Baloncesto Málaga

Baloncesto Málaga, S.A.D., for sponsorship reasons named Unicaja, is a Spanish professional basketball team that is based in Málaga, Spain. The team plays in the Liga ACB and the Basketball Champions League. The team is sponsored by the Spanish bank Unicaja.
History
Unicaja was originally founded in 1977, as CB Caja de Ronda. 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.
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.
Logos
Home arenas
Pabellón Guadaljaire (1977–78)
Pabellón Tiro Pichón (1978–81)
Pabellón Ciudad Jardín (1981–99)
Palacio de Deportes José María Martín Carpena (1999–present)
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.
Players
Retired numbers
Current roster
Depth chart
Notable players
Álex Abrines
Curro Ávalos
Saúl Blanco
Carlos Cabezas
Iñaki De Miguel
Alberto Díaz
Dani Díez
Roger Esteller
Jaime Fernández
Xavi Fernández
Germán Gabriel
Jorge Garbajosa
Ricardo Guillén
Carlos Jiménez
Tomás Jofresa
Chuck Kornegay
Pablo Laso
Jesús Lázaro
Juan Antonio Orenga
Alfonso Reyes
Berni Rodríguez
Mario Muñoz Oses
Ignacio Rodríguez
Dani Romero
Gaby Ruiz
Mike Smith
Carlos Suárez
Fran Vázquez
Paco Vázquez
Sergi Vidal
Jean-Jacques Conceição
Juan Ignacio Sánchez
Walter Herrmann
Steve Leven
Ademola Okulaja
Marcus Faison
Jean-Marc Jaumin
JR Bremer
Nedžad Sinanović
Vítor Faverani
Rafael Hettsheimeir
Augusto Lima
Rafa Luz
Paulo Prestes
Roderick Blakney
Earl Calloway
Earl Rowland
Kyle Wiltjer
Ivan Grgat
Davor Kus
Oliver Lafayette
Veljko Mršić
Sandro Nicević
Hrvoje Perić
Krunoslav Simon
Zan Tabak
Luka Žorić
Jiri Welsch
Christian Eyenga
Juan José García
Sasu Salin
Joseph Gomis
Edwin Jackson
Mathias Lessort
Florent Pietrus
Stéphane Risacher
Moustapha Sonko
Frédéric Weis
Giorgi Shermadini
Shammond Williams
Robert Archibald
Joel Freeland
Darren Phillip
Morayo Soluade
Ioannis Giannoulis
Georgios Printezis
Kostas Vasileiadis
Robert Gulyás
Pavel Ermolinskij
Jon Stefansson
Gal Mekel
Jeff Brooks
Kaspars Berzins
Kristaps Valters
Gintaras Einikis
Mindaugas Kuzminskas
Domantas Sabonis
Richard Hendrix
Omar Cook
Vladimir Golubović
Michał Chyliński
Thomas Kelati
Adam Waczyński
Adam Wójcik
José Ortiz
Daniel Santiago
Hamady Ndiaye
Boniface Ndong
Milan Gurović
Stefan Marković
Dragan Milosavljević
Dejan Musli
Nemanja Nedović
Kosta Perović
Bojan Popović
Vladimir Štimac
Uroš Tripković
Zoran Dragić
Erazem Lorbek
Alen Omić
Marko Tusek
Richard Petruska
Sergei Babkov
Valeri Tikhonenko
Volodymyr Gerun
Eugene Jeter
Panchi Barrera
Jayson Granger
Fredy Navarrete
Joe Arlauckas
Victor Alexander
James Augustine
Mario Bennett
Adrian Branch
Marcus Brown
Louis Bullock
Jack Cooley
Juan Dixon
Zabian Dowdell
Jamie Feick
Gerald Fitch
Kyle Fogg
Marcus Haislip
Marc Iavaroni
Tarence Kinsey
Tony Massenburg
Ray McCallum Jr.
Kenny Miller
Gary Neal
DeMarcus Nelson
Andy Panko
Brian Roberts
Lou Roe
Sean Rooks
Ralph Sampson
Paul Shirley
Reggie Slater
Ray Tolbert
Marcus Williams
David Wood
Head coaches
Alfonso Queipo de Llano: 1977–79, 1985–86
José María Martín Urbano : 1979–80, 1982, 1985, 1987, 1990–92
Damián Caneda: 1980–81
Ramón Guardiola: 1981–82
Moncho Monsalve: 1982–84
Ignacio Pinedo: 1984–85
Arturo Ortega: 1986–87
Zoran Slavnić: 1987–88
Mario Pesquera: 1988–90
Javier Imbroda: 1992–98
Pedro Ramírez: 1998–99
Božidar Maljković: 1999–03
Paco Alonso: 2003
Chechu Mulero: 2003
Sergio Scariolo: 2003–08
Aito Garcia Reneses: 2008–2011
Chus Mateo: 2011–12
Luis Casimiro: 2012
Jasmin Repeša: 2012–13
Joan Plaza: 2013–2018
Luis Casimiro: 2018–2021
Fotios Katsikaris: 2021–2022
Ibon Navarro: 2022–present
Season by season
CB Caja de Ronda
CB Maristas
Unicaja
Honours and awards
Honours
National:
Liga ACB (Spanish League): (1)
2005–06
Copa del Rey (Spanish Cup): (2)
2005, 2023
2nd division championships: (2)
1ª División B: 1981, 1987
Andalusia Cup: (16)
1996, 2001, 2003, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021, 2023.
International:
EuroCup: (1)
2017
Korać Cup: (1)
2001
EuroLeague:
Third Place: 2007
Other competitions:
Torrox, Spain Invitational Game
2008
Trofeo de Platja d'Aro
2008
Trofeo Pollinica
2008
Trofeo Ciudad de Cordoba, Spain
2009
Individual awards
ACB Finals MVP
Michael Ansley – 1995
Jorge Garbajosa – 2006
Spanish Cup MVP
Jorge Garbajosa – 2005
Tyson Carter – 2023
ACB Slam Dunk Champion
Florent Piétrus – 2006
James Gist – 2012
ACB Three Point Shootout Champion
Paco Vázquez – 2001
All-EuroLeague Second Team
Jorge Garbajosa – 2006
All-ACB First Team
Jorge Garbajosa – 2005, 2006
Jayson Granger – 2015
All-ACB Second Team
Nemanja Nedović – 2017
EuroCup Finals MVP
Alberto Díaz – 2017
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.
Just in its second season, Unicaja promoted to Liga Femenina 2.
Season by season
References
External links
Official Website
Baloncesto Málaga at ACB.com
Baloncesto Málaga at Euroleague.net
Baloncesto Málaga at Eurobasket.com
Basketball teams in Andalusia
Liga ACB teams
Basketball teams established in 1977
1977 establishments in Spain