101 Greats of European Basketball

18, Cantu defeated Barça by the score of 71-69 with 20
points by Lienhard, 18 by Della Fiori and 16 from Marzorati.
Recalcati got stuck at 4 points in that game. The
second game in Cantu turned into an offensive festival for
the hosts, who won 110-85. Marzorati led the way with
27 points, Lienhard had 18 and Recalcati contributed 14.
Golden year
The year 1975 was golden one Recalcati and Cantu.
After winning that third Korac Cup, their second league
title followed. Cantu and Ignis Varese were tied with
22-4 records after the regular season, but in the phase
for the title, Cantu was best. Recalcati, already 30 years
old, was the top scorer of his team with 19.7 points.
In the 1975 EuroBasket in Belgrade, Italy won the
bronze medal, the second in Recalcati’s career, as he
averaged 6.0 points. To top that year off, Cantu was
also Intercontinental Cup champ. In a six-team tourney,
Cantu was the host. The decisive game was on the
fourth day against Real Madrid. After 40 minutes, the
score was tied at 86-86. In overtime, Cantu won 96-94.
Despite having lost to Varese in the previous game,
Cantu became champ by defeating Madrid, with whom
it shared a 4-1 record, in their direct duel. Marzorati
scored 21 points, Lienhard had 13 and Recalcati added
10. The 1976 Olympics in Montreal was Recalcati’s last
big competition at the international level.
Luca Chiabotti, a prestigious journalist at La
Gazzetta dello Sport in Italy, highlighted Recalcati’s
offensive style as follows:
“Carlo was an offensive player, a shooter, a natural
scorer. He had good technical foundations. His style
resembled that of the Americans in the 1960s and the
1970s. On top of that, he understood the game and you
could see he could be a great coach.”
Three-peat in the Saporta Cup
In the 1976-77 season, Cantu played the Saporta
Cup, the second European competition, reaching the
final in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. The opponent was
Radnicki Belgrade, whose golden generation had been
Yugoslav champion in 1973. I was at this dramatic
game, which Cantu won 87-86 thanks to 21 points by
Recalcati and 18 by Marzorati. On the other side, Srecko
Jaric – the father of Marko Jaric –nailed 30 points and
big man Milun Marovic had 29. On a negative side, I
remember also having to write from Palma about the
tragic airplane accident that occurred two days before
that final on another Spanish island, Tenerife, where
a collision between two planes on the runway caused
more than 500 deaths.
The following year, Cantu repeated the Saporta Cup
title by beating Synudine Bologna in the final 84-82.
Della Fiori (26 points) and Recalcati (14) were the top
scorers. The three-peat occurred in 1979 against Den
Bosch of the Netherlands in the coastal town of Porec
in Croatia. Cantu won 83-73 with a team that still had
Marzorati (6 points) and Recalcati (2), but already with
new names like Renzo Bariviera (16 points) and Americans
Johnny Neumann and David Batton, each with 20
points. It was the sixth European trophy for Recalcati.
Cantu would go on to win two EuroLeague crowns, in
1982 and 1983, but by then Recalcati was no longer on
the team, having left in 1979 and then retired in 1981
from Pallacanestro Parma. He had scored 6,396 points
in the Italian first division. He is still among the top 50
scorers of all time in the competition.
The same year he retired, 1981, Recalcati started his
brilliant career as a coach.
101 greats of european basketball
Carlo Recalcati
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