKA repeated the title
game, this time in Antwerp, Belgium. The Soviet champ
took revenge with a 67-53 win, possibly because Raga
scored just ... 3 points! The following season Varese lost
the Italian championship to Simmenthal Milano. Raga
was the best scorer on the team and the fourth-best
in the league (22.7 average). In the EuroLeague, Varese
reached the final again, this time against Jugoplastika
Split in Tel Aviv, and won its second continental crown
by a single point, 70-69, with 21 points from Meneghin
and 20 from Raga.
For the 1972-73 season, the coach of Varese, professor
Aleksandar Nikolic, decided to sign a new American,
Bob Morse, and for the Italian League he had to
sacrifice Raga, as only one foreigner was allowed to
play. But in Europe, Morse and Raga were a lethal pair.
Ignis won the Italian title back with no problems and in
the next EuroLeague final, on March 22 in Liege, Belgium,
the Italian team faced archrival CSKA Moscow
again. Varese won 71-66 with 25 points from Raga
and 20 from Morse. That was Raga’s third and last
European title with Varese. In 1973-74 he also played
in European competition only, and Ignis reached its
fifth straight final but lost in Nantes, France against
Real Madrid by the score of 84-82. The trio formed by
Meneghin (25 points), Morse (22) and Raga (17 points)
did its job, but Real Madrid shared the points better
with Wayne Brabender (22 points), Carmelo Cabrera
(16), Walter Szczerbiak (14), Clifford Luyk (14) and Rafael
Rullan (14) all scoring in double figures under the
masterful floor generalship of Juan Antonio Corbalan.
In 1974-75 Varese was not the Italian champ, but
it was European champ again. It got revenge against
Real Madrid in Antwerp with a 79-66 victory but did so
without “The Flying Mexican” Raga, who had moved to
Lugano. But before that, during the summer at the 1974
World Cup in Puerto Rico, Raga was the tourney’s top
scorer with 155 points (25.8 points per game). He the
Philippines with 38 points and scored 29 against both
the USSR and Argentina. In four years at Lugano, Raga
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