Antonio "Tonino" Zorzi (10 June 1935 – 19 August 2023) was an Italian

professional basketball In professional sports, as opposed to amateur sports, participants receive payment for their performance. Professionalism in sport has come to the fore through a combination of developments. Mass media and increased leisure have brought larger a ...

player and head coach. He was nicknamed Paròn.

Life and career

Born in

Gorizia Gorizia (; ; , ; ; ) is a town and (municipality) in northeastern Italy, in the autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia. It is located at the foot of the Julian Alps, bordering Slovenia. It is the capital of the Province of Gorizia, Region ...

, Zorzi started playing basket in his city team Goriziana before moving to

Pallacanestro Varese Pallacanestro Varese, also called by its current sponsor's name, the Openjobmetis Varese, is an Italian professional basketball club based in Varese, Lombardy. Founded in 1945, the team plays in the Italian basketball league system, Italian first ...

, with whom he won the title as

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

top scorer in the 1954–55 season as well as the team's first

Scudetto The ''scudetto'' (; Italian for 'little shield') is a decoration having the colors of the flag of Italy which is sewn onto the jersey of the Italian sports clubs that won the highest level championship of their respective sport in the previous ...

in 1961. He also played 22 matches with the Italian national team, making his debut at

EuroBasket 1953 The 1953 FIBA European Championship, commonly called FIBA EuroBasket 1953, was the eighth FIBA EuroBasket regional basketball championship, held by FIBA. Seventeen national teams affiliated with the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) e ...

. After his retirement in 1962, Zorzi started a long and fruitful career as head coach, whose achievements include five promotions from A2 to Serie A and the 1970 victory of the

FIBA Saporta Cup The FIBA Saporta Cup, founded as ''FIBA European Cup Winners Cup'', was the name of the second-tier level European-wide professional club basketball competition, where the domestic National Cup winners, from all over Europe, played against eac ...

with

Partenope Napoli Basket Partenope Napoli Basket is an Italian amateur basketball team from Naples, Campania. History Partenope Napoli Basket first took part in the top-tier level Italian first division, the LBA, from 1963 to 1965. After stabilizing itself in the top lev ...

. He also served as the vice coach of

Sandro Gamba Alessandro "Sandro" Gamba (born 3 June 1932) is an Italian former professional basketball player and coach. Gamba was a finalist for induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2005, and was elected as a member in 2006. He ...

in the Italian national team, winning a silver medal at EuroBasket 1991. During his career Zorzi received various honors, including the induction in the

Italian Basketball Hall of Fame The Italian Basketball Hall of Fame (, IBHOF) is a hall of fame that honours individuals (or whole teams) that have contributed to the spread and improvement of Italian basketball, through their sporting contributions, their behaviour and their ac ...

and in the

Hall of Fame, in which he was named best player of all time. He died on 19 August 2023, at the age of 88.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Zorzi, Tonino 1935 births 2023 deaths Sportspeople from Gorizia Italian basketball players Pallacanestro Varese players Italian basketball coaches Mens Sana Basket coaches Nuova Pallacanestro Gorizia coaches Pallacanestro Petrarca Padova coaches Partenope Napoli Basket coaches Reyer Venezia coaches Montecatiniterme Basketball coaches Dinamo Sassari coaches Victoria Libertas Pesaro coaches