Valencia Basket

Valencia Basket Club S.A.D., commonly known as Valencia Basket, is a professional basketball team based in Valencia, Spain. The team plays in the Liga ACB and the EuroLeague, with home games played at the Font de Sant Lluís. The club is owned by retail tycoon Juan Roig.
History
1986–1997
Valencia Basket was founded on 27 September 1986, after Valencia CF decided to fold its basketball section.
On 4 May 1988, while in its second season in the Primera División B, which was the second tier league of Spanish basketball at that time, the team won its first promotion to the Spanish top-tier level ACB, where the team remained until the 1994–95 season. In 1995, Valencia was relegated to the Spanish 2nd-tier level EBA League, after falling in the league's relegation playoff against Somontano Huesca. In the next season, after being the runner-up in Liga EBA, in a non-promoting season, Valencia BC bought Amway Zaragoza's ACB place to join the top league, where it has remained until nowadays.
1998–2014
On 2 February 1998, Pamesa Valencia won its first Spanish national title, after beating Pinturas Bruguer Badalona, by a score of 89–75, in the final of the 1998 Copa del Rey, which was played in Valladolid. One year later, on 13 April 1999, the club played in the final of the 1998–99 FIBA Saporta Cup, but was defeated by Benetton Treviso, 64–60, in the final played in Zaragoza. Three years later, the club repeated the same success, but Montepaschi Siena won the final of the 2001–02 FIBA Saporta Cup, by a score of 81–71, in Lyon, France.
Continuing on with some of the club's best years, the 2001–02 ACB season was historic for the club, as it reached the Spanish ACB League finals, where they could not win any games in their series against FC Barcelona. Before this first success in reaching the finals of the Spanish league's playoffs, Pamesa Valencia won its first European-wide title, by defeating Krka Novo Mesto in the 2002–03 ULEB Cup, which would then also allow the club to make its debut in the European top-tier level EuroLeague.
In its first EuroLeague participation, Pamesa Valencia qualified for the Top 16, but was eliminated there, after not contesting its game at Nokia Arena against Maccabi Tel Aviv, adducing security issues in Israel.
On 18 April 2010, Power Electronics Valencia won its second European title, by beating Alba Berlin, 67–44, in the 2010 EuroCup Finals, which was played in Vitoria-Gasteiz. This allowed the club to come back to the top level EuroLeague, seven years after its first participation in the tournament. This time, Valencia reached the EuroLeague quarterfinals, where it was eliminated by Real Madrid, who won the playoff series by a 3–2 margin.
The club's third European-wide 2nd-tier level EuroCup title arrived on 7 May 2014, when Valencia beat UNICS Kazan, in the double-legged finals.
2015–present
On 5 June 2017, Valencia Basket qualified for its second Spanish Liga ACB Finals series, after defeating Baskonia in the semifinals of the 2017 national league playoffs. This time, the club won its first ever Spanish national domestic league championship, on 16 June 2017, by defeating Real Madrid with a 3–1 series score in the ACB league's finals. In the same season, the club also reached the finals of both the Copa del Rey (Spanish Cup), and the EuroCup, but they lost those finals to Real Madrid, and fellow Spanish side, Unicaja, respectively. By winning the Spanish League championship, Valencia also sealed their return to the next season's top-tier level EuroLeague competition, for the 2017–18 season.
The club's fourth European-wide 2nd-tier level EuroCup title arrived on 16 April 2019, when Valencia beat Alba Berlin, in the double-legged finals.
Arena
During its first season of existence, the team played its home games at the La Canaleta Sports Complex in the municipality of Mislata.
Since 1987 Valencia Basket plays its home games at the 8,500 seat Font de Sant Lluís arena. The arena is better known as La Fonteta.
The club is expected to move to a new 15,600 seat arena called Roig Arena (previously proposed as Casal España Arena), with the inauguration scheduled for 2024.
Sponsorship naming
Valencia Basket has had several sponsorship names over the years:
Valencia-Hoja del Lunes: 1986–1987
Pamesa Valencia: 1987–2009
Power Electronics Valencia: 2009–2011
Logos
Players
Retired numbers
Current roster
Depth chart
† indicates an overseas player.
* indicates a "cupo" player.
In compliance with ACB's homegrown player policy, only 2 overseas players can be in the roster for every given match, with the exception of those holding a European citizenship, or from any country with an association treaty, such as the Cotonou Agreement. In addition to that, at least 4 of the players in a 12 or more player roster must "cupo" players (i.e., they are Spanish, or must have been in the youth systems of a Spanish club for at least 3 years).[9][10] Euroleague Basketball does not have any policy in regards of players' origin, so it is possible for teams to call more than two overseas players for a match in Euroleague competitions.
FIBA Hall of Famers
Head coaches
Toni Ferrer: 1986–1987, 1989
Antoni Serra: 1987–1989
José Antonio Figueroa: 1989–1991
Fernando Jiménez: 1991
Manu Moreno: 1992–1995
Herb Brown: 1995
Mihajlo Vuković: 1995–2000
Luis Casimiro: 2000–2002
Paco Olmos: 2002–2004, 2011–2012
Pablo Laso: 2004–2005
Chechu Mulero: 2005, 2006
Ricard Casas: 2005–2006
Fotios Katsikaris: 2006–2008
Neven Spahija: 2008–2010
Manolo Hussein: 2010
Svetislav Pešić: 2010–2011
Velimir Perasović: 2012–2015
Carles Duran: 2015
Pedro Martínez: 2015–2017
Txus Vidorreta: 2017–2018
Jaume Ponsarnau: 2018–2021
Joan Peñarroya: 2021–2022
Álex Mumbrú: 2022–present
Season by season
Honours
Trophies and Awards
Liga ACB: (1)
2017
Runners-up (1): 2003
Copa del Rey: (1)
1998
Runners-up (4): 2000, 2006, 2013, 2017
Supercopa: (1)
2017
Saporta Cup:
Runners-up (2): 1999, 2002
EuroCup Basketball: (4)
2003, 2010, 2014, 2019
Runners-up (2): 2012, 2017
Friendly trophies
Torneo de Lleida Stagepro: (1)
2009
Valencia, Spain Invitational Game: (1)
2009
Trofeo Costa de Sol: (1)
2014
Trofeo Feria de Albacete: (1)
2019
Castello, Spain Invitational Game: (1)
2019
Salou, Spain Invitational Game: (1)
2020
Individual awards
ACB Most Valuable Player
Justin Doellman – 2014
ACB Finals MVP
Bojan Dubljević – 2017
Spanish Cup MVP
Nacho Rodilla – 1998
Spanish Supercup MVP
Erick Green – 2017
All-ACB First Team
Justin Doellman – 2014
Romain Sato – 2014
Pau Ribas – 2015
Justin Hamilton – 2016
Bojan Dubljević – 2017, 2019
All-ACB Second Team
Bojan Dubljević – 2018
Alberto Abalde – 2020
ACB Slam Dunk Champion
Víctor Claver – 2007
EuroCup Finals MVP
Dejan Tomašević – 2003
Matt Nielsen – 2010
Justin Doellman – 2014
Will Thomas - 2019
EuroCup Rising Star Award
Víctor Claver – 2010
Bojan Dubljević – 2013, 2014
EuroCup Coach of the Year
Pedro Martínez – 2017
All-EuroLeague Second Team
Duško Savanović – 2011
All-EuroCup First Team
Nando De Colo – 2010
Matt Nielsen – 2010
Nik Caner-Medley – 2012
Justin Doellman – 2013, 2014
Bojan Dubljević – 2017, 2019
All-EuroCup Second Team
Matt Nielsen – 2009
Bojan Dubljević – 2014, 2022
Fernando San Emeterio – 2017
Sam Van Rossom – 2019
Notable players
Salva Díez
Víctor Luengo
Nacho Rodilla
Berni Álvarez
Víctor Claver
Rafa Martinez
Pau Ribas
Guillem Vives
Fernando San Emeterio
Alberto Abalde
Alejandro Montecchia
Federico Kammerichs
Fabricio Oberto
Matt Nielsen
Tiago Splitter
Vítor Faverani
Kyle Alexander
Jasiel Rivero
Antoine Rigaudeau
Florent Piétrus
Damien Inglis
Nando de Colo
Mickaël Gelabale
Sam Van Rossom
Dimos Dikoudis
Robertas Javtokas
Mindaugas Timinskas
Bojan Dubljević
Maurice Ndour
Dejan Tomašević
Igor Rakočević
Kosta Perović
Duško Savanović
Nikola Kalinić
Klemen Prepelič
Tornike Shengelia
Viacheslav Kravtsov
Serhiy Lishchuk
Tanoka Beard
Brad Branson
Brian Cardinal
/ Brandon Davies
/ Justin Doellman
Erick Green
Bernard Hopkins
/ Semi Ojeleye
/ Johnny Rogers
Derrick Williams
/ Shammond Williams
Women's team
The women's team of Valencia Basket was created in 2014 and promoted to Liga Femenina in 2018, winning the final game against Real Club Celta de Vigo in Valencia. This access to the first division and the relegation of CB Estudiantes made Valencia Basket the only club with masculine and feminine representation in the first division in the 2018-2019 season.
In the first season competing on the first division, Valencia Basket achieved a ticket to their first Copa de la Reina de baloncesto, celebrated in Vitoria between the 28th of February and the 3 of June. Also, they achieve a spot to participate in the playoffs, losing against Perfumerías Avenida on the semifinals, but achieving the opportunity to play his first European tournament the next season.
References
External links
Official website
Valencia Basket at ACB.com
Valencia Basket at the EuroLeague
Basketball teams in the Valencian Community
Basketball teams established in 1986
Liga ACB teams
Sport in Valencia