New Basket Brindisi, for sponsorship reasons named Happy Casa Brindisi or shortly Brindisi, is a professional Italian
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
based in
Brindisi
Brindisi ( , ) ; la, Brundisium; grc, Βρεντέσιον, translit=Brentésion; cms, Brunda), group=pron is a city in the region of Apulia in southern Italy, the capital of the province of Brindisi, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea.
Histo ...
,
Apulia
it, Pugliese
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. It plays in the first division
LBA in the
2022–23 season.
Founded in 2004, the well-supported club (who regularly sells out its arena – albeit one of the smallest ones in the league – and sent three thousand fans to Rome for a game)
has gradually grown to reach in turn the Serie A, the title playoffs, the
EuroChallenge
FIBA EuroChallenge (called the FIBA Europe League in 2003–05, and FIBA EuroCup in 2005–08) was the 3rd-tier level transnational men's professional continental club basketball competition in Europe, from 2003 to 2015. It was organized and run ...
and lastly the
BCL.
History
Brindisi had in the past been represented by Libertas Brindisi, which played during the '70 and the season 1981–82 in the first division and spent nine others in the second division around the same period (including a few with local great Elio Pentassuglia as coach).
That side would fold in 1987 whilst another local side,
Azzurra Brindisi
Azzurra is a yacht racing team that competed in the America's Cup, the Audi MedCup and the 52 Super Series for the Italian Yacht Club Costa Smeralda.
History
Funded by business magnate Aga Khan IV and industrialist Gianni Agnelli, and managed ...
, played a few seasons in the third division during the 1990s before itself disappearing in 2001.
The city was left without a representative in the national divisions, in the meantime, New Basket Ceglie – based in nearby
Ceglie Messapica
Ceglie Messapica (; scn, label= Brindisino, Cégghie) is a town, and ''comune'', located in the province of Brindisi and region of Apulia, in southern Italy, in the traditional area called Salento.
Geography
The area of Ceglie Messapica is loc ...
since its 1992 foundation – had been promoted to the fourth division Serie B but was hampered by the lack of a suitable arena in the town (the local Palazzetto dello sport only seating 500).
Ceglie then moved to Brindisi's PalaPentassuglia arena that same summer, however the team didn't draw the local public and was sold to Giovanni Di Bella at the end of the season, with the new owner making the move to the city permanent.
Also in 2002, Massimo Ferrarese started sponsoring the club under his company's Prefabbricati Pugliesi brand, two years he would buy out Di Bella (who was planning on selling the club to a team in another city) to become the sole owner of the club and form New Basket Brindisi in the process, with Antonio Codiano as its president.
On the court, Brindisi won the Serie B2 regular season and reached the promotion playoffs final as favourites, however they lost the series against Ribera after being beaten 71–104 in the decisive game on 25 May 2005.
They were admitted to the
Serie B1 in all cases, finishing the 2005–06 season fifth.
The next season saw a team led by Uruguayan
Alejandro Muro
Alejandro is the Spanish form of the name Alexander.
Alejandro has multiple variations in different languages, including Aleksander (Czech, Polish), Alexandre (French), Alexandros (Greek), Alsander ( Irish), Alessandro (Italian), Aleksandr ( R ...
win the regular season but lose in the playoff quarterfinals to
Veroli
Veroli ( la, Verulae) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Frosinone, Lazio, central Italy, in the Latin Valley.
History
Veroli (''Verulae'') became a Roman municipium in 90 BC. It became the seat of a bishopric in 743 AD, and was occupied ...
.
The promotion goal would finally be attained on 8 June 2008 as Brindisi beat
Trapani
Trapani ( , ; scn, Tràpani ; lat, Drepanum; grc, Δρέπανον) is a city and municipality (''comune'') on the west coast of Sicily, in Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Trapani. Founded by Elymians, the city is still an impor ...
to reach the championship final (that they would lose to
Venezia
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The islan ...
) and earn a promotion to the
LegaDue
Serie A2, known for sponsorship reasons as Serie A2 Old Wild West, is a men's basketball league in Italy. It constitutes the second-tier of the Italian league pyramid, below the first division LBA and above the third division Serie B, with pro ...
.
After a transitional season, Brindisi, coached by promotion specialist
Giovanni Perdichizzi, won the 2009–10 LegaDue regular season to move up to the first division
Serie A
The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...
.
The team did not manage to stay in the elite as they were relegated at the end of a season that saw a lot of roster changes, including Perdichizzi's replacement by
Luca Bechi.
The offseason saw organisational changes as Ferrarese ceded most of his shares to a newly formed group of twelve local businessmen, staying as honorary president (a post he left in 2014 following disagreements with new owner Fernando Marino).
Bucchi then led the team to a successful season as they lost only one game during the promotion playoffs, beating
Pistoia
Pistoia (, is a city and ''comune'' in the Italian region of Tuscany, the capital of a province of the same name, located about west and north of Florence and is crossed by the Ombrone Pistoiese, a tributary of the River Arno. It is a typi ...
in the decisive finals game 4 on 14 June 2012 to return to the Serie A.
The team had earlier won the
LegaDue Cup by beating
Fileni BPA Jesi 77-74 in the final.
Its second season in the elite proved better than the first as Brindisi, led by
Jonathan Gibson and
Jeff Viggiano, qualified for the mid-season
Italian Cup
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
final eight and seemed a sure bet for the playoffs before losing ten of its last eleven regular season games to finish twelfth, a position that comfortably guaranteed its Serie A place.
The 2013–14 season proved even better, the club finished the first stage of the season in first place (tied on 22 points with
Cantù
Cantù (; Brianzöö: ) is a city and ''comune'' in the Province of Como, located at the center of the Brianza zone in Lombardy. It is the second largest city in Brianza.
History
The name could stem from that of the Canturigi, a population of I ...
but above on head-to-head record) to again qualify for the Italian Cup.
Brindisi reached the Italian Cup semifinals before losing to
EA7 Emporio Armani Milan, while its fifth-place finish in the league (conceding the fourth place to
Dinamo Banco di Sardegna Sassari when defeated by the side in the final regular season game) qualified it for the playoffs.
Though they were swept 3-0 by Sassari it was still a record-breaking season to celebrate for the fans.
The 2014–15 season saw the Italian side make its European debut in the third tier
EuroChallenge
FIBA EuroChallenge (called the FIBA Europe League in 2003–05, and FIBA EuroCup in 2005–08) was the 3rd-tier level transnational men's professional continental club basketball competition in Europe, from 2003 to 2015. It was organized and run ...
, going all the way to the
quarterfinals
A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...
before getting knocked out by
Nanterre
Nanterre (, ) is the prefecture of the Hauts-de-Seine department in the western suburbs of Paris. It is located some northwest of the centre of Paris. In 2018, the commune had a population of 96,807.
The eastern part of Nanterre, bordering t ...
.
A sixth-place finish in the league saw the Apulians again take part in the playoffs,
in which they earned their first ever victory during the quarterfinal series against
Grissin Bon Reggion Emilia, leading the tie 2–1 before wasting two chances to go through.
Brindisi received a wild card to be admitted to the European second-tier
2015–16 Eurocup.
Arena
The Palazzetto Nuova Idea (capacity: 2,302) was built in September 1980 and completed only hours before then tenant Pallacanestro Brindisi's (a renamed Libertas) first game of the season.
New Basket Ceglie moved into the arena in 2001, starting New Basket Brindisi's tenure (starting from them taking over Ceglie in 2004).
Nuova Idea, named after the private company that built and owned it, was renamed
PalaPentassuglia (in full:Palazzetto dello Sport "Elio Pentassuglia") in honour of Brindisi stalwart Elio Pentassuglia (deceased in a 1988 car crash) after it came under possession of the municipality sometime later,
it is sometimes colloquially referred to as PalaElio.
The venue was not up to the standards of the Serie A when Brindisi entered the league in 2010, as the long projected construction of a new arena had not borne any fruits the PalaPentassuglia's capacity was increased to just over the 3,500 requirement (3,534) amidst a general refurbishment.
After the new arena project was finally abandoned in 2014, the municipal authorities announced a new renovation plan for the PalaPentassuglia in October of that year, that would take its capacity to around 6,000 seats whilst modernising the structure, with the work expected to be delivered prior to the 2015–16 season.
However, the project soon ran into bureaucratic quagmires and work did not start in earnest until September 2015, where the lighting was updated to answer
Eurocup's requirements, the rest of the refurbishment work is now expected to be started in March 2016.
The refurbishment didn't give to the arena more seating. However, a new plan to build a brand new Arena were presented in 2018 and, after several levels of bureaucratic authorization, the municipality authorities, thanks to private investors and government funding, announced that the New Arena received all the necessary authorization to finally be built.
The new project has been revealed to the public and the tender for the construction has been assigned. The New Arena will be finalised by 2023 and will have 6500 seating and the possibility to host more events and sports, being an opportunity for the City of Brindisi to increment their tourism and revenue.
Players
Current roster
Season by season
Honours
Domestic competitions
*
LegaDue
Serie A2, known for sponsorship reasons as Serie A2 Old Wild West, is a men's basketball league in Italy. It constitutes the second-tier of the Italian league pyramid, below the first division LBA and above the third division Serie B, with pro ...
**Champions (1): 2010
*
LegaDue Cup
**Winners (1): 2012
*
Italian Cup
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
: ''Runners-up (2)'':
2019
File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...
2020
2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...
Other competitions
*Brindisi, Italy Invitational Game
**Winners (1): 2014
*Trofeo Memorial Elio Pentassuglia
**Winners (1): 2018
Notable players
2010s
*
Nic Moore 1 season: '16–'17
*
Samardo Samuels 1 season: '17–'present
*
Amath M'Baye 1 season: '16–'present
*
Andrea Zerini 4 seasons: '11–'present
*
Massimo Bulleri 2 seasons: '13–'15
*
Delroy James 2 seasons: '13–'15
*
Jerome Dyson
Jerome Clifton Dyson (born May 1, 1987) is an American professional basketball player, who lastly played for Spójnia Stargard. He played college basketball with the Connecticut Huskies before playing professionally in the NBA with the New Orlean ...
1 season: '13–'14
*
Jonathan Gibson 1 season: '12–'13
*
Yakhouba Diawara
Yakhouba Diawara (born August 29, 1982) is a French former professional basketball player. He played college basketball at Southern Idaho and Pepperdine.
Early career
Diawara started his career with French team JDA Dijon, and after his first sea ...
1 season: '10–'11
*
Bobby Dixon
Bobby Dixon or Ali Muhammed (born April 10, 1983), is an American-born naturalized Turkish professional basketball former player who played at the point guard position. He also represented the senior Turkish national basketball team, as he holds ...
1 season: '10–'11
*
Robert Carter
2000s
*
Nikola Radulovic 2 seasons: '09–'10, '10–'11
*
Joe Crispin 1 season: '09–'10
*
Omar Thomas
Omar Abdul Thomas (born February 27, 1982) is an American former professional basketball player.
Early years
Thomas was born in Philadelphia.
Having taken the first steps to Strawberry Mansion High School and at Panola Junior College (Texas), ...
1 season: '09–'10
Notable coaches
*
Massimo Bianchi
Massimo, also Massimino, and Massimine () is a masculine Italian given name. Notable people with the name include:
Given name:
*Massimo Agostinelli (Max Agos) (born 1987), Swiss based Italian American artist, entrepreneur and activist
*Massimo Ago ...
1 seasons: '04–'05
*
Giovanni Perdichizzi 2 seasons: '08–'10
*
Piero Bucchi
Piero Bucchi (born March 5, 1958) is an Italian basketball coach who is the head coach of Dinamo Sassari in the Italian Lega Basket Serie A (LBA) and Basketball Champions League (BCL) and Romeo Sacchetti's assistant coach of the Italian nationa ...
4 seasons: '11–'16
*
Romeo Sacchetti
Romeo "Meo" Sacchetti (born August 20, 1953) is an Italian professional basketball coach and former player who is currently a head coach for Pallacanestro Cantù of the Serie A2.
Standing at a height of 1.99 m (6 ft. 6 in.), he played ...
1 season: '16–'17
Logos
New_Basket_Brindisi_logo_2014.png , New Basket Brindisi logo (until 2017)
Sponsorship names
Throughout the years, due to sponsorship, the club has been known as:
*Prefabbricati Pugliesi Brindisi (2004–2008)
*Enel Brindisi (2008–2017)
*Happy Casa Brindisi (2018–2021)
References
External links
Serie A profile Retrieved 31 August 2015
{{Lega Basket Serie A