BASKETBALL TEAMS

BARCELONA LASSA

FC Barcelona Lassa is a Spanish professional basketball club. It is part of the FC Barcelona sports club and was founded on 24 August 1926 which makes it the oldest club in Liga ACB. The club competes in the Liga ACB and the EuroLeague. It has won seven of the last thirteen ACB championships and in 2003, completed a Liga ACB, Copa del Rey and EuroLeague treble. FC Barcelona Bàsquet has played in seven EuroLeague finals, with the last being their 2010 win.

The team plays its home games at Palau Blaugrana, which was opened on 23 October 1971. They share the facilities with the roller hockey, futsal and handball teams.

Well-known players that have played with the team have included: Pau Gasol, Rony Seikaly, Marc Gasol, Anderson Varejão, Juan Carlos Navarro, Jaka Lakovič, Šarūnas Jasikevičius, Dejan Bodiroga, Gianluca Basile, Ricky Rubio, Juan Antonio San Epifanio “Epi”, Sasha Djordjevic, and Tony Massenburg.

FC Barcelona Lassa also has a reserve team that plays in LEB Oro.

REAL MADRID BALONCESTO

Real Madrid is a Spanish professional basketball team founded in 1931 as a division of the Real Madrid C.F. club. They play in the Liga ACB and internationally in the EuroLeague.

As successful as the football club, the basketball team has been the most successful of its peers in both Spain and Europe. The Real Madrid squads have won a record 33 Spanish championship, including 7-in-a-row and 10-in-a-row sequences. They have also won a record 26 Spanish Cup championships, a record 9 EuroLeague Championships, and a record 4 Saporta Cups.

Madrid has won a record 5 Intercontinental Cups and they have also won 3 Triple Crowns. Star players have included: Arvydas Sabonis, Dražen Petrović, Dražen Dalipagić, Mirza Delibašić, Juan Antonio Corbalán, Fernando Martín and Dejan Bodiroga.

Real Madrid also has a developmental basketball team that plays in Liga EBA (Real Madrid B).

FENERBAHCE

Fenerbahçe’s men’s basketball department was founded in 1913, and achieved considerable success when the sport established itself in Turkey. Fenerbahçe won Turkish Basketball Championship national titles in 1957, 1959, and 1965, just before the Turkish Basketball Super League was founded in 1966, and made it to the EuroLeague in 1960 and 1966. Its fans had to wait until 1991 for another title, when Levent Topsakal, Larry Richard, and head coach Çetin Yılmaz led Fenerbahçe to the Turkish League title over Tofaş.[1]

Fenerbahçe returned to the EuroLeague in 1992, but lost in the preliminary round. Fenerbahçe was back in the Turkish League finals in 1992, 1993 and, 1995, but could not find a way to win the championship for some time. A third-place finish in the 1997–98 season allowed the club to return to the EuroLeague, and with players like Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, Marko Milič, Žan Tabak, İbrahim Kutluay, and the late Conrad McRae, Fenerbahçe advanced to the eighth-final playoffs, losing there to Real Madrid. The club made it to the Korać Cup quarter-finals in 1995–96 and 2000–01, and also finished in fourth place in the 2004–05 FIBA Europe League.

In the summer of 2006, the basketball club merged with Ülkerspor, to form Fenerbahçe Ülker. After the merger, Fenerbahce dominated the Turkish League and became the league champions two times in a row.[2][3][4] After losing the third Turkish League finals after the merger, to Efes Pilsen, in a closely contested playoff finals,[5] Fenerbahçe became Turkish League champions again in the 2009–10 season, this time by beating Efes Pilsen in the finals.[6]

Fenerbahçe Ülker headed into the 2010–11 season with 5 new transfers: Engin Atsür, Šarūnas Jasikevičius, Marko Tomas, Kaya Peker, and Darjuš Lavrinovič.

New transfers for the 2011–12 season included: Bojan Bogdanović, Curtis Jerrells, James Gist, Hakan Demirel, and also Thabo Sefolosha, who returned to the NBA after the 2011 NBA lockout ended. With head coach Neven Spahija, Fenerbahçe Ülker became the Turkish League champions again.[7] After two disappointing seasons, Željko Obradović was then signed as the team’s head coach, and the roster was strengthened with the likes of former Toronto Raptor Linas Kleiza, promising power forward Nemanja Bjelica, consistent center Luka Žorić, and hot Turkish prospects Kenan Sipahi and Melih Mahmutoğlu. Fenerbahçe Ülker became the Turkish League champions again, after beating Galatasaray in the playoff’s finals.[8]

GALATASARAY

Galatasaray S.K., for sponsorship reasons Galatasaray Odeabank, is a professional basketball team based in the city of Istanbul in Turkey. It is a part of the Galatasaray Sports Club. The team competes in the Turkish Basketball Super League and EuroLeague. Galatasaray plays its home matches in Abdi İpekçi Arena, which has a seating capacity for 12,270 spectators. The team has been crowned Turkish national champions five times so far.
According to the official records, in Turkey, basketball was first played in 1904 at Robert College. An American physical education teacher laid the foundations of this sport in Turkey. 7 years later, Ahmet Robenson, a physical education teacher in Galatasaray High School decided to introduce a new game to students in 1911. Robenson, who also became a Galatasaray S.K. president later, popularized this sport in Turkey.[1][2]

Basketball had always been very important for the club. The team has won 4 national championship titles and 16 İstanbul League title. Former president of the club, Özhan Canaydın was a former player of basketball team.

On 24 June 2011, Galatasaray announced that Cafe Crown’s sponsorship was over.[3]

Galatasaray qualified for the EuroLeague for the first time after winning their qualification knockout round and would eventually compete in the Euroleague 2011–12.[4]

On April 27, 2016, Galatasaray defeated Strasbourg IG with the score of 78–67 at Abdi Ipekci Arena. With this result Galatasaray Men’s Basketball Team won the EuroCup championship for the first time.[5]