Košarkarski klub Koper Primorska ( en, Koper Primorska Basketball Club), commonly referred to as KK Koper Primorska, was a men's professional
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...
club based in
Koper, Slovenia. The club was formed by the merger of KOŠ Koper and
KK Lastovka
Košarkarski klub Lastovka ( en, Lastovka Basketball Club), commonly referred to as KK Lastovka or simply Lastovka, is a Slovenian basketball club based in Domžale. The club was founded in 1997. In the summer of 2016 the senior team merged with KO ...
in 2016, and was disbanded in 2020 due to financial problems.
Primorska became the
Slovenian champions in 2019, and also won the
Slovenian Cup
Slovene or Slovenian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Slovenia, a country in Central Europe
* Slovene language, a South Slavic language mainly spoken in Slovenia
* Slovenes, an ethno-linguistic group mainly living in Slovenia
* Sl ...
three times in a row between 2018 and 2020.
History
KK Primorska was founded in 2016 by the merger of
KK Lastovka
Košarkarski klub Lastovka ( en, Lastovka Basketball Club), commonly referred to as KK Lastovka or simply Lastovka, is a Slovenian basketball club based in Domžale. The club was founded in 1997. In the summer of 2016 the senior team merged with KO ...
and ŠD Koš Koper. The team finished in seventh place in its debut season in the
Slovenian national league.
In its second season, Sixt Primorska competed in the second-level regional league,
ABA League Second Division
The ABA League Second Division, also ABA League 2, is the 2nd-tier men's basketball division of the ABA League system. It is run by the ABA League JTD. It is a regional competition between men's professional clubs from six countries: Bosnia and He ...
, where they lost in the final against
KK Krka
Košarkarski klub Krka (English: Basketball Club Krka), commonly referred to as KK Krka or simply Krka, is a professional basketball team based in Novo Mesto, Slovenia. The team competes in the Premier A Slovenian Basketball League and the ABA Le ...
. During the 2018–19 season, Sixt Primorska won a historic "quadruple" after winning in all four competitions in which they played (
national league
The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...
,
domestic cup,
domestic supercup, and
ABA League Second Division
The ABA League Second Division, also ABA League 2, is the 2nd-tier men's basketball division of the ABA League system. It is run by the ABA League JTD. It is a regional competition between men's professional clubs from six countries: Bosnia and He ...
). As a result, they earned a place in the
ABA League First Division
The ABA League, renamed to the ABA League First Division in 2017, is the ABA League system, 1st-tier regional men's professional basketball league that originally featured sports club, clubs from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, f ...
for the
2019–20 season. Before the 2019–20 season, the club changed its name to Koper Primorska.
In December 2019 it was reported that the club became financially unstable, and that several players, including head coach
Jurica Golemac
Jurica Golemac (born May 29, 1977) is a Croatian-born Slovenian professional basketball coach and former player. He currently serves as the head coach for Cedevita Olimpija of the Slovenian League, ABA League and the EuroCup.
He is 2.09 m ...
, have left the club. Despite this, the club still managed to win their third consecutive domestic cup title in February 2020 with a win over
Cedevita Olimpija
Košarkarski klub Cedevita Olimpija ( en, Cedevita Olimpija Basketball Club), commonly referred to as KK Cedevita Olimpija or simply Olimpija, is a men's professional basketball club based in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The club competes in the ABA Le ...
. After the season, which ended early because of the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
, the club did not obtain a licence for the national top division, issued by the
Basketball Federation of Slovenia
The Basketball Federation of Slovenia ( sl, Košarkarska zveza Slovenije) also known as KZS is the governing body of basketball in Slovenia. It was founded in 1950 as a member of the larger Yugoslav Basketball Federation (see also: Basketball in ...
. However, in late June 2020, the licence was granted after a successful appeal.
On 7 September 2020, Primorska withdrew from the 2020 Slovenian Supercup due to roster problems. In the same month, the club reportedly withdrew from the ABA League due to serious financial difficulties. On 14 September, however, the club officially announced that they had found new partners and would play in the ABA League and the Slovenian top division.
In November 2020, the club became a
shareholder of the
Adriatic Basketball Association
Adriatic Basketball Association – ABA League, G.P., commonly referred to as the ABA League JTD, is a Croatian company based in Zagreb. It is the general partnership for organizing sports competitions. The company has been running the Adriatic L ...
, following a transfer of
shares from
MZT Skopje. However, in December 2020, Primorska was disqualified from the
ABA League
The ABA League, renamed to the ABA League First Division in 2017, is the 1st-tier regional men's professional basketball league that originally featured clubs from the former Yugoslavia (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, North Mace ...
after failing to play two consecutive games due to financial problems. Later that month, the club also withdrew from the national league and was disbanded.
Season-by-season records
Head coaches
*
Aleksander Sekulić
Aleksander Sekulić (born 24 February 1978) is a Slovenian professional basketball coach, who is current head coach of the Slovenia national basketball team, Slovenia national team and PBC Lokomotiv Kuban, Lokomotiv Kuban of the VTB United League ...
, 2016–2017
*
Jurica Golemac
Jurica Golemac (born May 29, 1977) is a Croatian-born Slovenian professional basketball coach and former player. He currently serves as the head coach for Cedevita Olimpija of the Slovenian League, ABA League and the EuroCup.
He is 2.09 m ...
, 2017–2019
*
Andrej Žakelj, 2019–2020
References
External links
ABA League Team ProfileEurobasket.com Team Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Koper Primorska, KK
Basketball teams established in 2016
Basketball teams disestablished in 2020
Basketball teams in Slovenia
Sport in Koper
2016 establishments in Slovenia
2020 disestablishments in Slovenia