Basketball Statistics Blog

Basketball Unforgettable Legends: Pierluigi Marzorati

Pierluigi Marzorati (born September 12, 1952 in Figino Serenza) is a basketball player from Italy, who won the silver medal with his national team at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. Yugoslavia turned out to be too strong for Italy in the final: the match ended 77-86.

He eventually played 278 matches for Italian national team scoring 2209 points. He won 1983 European Championship and three bronze medals at the Eurobasket 1971, Eurobasket 1975 and Eurobasket 1985.
He is considered one of the best points guards of all time in Europe.

Photograph: Vedia PhotoStream

He was one of the key players of the Pallacanestro Cantù team (which he played for from 1969 to 1991), winning 2 Italian league titles (in 1975 and 1981), 2 European Basketball Champions' Cups (in 1982 and 1983), 4 Korac Cups (in 1973, 1974, 1975 and 1991), 2 Intercontinental Cups (in 1975 and 1982) and 4 Cup Winners' Cups (in 1977, 1978, 1979 and 1981).

He first announced his retirement in 1991 after playing his whole career for Pallacanestro Cantù. He became a vice-president for the club and served in that capacity until 1996.

In July 2006 he decided, aged 54, to come back to top class competitions with Pallacanestro Cantù for the 70th anniversary of the team. On October 6, 2006, he finally appeared in an official match for Cantù, playing two minutes in Serie A league match against national champions Benetton Treviso, then won 70-69. This way, he became the first basketball player in history to have played official matches in five different decades, as well as the oldest professional basketball player to have ever taken part in an official match.

In 2007, he was enshrined in the FIBA Hall of Fame, and in 2008 Marzorati chosen as one of 50 Greatest Euroleague Contributors.

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