The 2008–09 Lega Basket Serie A season, known as the Serie A TIM for sponsorship reasons, was the 87th season of the

Lega Basket Serie A The Lega Basket Serie A (LBA) is a professional men's club (sport), club basketball list of basketball leagues, league that has been organised in Italy since 1920. Serie A is organised by Lega Basket, which is regulated by the Italian Basketball ...

(LBA), 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 Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

league division of the

Italian basketball league system The Italian basketball league system or Italian basketball league pyramid, is a series of interconnected competitions for professional basketball clubs in Italy. The system has a hierarchical format with a promotion and demotion system between ...

. The regular season ran from September 30, 2007, to April 27, 2008, 16 teams played each other team in home and away matches. At the end of the regular season, the top 8 teams advanced to the championship

play-off The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eith ...

whilst the lowest ranked teams, GMAC Bologna and Snaidero Udine, were relegated 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 ...

. The original number of teams was 18, but on September 20, 2008, the Federal Council of the

Italian Basketball Federation The Italian Basketball Federation () is the governing body of basketball in Italy. It is based in Rome. It organises national competitions in Italy and the Italian basketball leagues, which operate the country's two professional leagues, Lega B ...

(FIP) discovered administrative irregularities committed by

Basket Napoli Napoli Basket may refer to: * Napoli Basket (2016) Napoli Basket, known for sponsorship reasons as GeVi Napoli, is an Italian professional basketball team of the city of Naples. It's the ''de facto'' successor of the Basket Napoli which was diss ...

and UPEA Capo d'Orlando and decided to deny them professional licenses. The council also chose not to substitute them with any teams from LegADue, and at the same time decided to permanently reduce the number of teams in the top flight to 16.

Montepaschi Siena Mens Sana Basketball Siena, also known as simply Mens Sana, is an Italian professional basketball club based in Siena. It is a section of the sports club Polisportiva Mens Sana, founded in 1871. Under the name Montepaschi Siena, derived from spon ...

swept virtually all before them domestically, winning the

SuperCoppa Italiana The Supercoppa Italiana, also known as the Italian Super Cup, is an annual super cup tournament in Italian football. Founded in 1988 as a two-team competition, it has featured four teams since 2023 (the winners and runners-up of the previous ...

before the season and the

Coppa Italia Coppa Italia () is the annual domestic cup of Italian football. The knockout competition was organized by the DDS and the Lega Calcio until the 2009–10 season and by Lega Serie A ever since. Juventus is the competition's most successf ...

at midseason, losing in the league only once (at

Fortitudo Bologna Fortitudo Pallacanestro Bologna 103, commonly known as Fortitudo Bologna and currently known as Fortitudo Flats Service Bologna for sponsorship reasons, is a basketball club based in Bologna, Italy and currently plays in the second division. H ...

), and going unbeaten through the playoffs to claim their third straight title.

Teams

*Renato Pasquali was sacked by La Fortezza Bologna after 6 matches and replaced by

Matteo Boniciolli Matteo Boniciolli (born 18 April 1962) is an Italian basketball coach of Scafati Basket in the Italian Lega Basket Serie A (LBA). He has been a head coach since 1999, guiding several clubs in Italy and abroad to titles, also having taken charge ...

*Attilio Caja was sacked by Snaidero Udine after 7 matches and replaced by

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 (basketball), Serie A2. Standing at a height of , he played as a Po ...

* Dragan Šakota was sacked by GMAC Bologna after 9 matches and replaced by

Cesare Pancotto Cesare Pancotto (born January 8, 1955) is an Italian professional basketball coach. Coaching career After a good career spent playing point guard in his native Porto San Giorgio, Pancotto began coaching in 1982 at the age of 27, taking the benc ...

* Jasmin Repesa was sacked by Lottomatica Roma after 10 matches and replaced by Ferdinando Gentile

Supercoppa Italiana

The

Italian Supercup The Supercoppa Italiana, also known as the Italian Super Cup, is an annual super cup tournament in Italian football. Founded in 1988 as a two-team competition, it has featured four teams since 2023 (the winners and runners-up of the previous sea ...

is played as a single match before the start of the season between the previous year's Serie A champion and Coppa Italia winner (if a club wins both, the match instead pits the top two teams from the previous season's league). This season, the game, played September 30 in

Siena Siena ( , ; traditionally spelled Sienna in English; ) is a city in Tuscany, in central Italy, and the capital of the province of Siena. It is the twelfth most populated city in the region by number of inhabitants, with a population of 52,991 ...

, pitted two-time defending league champion

against Coppa Italia winner Air Avellino.

Terrell McIntyre Lance Terrell McIntyre (born October 18, 1977) is a retired American professional basketball player. Standing at 5'9 " (1.76 m), he played at the point guard position. A two-time All-EuroLeague First Team selection, he reached the EuroLeague Fin ...

was named MVP of the game.

Standings

At end of regular season: *Rieti penalized by 2 points for administrative irregularities. Following the season, the owner of Fortitudo (GMAC) Bologna failed to make required payments to remain in the Italian professional ranks, and the club were further relegated to the country's third level, the nominally amateur Serie A Dilettanti. An appeal was unsuccessful.

Coppa Italia

The top eight teams at the halfway point of the regular season (15 rounds) competed in the

Italian Cup Coppa Italia () is the annual domestic cup of Italian football. The knockout competition was organized by the DDS and the Lega Calcio until the 2009–10 season and by Lega Serie A ever since. Juventus is the competition's most successf ...

, seeded according to their league placement at that time. The cup tournament was held at Futurshow Station in

Casalecchio di Reno Casalecchio di Reno ( Bolognese: ) is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy. History Casalecchio's name is derived from ''Casaliculum'' ("collection of little houses"), and from the presence of ...

from February 19 to February 22, 2009, with top seed

winning the cup for the first time.

Playoffs

The playoffs, which began on May 18, featured the top eight teams from regular-season play, seeded by league position. The quarterfinal and semifinal rounds were best-of-five, while the final expanded for the first time from its traditional best-of-five format to best-of-seven.

Notes and references

External links

Serie A official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:2008-09 Lega Basket Serie A Lega Basket Serie A seasons 1

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...