101 Greats of European Basketball

only from time to time if flight connections allowed
some extra time before the game. But it really looked
like Bradley didn’t need the sessions. In the games, no
one could notice any lack of integration with his team.
He was a scoring machine. For instance, against Racing
Malines in the quarterfinals group, he scored 43 points
in Belgium and 33 at home. His contribution to the first
Italian team to win the European club title was huge.
The captain of the Simmenthal team in 1966, Gianfranco
Pieri, remembers Bradley on the Olimpia Milano
official website:
Vladimir Stankovic
Rubini, the prophet
“I have vivid images of our first game,” Pieri writes.
“We were at the 1960 Olympics in Tokyo. Rubini wanted
to sign Bradley and he told me to go talk to him. We
talked for a while and after that, we exchanged a couple
gifts. Two years later we were teammates in Olimpia,
me as a captain and him as the star of the European
Cup. At that time he was studying in Oxford and every
Tuesday he traveled to play with us.”
Rubini, the prophet, had said: “He is a phenom. He
plays like God, and on the side, he studies to become
president of the United States.”
A Bradley presidency almost happened, in fact,
but that was many years later. Bill Bradley had a brilliant
career as a professional player. After serving six
months in the US Air Force, he finally signed for the
New York Knicks in December of 1967. In his third year,
1969-70, the Knicks won their first NBA championship
and repeated again in 1972-73, when Bradley took part
in his only all-star game. It was his best season, as he
averaged 16.1 points and 3.4 assists. When he retired
in 1977, he left behind 742 games and 9,217 points, a
12.4-point average.
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