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 (appr ...

player and coach.

Amateur career

Larese was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and attended St. Ann's Academy (now

Archbishop Molloy High School Archbishop Molloy High School (also called Molloy, Archbishop Molloy, or AMHS) is a co-educational, college preparatory, Catholic school for grades 9-12, located on on 83-53 Manton Street, Briarwood, Queens, New York. It is part of the Roman Cath ...

) in

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

. A 6'4" (1.93 m) guard, he attended the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the multi-campus public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referred to as the UNC Sy ...

, leading the

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate athletic conference located in the eastern United States. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC's fifteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Associa ...

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 league's Eastern Conference Southeast Division. The team plays its home games at ...

(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 league's Eastern Conference (NBA), Eastern Conference Southeast Division (NBA), Sou ...

) in the

1960 NBA Draft The 1960 NBA draft was the 14th annual draft of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The draft was held on April 11, 1960, before the 1960–61 season. In this draft, eight NBA teams took turns selecting amateur U.S. college basketball play ...

, but chose to return to Chapel Hill; he was drafted again in

1961 Events January * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba ( Cuba–United States relations are restored in 2015). ** Aero Flight 311 ...

, this time by the

Chicago Packers 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 league's Eastern Conference Southeast Division. The team plays ...

(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 league's Eastern Conference (NBA), Eastern Conference Southeast D ...

). 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 St ...

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 (; August 21, 1936 – October 12, 1999) was an American professional basketball player who played as a Center (basketball), center. Standing at tall, he played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for 14 yea ...

'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 League, winning a championship with the

Allentown Jets The Allentown Jets were a minor league basketball team that played in the Eastern Professional Basketball League (later the Eastern Basketball Association and Continental Basketball Association) from 1958 to 1981. The team was one of the most succ ...

in 1965. He played from 1966-69 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 ar ...

, taking over as player/coach in 1968.

Coaching career

1969 This year is notable for Apollo 11's first landing on the moon. Events January * January 4 – The Government of Spain hands over Ifni to Morocco. * January 5 **Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 crashes into a house on its approach to ...

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

New York Nets New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

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

Lou Carnesecca Luigi P. Carnesecca (born January 5, 1925) is an American retired college basketball coach at St. John's University. Carnesecca also coached at the professional level, leading the New York Nets of the American Basketball Association for three sea ...

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 in February 6, 2016 at the age of 77.

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 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 Eastern Basketball Association coaches