The Prva A liga, for sponsorships reasons named the Erste Liga, is the top-tier 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 ...

league in

Montenegro ) , image_map = Europe-Montenegro.svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Podgorica , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , official_languages = M ...

. It is the highest basketball division organized by the Basketball Association of Montenegro (KSCG). It was established in 2006. shortly after Montenegro declared its independence from Serbia and Montenegro. The league is sponsored by and named after

Erste Bank Erste Group Bank AG (Erste Group) is an Austrian financial service provider in Central and Eastern Europe serving 15.7 million clients in over 2,700 branches in seven countries. History Erste Group was founded in October 1819 as ''Erste österr ...

. Currently, two clubs from the area are playing in the regional

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 ...

. The most successful club in the Prva A liga is Budućnost Podgorica, which has won 14 titles, after winning the 2022 championship.

History

Before independence

During their history, many Montenegrin basketball clubs played in the top-tier basketball leagues of SFR Yugoslavia,

FR Yugoslavia Serbia and Montenegro ( sr, Cрбија и Црна Гора, translit=Srbija i Crna Gora) was a country in Southeast Europe located in the Balkans that existed from 1992 to 2006, following the breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yug ...

, and Serbia and Montenegro, including Budućnost,

Lovćen Lovćen ( cyrl, Ловћен, ) is a mountain and national park in southwestern Montenegro. It is the inspiration behind the names ''Montenegro'' and ''Crna Gora'', both of which mean "Black Mountain" and refer to the appearance of Mount Lov� ...

, Sutjeska, Mornar, KK Primorka, KK Berane, Jedinstvo, and KK Temko Nikšić.

1946–1991: SFR Yugoslavia

From 1946 to 1991, two clubs from Montenegro, Berane (formerly KK Ivangrad) and Budućnost, played in the

First Federal Basketball League The First Federal Basketball League () was the highest tier level men's professional club basketball competition in SFR Yugoslavia. Founded in 1945 and folded in 1992 (1991-92 Winer Broker YUBA League), it was run by the Basketball Federation o ...

. Others played in the Second Yugoslav League (during the 80's - First B League) and the Republic League. Budućnost played in the First League during the nine seasons, with third place on the 1985–86 season as their biggest success at that time. Below is the list of all-time participants of Montenegrin clubs in the First Yugoslav League.

1992–2006: Serbia and Montenegro

After the breakup of SFR Yugoslavia, until the

Montenegrin independence An independence referendum was held in Republic of Montenegro (1992–2006), Montenegro on 21 May 2006.Dieter Nohlen, Nohlen, D & Stöver, P (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', p1372 It was approved by 55.5% of voters, narrowly pass ...

in 2006, eight different Montenegrin teams participated in the First League of FR Yugoslavia / Serbia and Montenegro (

YUBA League The YUBA League was the top-tier men's professional basketball league in Serbia and Montenegro (previously FR Yugoslavia). Founded in 1992 and folded in 2006, it was run by the Basketball Federation of Serbia and Montenegro. The name ''YUBA Le ...

). Budućnost is the only team which played every single season in that competition, winning the three champion titles. Except them, Lovćen, Mornar, Sutjeska and Primorka are the only teams which participated in more than one season at the highest rank. During that period, Budućnost became a founder of

, too, where they play an important role until today. At the same time, Budućnost played its first seasons in Euroleague with the quarterfinals as their biggest success in the history of competition. Below is the list of all-time participants of Montenegrin clubs in the YUBA League. As the most successful Montenegrin basketball team, Budućnost won three national titles in the First League of Yugoslavia.

After independence

Soon after the Montenegrin independence referendum, Basketball Federation of Montenegro founded its own competitions, with the First League as a top-tier competition. During the all history,

KK Budućnost KK Budućnost (, ), currently known as Budućnost VOLI () for sponsorship reasons, is a professional basketball club based in Podgorica, Montenegro. The club competes in Montenegrin Basketball League, Adriatic League and Eurocup. It is a part o ...

was strongly dominant side.
Every season have two parts. During the first part, 8 to 10 clubs are playing league, without teams who are playing in ABA League. Until the season 2019-2020, in the second part, four best-placed teams from the league and two Montenegrin clubs from ABA League were competing in ''Superliga'' and four best-placed sides from that phase were participating in playoffs. Final series of playoffs is lasting until three wins of one opponent.
From season 2006-07 to 2016-17, every single champions' title won KK Budućnost. From 2006 to 2012, team from Podgorica created an impressive row of 89 wins with only one defeat in domestic championship. Except that, until 2015, team from Podgorica won every playoff final series with 3-0.
On season 2015-16, during the regular phase of the championship, game between KK Ulcinj and KK Jedinstvo finished with result ''127-23''. That was the biggest victory in the history of Montenegrin Championship. Except that, KK Ulcinj's player Miloš Popović on the same game scored 59 points, which is another all-time record of Montenegrin League. An unexpected change came on season 2017-18, when

KK Mornar Košarkaški klub Mornar (Cyrillic: Кошаркашки клуб Морнар), commonly referred to as Mornar Barsko zlato for sponsorship reasons, is a men's professional basketball club based in Bar, Montenegro. The club competes in the Monte ...

won their first ever national title. In the finals, they surprisingly won the series against ABA League title holder - KK Budućnost (3-1).
Budućnost made a comeback on season 2018-19, defeating Mornar in the finals. During 2019, Montenegrin basketball federation implemented a new system of competition. Instead Superliga as the second phase, two best teams from the first part of season and two Montenegrin representatives in ABA League are directly qualifying for the playoff series.
Season 2019-20 was interrupted after 20 weeks, due to the

coronavirus 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 identifie ...

and Montenegrin basketball federation decided to erase every single result from that edition of competition.

Champions

Since the establishing of competition, only two teams won the titles of Montenegrin champion. In 2018, Mornar was the second team to win the league after a streak of 11 consecutive trophies achieved by Budućnost.

Titles by season

Below is the list of final series of Montenegrin Basketball League playoffs.

Titles by Club

Montenegrin League

Below is a list of clubs with titles won in Montenegrin Basketball League.

Overall

Below is an overall list, with titles won in both leagues - Montenegrin Basketball League and FR Yugoslavia / Serbia and Montenegro Championship.

Performances by clubs

Final placements

Since establishing, in Montenegrin basketball league participated 21 different teams. Club which played every single season until now are KK Budućnost, KK Jedinstvo, KK Lovćen, KK Mornar and KK Ulcinj.

All-time table

All-time Montenegrin First League table is a ranking of all Montenegrin basketball clubs based on their performance in national top tier. Highlighted clubs played in the First League in the 2021/22 season. Including current season (2021/22)
Playout games against teams from Prva B Liga are not counted

Attendances by season

''M = Number of matches (only matches with spectators counted); H = Highest attendance on one match; CH = Club with highest average attendance; CL = Club with lowest average attendance''

Current season

Competition format

Eleven of the fourteen teams that play the league join the regular season. After that phase, two best teams from the regular season are qualifying for the playoffs, where they play against the two 2020–21 ABA League teams ( Budućnost Voli and Mornar).Except that, two best teams from regular season are qualifying for the next season of ABA 2 League. The last qualified team is relegated to Prva B Liga.

Teams

Montenegrin basketball clubs in ABA League

Clubs from Montenegrin League are permanent participants of

, one of strongest team competitions in Europe. In 2001, one of founders was Montenegrin side Budućnost Podgorica, which is among most successful members of competition. Except Budućnost, in ABA League played three other clubs from Montenegro -

, Sutjeska and Mornar.
KK Budućnost won ABA champions’ title on season 2017-18, which is the most significant success of Montenegrin clubs in that competition until now.
Except that, Budućnost was a finalist on season 2018-19 and played seven times in semifinals (five times lost the game or series), while Mornar played once in that phase of playoffs.
Below is list of participation of Montenegrin clubs by every season of ABA League.

European competitions

Clubs from Montenegro have been playing in European basketball competitions since the 1980s. Until 2006, they represented SFR Yugoslavia and FR Yugoslavia. Almost all European seasons by Montenegrin clubs are played by KK Budućnost. Exceptions are three seasons played by KK Mornar Bar and one European performance by KK Lovćen Cetinje. The most successful period was the end of the 1990s and the beginning of new century. At that time, KK Budućnost played in the finish phases of EuroLeague. In that period, Budućnost often played games against greatest European basketball teams like

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly referred to as Barcelona and colloquially known as Barça (), is a professional football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish football. Found ...

, Real Madrid,

CSKA Moscow CSKA Moscow (russian: ЦСКА Москва) is a Russian sports club based in Moscow. It was created in 1911 in the Russian Empire on base of OLLS (Skiing Society, founded 1901). Later, during the Soviet era, it was a central piece of the big So ...

Panathinaikos Panathinaikos Athlitikos Omilos ( el, Παναθηναϊκός Αθλητικός Όμιλος, literally in English: "Panathenaic Athletic Club" or Panathinaikos A.C.), also known simply as Panathinaikós , is a major Greek multi-sport club ba ...

Olympiacos Olympiacós Sýndesmos Filáthlon Peiraiós ( el, Ολυμπιακός Σύνδεσμος Φιλάθλων Πειραιώς, Olympic Club of Fans of Piraeus) is a major multi-sport club based in Piraeus, Greece. Olympiacos is parent to a number ...

Maccabi Tel Aviv Maccabi Tel Aviv ( he, מכבי תל אביב) is one of the largest sports clubs in Israel, and a part of the Maccabi association. Many sports clubs and teams in Tel Aviv are in association with Maccabi and compete in a variety of sports, such ...

. Budućnost made their comeback to Euroleague on season 2018-19, with few impressive results as wins against CSKA Moscow, Real Madrid and FC Barcelona. During the overall history, three different Montenegrin clubs played in FIBA/ULEB competitions. KK Budućnost played in numerous competitions (Euroleague, Eurocup/ULEB Cup, Saporta Cup/FIBA EuroCup,

FIBA Korać Cup The FIBA Korać Cup was an annual basketball club competition held by FIBA between the 1971–72 and 2001–02 seasons. It was the third-tier level club competition in European basketball, after the FIBA European Champions' Cup (later renamed th ...

). KK Mornar played in ULEB EuroCup,

Basketball Champions League The Basketball Champions League (BCL) is an annual professional basketball competition for European clubs, organised by FIBA. It is the top-level competition organised by FIBA Europe, therefore the champion participates in the FIBA Intercont ...

and

FIBA Europe Cup The FIBA Europe Cup (FEC) is an annual professional club basketball competition organised by FIBA for eligible European clubs. It is FIBA's European-wide second level. Clubs mainly qualify for the competition based on their performance in natio ...

, while KK Lovćen played one season in FIBA Korać Cup.

Records

As of the end of FIBA/ULEB competitions 2019–20 season.

References

External links

Official WebsiteMontenegrin league on Eurobasket
{{Men's professional basketball leagues Sports leagues established in 2006 Basketball leagues in Montenegro