Baloncesto Málaga

Baloncesto Málaga S.A.D., also known as Unicaja for sponsorship reasons, is a professional basketball club based in Málaga, Spain. The team plays in the Liga ACB and the Champions League.

Founded in 1977, the team is sponsored by the Spanish bank Unicaja and has carried that sponsorship name since 1992. They play their home games at the Palacio de Deportes José María Martín Carpena, shortly known as the "Martín Carpena". Unicaja has won one Liga ACB title, in 2006, as well as three Copas del Rey, one EuroCup, two Basketball Champions League, one FIBA Korać Cup and one FIBA Intercontinental Cup title.

History

Unicaja was originally founded in 1977, as CB Caja de Ronda. In 1992, the club merged another ACB team in the city of Málaga, CB Maristas de Málaga, which was originally founded in 1953 as Ademar Basket Club. Over the years, the club has featured players like: Nacho Rodríguez, Berni Rodríguez, Carlos Cabezas, Jorge Garbajosa, Marcus Brown, Sergei Babkov, Michael Ansley, Louis Bullock, and Kenny Miller, as well as numerous other well-known players. The club won its first title, when it won the European-wide third tier level FIBA Korać Cup in the 2000–01 season. They then won the Spanish King's Cup title in 2005. The next year, in the 2005–06 season, Unicaja won its first-ever Spanish League championship.

The club finished its best years to date, by qualifying for the 2007 Euroleague Final Four, where it was defeated in the semifinals by CSKA Moscow, and thus finished in third place in the EuroLeague. In October 2007, Unicaja faced the NBA's Memphis Grizzlies in a friendly match, and they defeated the Grizzlies, by a score of 102–99. That was one of the 17 times that an NBA team has lost to a foreign club. Pau Gasol and Juan Carlos Navarro, two of the greatest Spanish basketball players of all time, played for Memphis in that historical game.

Málaga participated in the European-wide top-tier level league, the EuroLeague, for 15 consecutive seasons ( 2001–02 season to 2015–16 season). However, in the summer of 2015, it lost its EuroLeague A-licence. Therefore, in the 2016–17 season, Unicaja participated in the second tier level EuroCup. The club immediately won the EuroCup title, in its first season in the league, after winning over Valencia Basket in the league's Finals.

In the 2023–24 season, Unicaja switched from Euroleague Basketball-organised competitions to FIBA's Basketball Champions League. It won the championship after defeating Canarias in the final, which took place in Belgrade. As European champions, Unicaja then played in the 2024 FIBA Intercontinental Cup in Singapore, and won its first world-level title.

In the following 2024–25 season, Unicaja once again won the BCL championship, after defeating Galatasaray in the final of the Final Four in Athens. They became the second team to win consecutive league titles, following San Pablo Burgos.

Logos

CB Unicaja Logo.png, Logo of the club since 2024.
Logo of Baloncesto Málaga.png, Former logo of the club.

Home arenas

*Pabellón Guadaljaire (1977–78)
*Pabellón Tiro Pichón (1978–81)
*Pabellón Ciudad Jardín (1981–99)
* Palacio de Deportes José María Martín Carpena (1999–present)

Since 1999, Unicaja Málaga has played its home games at the Palacio de Deportes José María Martín Carpena arena. The arena originally seated 9,743 spectators for basketball games, and was expanded in the year 2010, to a current seating capacity of 11,300 people for basketball games.

Players

Retired numbers

Current roster

Depth chart

Notable players

* Álex Abrines
* Curro Ávalos
* Saúl Blanco
* Carlos Cabezas
* Iñaki De Miguel
* Alberto Díaz
* Dani Díez
* Roger Esteller
* Jaime Fernández
* Xavi Fernández
* Germán Gabriel
* Jorge Garbajosa
* Ricardo Guillén
* Carlos Jiménez
* Tomás Jofresa
* Chuck Kornegay
* Pablo Laso
* Jesús Lázaro
* Juan Antonio Orenga
* Alfonso Reyes
* Berni Rodríguez
* Mario Muñoz Oses
* Ignacio Rodríguez
* Dani Romero
* Gaby Ruiz
* Mike Smith
* Carlos Suárez
* Fran Vázquez
* Paco Vázquez
* Sergi Vidal
* Jean-Jacques Conceição
* Juan Ignacio Sánchez
* Walter Herrmann
* Ademola Okulaja
* Marcus Faison
* Jean-Marc Jaumin
* JR Bremer
* Nedžad Sinanović
* Vítor Faverani
* Rafael Hettsheimeir
* Augusto Lima
* Rafa Luz
* Paulo Prestes
* Roderick Blakney
* Earl Calloway
* Earl Rowland
* Kyle Wiltjer
* Davor Kus
* Oliver Lafayette
* Veljko Mršić
* Sandro Nicević
* Hrvoje Perić
* Krunoslav Simon
* Zan Tabak
* Luka Žorić
* Jiri Welsch
* Christian Eyenga
* Juan José García
* Sasu Salin
* Joseph Gomis
* Edwin Jackson
* Mathias Lessort
* Florent Pietrus
* Stéphane Risacher
* Moustapha Sonko
* Frédéric Weis
* Giorgi Shermadini
* Shammond Williams
* Robert Archibald
* Joel Freeland
* Darren Phillip
* Ioannis Giannoulis
* Georgios Printezis
* Kostas Vasileiadis
* Pavel Ermolinskij
* Jon Stefansson
* Gal Mekel
* Jeff Brooks
* Kaspars Berzins
* Kristaps Valters
* Gintaras Einikis
* Mindaugas Kuzminskas
* Domantas Sabonis
* Richard Hendrix
* Omar Cook
* Vladimir Golubović
* Kendrick Perry
* Michał Chyliński
* Thomas Kelati
* Adam Waczyński
* Adam Wójcik
* José Ortiz
* Daniel Santiago
* Hamady Ndiaye
* Boniface Ndong
* Milan Gurović
* Stefan Marković
* Dragan Milosavljević
* Dejan Musli
* Nemanja Nedović
* Kosta Perović
* Bojan Popović
* Vladimir Štimac
* Uroš Tripković
* Zoran Dragić
* Erazem Lorbek
* Alen Omić
* Marko Tusek
* Richard Petruska
* Sergei Babkov
* Valeri Tikhonenko
* Volodymyr Gerun
* Eugene Jeter
* Panchi Barrera
* Jayson Granger
* Joe Arlauckas
* Victor Alexander
* James Augustine
* Mario Bennett
* Adrian Branch
* Marcus Brown
* Louis Bullock
* Jack Cooley
* Juan Dixon
* Zabian Dowdell
* Jamie Feick
* Gerald Fitch
* Kyle Fogg
* Marcus Haislip
* Marc Iavaroni
* Tarence Kinsey
* Tony Massenburg
* Ray McCallum Jr.
* Kenny Miller
* Gary Neal
* DeMarcus Nelson
* Andy Panko
* Brian Roberts
* Lou Roe
* Sean Rooks
* Ralph Sampson
* Paul Shirley
* Reggie Slater
* Ray Tolbert
* Marcus Williams
* David Wood

Head coaches

*Alfonso Queipo de Llano: 1977–79, 1985–86
* José María Martín Urbano : 1979–80, 1982, 1985, 1987, 1990–92
*Damián Caneda: 1980–81
*Ramón Guardiola: 1981–82
*Moncho Monsalve: 1982–84
*Ignacio Pinedo: 1984–85
*Arturo Ortega: 1986–87
* Zoran Slavnić: 1987–88
*Mario Pesquera: 1988–90
*Javier Imbroda: 1992–98
*Pedro Ramírez: 1998–99
* Božidar Maljković: 1999–03
*Paco Alonso: 2003
*Chechu Mulero: 2003
* Sergio Scariolo: 2003–08
* Aito Garcia Reneses: 2008–2011
* Chus Mateo: 2011–12
* Luis Casimiro: 2012
* Jasmin Repeša: 2012–13
* Joan Plaza: 2013–2018
* Luis Casimiro: 2018–2021
* Fotios Katsikaris: 2021–2022
* Ibon Navarro: 2022–present

Season by season

Caja de Ronda

CB Maristas

Unicaja

Honours and awards

Domestic competitions

* Spanish League
: Winners (1): 2005–06
: ''Runners-up (2)'': 1994–95, 2001–02
* Spanish Cup
: Winners (3): 2005, 2023, 2025
: ''Runners-up (2)'': 2009, 2020
* Spanish Supercup
: Winners (1): 2024
: ''Runners-up (3)'': 2006, 2015, 2023

European competitions

* EuroLeague
: ''Third place (1)'': 2006–07
* EuroCup
: Winners (1): 2016–17
* FIBA Champions League
: Winners (2): 2023–24, 2024–25
* FIBA Korać Cup
: Winners (1): 2000–01
: ''Runners-up (1)'': 1999–00

Worldwide competitions

* FIBA Intercontinental Cup
: Winners (1): 2024

Other competitions

*2nd division championships: (2)
**1ª División B: 1981, 1987
* Andalusia Cup: (17)
**1996, 2001, 2003, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021, 2023, 2024.
*Torrox, Spain Invitational Game
**2008
*Trofeo de Platja d'Aro
**2008
*Trofeo Pollinica
**2008
*Trofeo Ciudad de Cordoba, Spain
**2009

Individual awards

ACB Finals MVP
* Michael Ansley – 1995
* Jorge Garbajosa – 2006

Spanish Cup MVP
* Jorge Garbajosa – 2005
* Tyson Carter – 2023
* Kendrick Perry – 2025

ACB Slam Dunk Champion
* Florent Piétrus – 2006
* James Gist – 2012

ACB Three Point Shootout Champion
*Paco Vázquez – 2001

All-EuroLeague Second Team
* Jorge Garbajosa – 2006

All-ACB First Team
* Jorge Garbajosa – 2005, 2006
* Jayson Granger – 2015
* Dylan Osetkowski – 2024

All-ACB Second Team
* Nemanja Nedović – 2017

EuroCup Finals MVP
* Alberto Díaz – 2017

Basketball Champions League Final Four MVP
* Kendrick Perry – 2024
* Tyson Carter – 2025

Reserve team

Baloncesto Málaga B is the reserve team of Unicaja, basketball based in Málaga.

From 2007 to 2016, Baloncesto Málaga had an agreement with CB Axarquía, for them to play as the club's main farm team, while Baloncesto Málaga B, which currently plays also under the name Unicaja, was the club's third team until the end of this contract.

Women's team

On 14 July 2017, the club announced the creation of a women's team.

Just in its second season, Unicaja promoted to Liga Femenina 2.

Season by season

Notes

References

External links

Official website

Baloncesto Málaga
at ACB.COM

Baloncesto Málaga
at Eurobasket.com

{{DEFAULTSORT:Malaga

Basketball teams in Andalusia
Unicaja
Basketball teams established in 1977
1977 establishments in Spain