York Bruno Larese (July 18, 1938 – February 6, 2016) was an American

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

player and coach.

Amateur career

Larese was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

and attended St. Ann's Academy (now Archbishop Molloy High School) in

Queens Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...

. A guard, he attended the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the Public university, public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referre ...

, leading the

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, the ACC's eighteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athlet ...

in foul shooting in 1959–60 with 86.8 percent, which stood as the single-season UNC mark for 25 years. (That season included a 21-for-21 effort against Duke, which is still an ACC record.) Larese was twice selected third-team All-American (in 1958–59 and 1960–61).

Pro career

Larese was one of the few players drafted ''twice'' by the NBA (whose rules at the time permitted this). First, he was selected by the

St. Louis Hawks The Atlanta Hawks are an American professional basketball team based in Atlanta. The Hawks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home games at S ...

(now

Atlanta Hawks The Atlanta Hawks are an American professional basketball team based in Atlanta. The Hawks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southeast Division (NBA), Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference (NBA), Easte ...

) in the 1960 NBA draft, but chose to return to Chapel Hill; he was drafted again in

1961 Events January * January 1 – Monetary reform in the Soviet Union, 1961, Monetary reform in the Soviet Union. * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and cons ...

, this time by the Chicago Packers (now the

Washington Wizards The Washington Wizards are an American professional basketball team based in Washington, D.C. The Wizards compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference. The team plays i ...

). Larese played eight games for Chicago before being waived on November 29, 1961; the

Philadelphia Warriors The history of the Golden State Warriors began in Philadelphia in 1946. In 1962, the franchise was relocated to San Francisco, California and became known as the San Francisco Warriors until 1971, when its name was changed to the current Golden ...

signed him as a free agent the next day. Larese played 60 games for the Warriors (51 in the regular season and nine in the playoffs), including

Wilt Chamberlain Wilton Norman Chamberlain ( ; August21, 1936 – October12, 1999) was an American professional basketball player. Standing tall, he played Center (basketball), center in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for 14 seasons. He was enshrin ...

's famous 100-point game. (Larese scored nine points in that contest, and would often joke that he and Wilt scored 109 points between them.) After being cut by the Warriors, Larese began a seven-year career in the Eastern Professional Basketball League (EPBL), winning a championship with the Allentown Jets in 1965. He played from 1966 to 1969 with the EBA's

Hartford Capitols The Hartford Capitols were a professional basketball team in the Eastern Professional Basketball League (later re-named the Eastern Basketball Association) from 1966 through 1974. The Capitols played on weekends only and played at various venues a ...

, taking over as player/coach in 1968.

Coaching career

In 1969, Larese moved up to the big-league basketball coaching ranks, taking the reins of the

New York Nets New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, 1995 * "New" (Daya song), 2017 * "New" (No Doubt song), 1 ...

of the ABA. The job was temporary, however; Larese agreed to coach the Nets for only one season, while

Lou Carnesecca Luigi P. Carnesecca (January 5, 1925 – November 30, 2024) was an American men's college basketball coach at St. John's University. Carnesecca also coached at the professional level, leading the New York Nets of the American Basketball Assoc ...

got out of his contract helming St. John's. After a 39–45 record and a fourth-place finish, Larese took a job with a shoe firm, Converse Rubber Co., on Long Island. In January 1971, Larese returned to Allentown to take over his old team, the Jets. After leading Allentown to the EBA playoffs that spring, however, Larese found that coaching the Jets was taking too much time away from his executive position at the shoe company, and so resigned at the end of the year.

Personal life

York Larese was married to Barbara (Connally) Trockman and father of two sons (Keith and York Jr.) and two daughters (Kimberly and Karen). He died on February 6, 2016, at the age of 77.

Career playing statistics

NBA

Source

Regular season

{, class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size:95%; text-align:right;" !Year !Team !GP !MPG !FG% !FT% !RPG !APG !PPG , - , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;",

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, 8 , , 7.1 , , .476 , , .556 , , .8 , , 1.1 , , 3.1 , - , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;",

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, 51 , , 12.7 , , .366 , , .841 , , 1.4 , , 1.7 , , 5.4 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 59 , , 11.9 , , .373 , , .806 , , 1.3 , , 1.6 , , 5.1

Playoffs

{, class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size:95%; text-align:right;" !Year !Team !GP !MPG !FG% !FT% !RPG !APG !PPG , - , style="text-align:left;",

1962 The year saw the Cuban Missile Crisis, which is often considered the closest the world came to a Nuclear warfare, nuclear confrontation during the Cold War. Events January * January 1 – Samoa, Western Samoa becomes independent from Ne ...

, style="text-align:left;",

, 9 , , 8.7 , , .314 , , .667 , , 2.1 , , .6 , , 3.3

Head coaching record

, - , style="text-align:left;", New York , style="text-align:left;", , 84, , 39, , 45, , , , style="text-align:center;", 4th in Eastern, , 7, , 3, , 4, , .429 , style="text-align:center;", Lost in Division semifinals Source

References

External links

BasketballReference.com: York Larese (as player)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Larese, York 1938 births 2016 deaths All-American college men's basketball players Allentown Jets players American men's basketball coaches American men's basketball players Basketball coaches from New York (state) Basketball players from New York City Chicago Packers draft picks Chicago Packers players Eastern Basketball Association coaches Hartford Capitols players New York Nets head coaches North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball players Philadelphia Warriors players Point guards Shooting guards St. Ann's Academy (Manhattan) alumni St. Louis Hawks draft picks 20th-century American sportsmen