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Baloncesto Málaga

Baloncesto Málaga S.A.D.,[2] also known as Unicaja Málaga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional basketball club based in Málaga, Spain. The team plays in the Liga ACB and the Champions League. .

Founded in 1997, the team is sponsored by the Spanish bank Unicaja and has carried that sponsorship name since 1992. They play their home games at the Palacio de Deportes José María Martín Carpena, shortly known as the "Martín Carpena". Unicaja has won one Liga ACB title, in 2006, as well as two Copa del Reys, one EuroCup, one Basketball Champions League, one FIBA Korać Cup and one FIBA Intercontinental Cup title.

History

Unicaja was originally founded in 1977, as CB Caja de Ronda.[3][4] In 1992, the club merged another ACB team in the city of Málaga, CB Maristas de Málaga, which was originally founded in 1953 as Ademar Basket Club. Over the years, the club has featured players like: Nacho Rodríguez, Berni Rodríguez, Carlos Cabezas, Jorge Garbajosa, Marcus Brown, Sergei Babkov, Michael Ansley, Louis Bullock, and Kenny Miller, as well as numerous other well-known players. The club won its first title, when it won the European-wide third tier level FIBA Korać Cup in the 2000–01 season. They then won the Spanish King's Cup title in 2005. The next year, in the 2005–06 season, Unicaja won its first-ever Spanish League championship.

The club finished its best years to date, by qualifying for the 2007 Euroleague Final Four, where it was defeated in the semifinals by CSKA Moscow, and thus finished in third place in the EuroLeague. In October 2007, Unicaja faced the NBA's Memphis Grizzlies in a friendly match, and they defeated the Grizzlies, by a score of 102–99. That was one of the 17 times that an NBA team has lost to a foreign club. Pau Gasol and Juan Carlos Navarro, two of the greatest Spanish basketball players of all time, played for Memphis in that historical game.[5]

Málaga participated in the European-wide top-tier level league, the EuroLeague, for 15 consecutive seasons (2001–02 season to 2015–16 season). However, in the summer of 2015, it lost its EuroLeague A-licence. Therefore, in the 2016–17 season, Unicaja participated in the second tier level EuroCup. The club immediately won the EuroCup title, in its first season in the league, after winning over Valencia Basket in the league's Finals.[6]

Logos

Home arenas

ACB 2011–12 game between Unicaja and Real Madrid, at Martín Carpena.

Since 1999, Unicaja Málaga has played its home games at the Palacio de Deportes José María Martín Carpena arena. The arena originally seated 9,743 spectators for basketball games, and was expanded in the year 2010, to a current seating capacity of 11,300 people for basketball games.[7]

Players

Retired numbers

Current roster

Note: Flags indicate national team eligibility at FIBA-sanctioned events. Players may hold other non-FIBA nationalities not displayed.

Depth chart

Notes: Blue † – homegrown player[a]; Red * – overseas player[b]; Green ‡ – youth player[c]

Notable players

Note: Flags indicate national team eligibility at FIBA-sanctioned events. Players may hold other non-FIBA nationalities not displayed.

Head coaches

Season by season

Caja de Ronda

CB Maristas

Unicaja

Honours and awards

Honours

National:

International:

Other competitions:

Individual awards

EuroCup Finals MVP

Basketball Champions League Final Four MVP

Reserve team

Baloncesto Málaga B is the reserve team of Unicaja, basketball based in Málaga.

From 2007 to 2016, Baloncesto Málaga had an agreement with CB Axarquía, for them to play as the club's main farm team, while Baloncesto Málaga B, which currently plays also under the name Unicaja, was the club's third team until the end of this contract.

Women's team

On 14 July 2017, the club announced the creation of a women's team.[11]

Just in its second season, Unicaja promoted to Liga Femenina 2.[12]

Season by season

Notes

  1. ^ A homegrown player is a player that played for at least three years before the age of 20 on a Spanish team. In Liga ACB, the team must register at least four homegrown players in rosters of 10–12 players or at least three homegrown players in rosters of 8–9 players. In Champions League, the team must register at least five homegrown players in rosters of 11–12 players or at least four homegrown players in rosters of 10 players.
  2. ^ A overseas player is a player from outside EEA, FIBA Europe or ACP states. In Liga ACB, the team may register at most two overseas players. In Champions League, the team did not have any limitations regarding the number of overseas players.
  3. ^ In Liga ACB, the team may register under-22 players linked to the youth system.

References

  1. ^ "ACB.COM". www.acb.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 24 June 2024. AFORO: 10.699 espectadores
  2. ^ "Relación de SAD". CSD - Consejo Superior de Deportes (in Spanish). Retrieved 10 August 2024.
  3. ^ HISTORIA (in Spanish).
  4. ^ History.
  5. ^ Unicaja defeats Memphis Grizzlies in NBA Euroleague Live 2007 Interbasket. 9 October 2007
  6. ^ "7DAYS EuroCup Finals, Game 3: Unicaja Malaga is the champion!". Eurocupbasketball.com. 5 April 2017. Retrieved 6 April 2017.
  7. ^ "Palacio de Deportes, datos de interés" (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 2014-01-01. Retrieved 2017-04-09.
  8. ^ "El Unicaja retira el dorsal 5 en honor a Berni Rodríguez". www.acb.com (in Spanish). 26 June 2012. Archived from the original on 11 August 2017. Retrieved 26 June 2012.
  9. ^ "El dorsal "5" del Unicaja, para siempre en el Carpena en homenaje a Berni". www.acb.com (in Spanish). 19 May 2017. Archived from the original on 12 August 2017. Retrieved 19 May 2017.
  10. ^ "El 5 del "Eterno Capitán", para siempre en el Carpena". www.acb.com (in Spanish). 22 May 2017. Retrieved 22 May 2017.
  11. ^ "Nace Unicaja Baloncesto Femenino" [Unicaja women's basketball borns] (in Spanish). Unicaja Baloncesto. 14 July 2017.
  12. ^ "El Unicaja femenino logró el ascenso a Liga 2" [Unicaja Femenino achieved promotion to Liga 2] (in Spanish). Cadena SER. 20 May 2019.

External links