Saski Baskonia

History

1959–1969: start in the provincial basketball

In 1959, the Club Deportivo Vasconia founded a basketball program under the presidency of Félix Ullivarriarrazua. Vicente Elejalde was appointed as head coach. A previous attempt to establish a basketball program, in 1951, had ended in failure.

In its first season, the team finished second in the provincial championship behind Corazonistas. In the 1963–64 season, the team won its first provincial titles, taking both the league and cup. The team went on to win the provincial championship in five of its first ten seasons of competition (1959–69) and achieved the promotion to the 3rd division after Pepe Laso took over as head coach, prevailing over city rival Deportivo Alavés.

1970–1980: the leap to the Spanish top league

Club Deportivo Vasconia was an immediate success in the Spanish 3rd division and was elevated to the 2nd division after beating Grupo Covadonga in the promotion playoffs. In its first season in the 2nd division (1970–71), the team qualified for the promotion playoffs to the 1st division, but was defeated by Breogán. A year later, the team achieved promotion to the 1st division after finishing as the champion of Group A.

The team opened the 1972–73 season in the 1st division by defeating Breogán 89–67. The Basque team went on to reach the semifinals of the Copa del Rey where they were eliminated by Estudiantes. In the 1973–74 season, the club reached 1,400 supporters and signed its first foreign player, the Canadian Phil Tollestrup. The team finished in eighth place and gained the right to play in the Korać Cup but declined to participate on financial grounds.

In 1974, Jose Luis Sánchez Erauskin, former player and founder of the club, took over the club's presidency. The team incorporated young players such as Manu Moreno, Kepa Segurola, Luis María Junguitu, Carlos Salinas, and José Antonio Querejeta, and signed American Ray Price, who became the division's top scorer. Memorable wins in the 1975–76 season included a 70–69 upset of FC Barcelona and a 78–76 road win over Joventut. In 1976–77, Sánchez Erauskin and his board made the decision to change the V by B in the name of the club, which became Club Deportivo Basconia. The team adopted the Basque national colors of the Ikurriña, green with red and white trim instead of the club's traditional blue and maroon. Pepe Laso combined his position as head coach with the Spanish national coach and Iñaki Garaialde and Txema Capetillo joined the team.

In 1977, Juan Antonio Ortiz de Pinedo retired as a player to become the head coach of the team, replacing Pepe Laso. In 1978, José Antonio Querejeta was transferred to Real Madrid. In addition to financial compensation, the club obtained the young player Manuel San Emeterio in return. Iñaki Iriarte became the head coach of the team. Players like Junguitu, and Txomin Sautu returned and Juan Manuel Conde was signed, along with the American Webb Williams. Fernando Aranguiz assumed the presidency of the club in June 1978 and Carlos Luquero was honored for a professional record including more than 300 games and more than 7,000 points with the team. In the Copa del Rey, the team reached the semifinals before falling to that year's winner, FC Barcelona.

1980–1990: in steady progression

The reprieve lasted just one year, as the 1980–81 season was one of the saddest in the club's history. A last-place finish and just six wins led to relegation to the 2nd division. The misfortunes did not end there, as one of its players, Juanma Conde, died after an irreversible illness. This was a blow to the entire club, for the loss of a teammate and a friend.

In the summer of 1981, José Antonio Querejeta, who had returned to the team after passing through Real Madrid and had been tested by FC Barcelona, was transferred to Joventut. The direction of Iñaki Iriarte from the bench and the contribution of Cambronero Peio, Txomin Sautu, Salva Diez, Mikel Cuadra, Xabier Jon Davalillo and Luis Mari Junguitu allowed the team to promote to the 1st division and return to the place that it had occupied among the great teams for almost a decade. A new change in the presidency of the club allowed the arrival of José Antonio Apraiz. The season of the return to the top league was not very positive in terms of results, the team ended up in relegation positions with a baggage of three wins, three draws and twenty defeats. Spanish basketball was preparing to enter a new stage marked by professionalism, and the creation of the Liga ACB made it possible for the team to avoid relegation back to the 2nd Division.

As of the 1983–84 season with the first edition of the Liga ACB, the modern Spanish basketball story begins in which the club was strongly committed to leaving its modest club status. Basque guard Alberto Ortega returns to the team, one of the stars of the league like Essie Hollis and Rilley Clarida became the first couple of foreigners of the club because the new Liga ACB allowed the signing of two foreign players per team. In the 1984–85 season, José Antonio Querejeta returned to the team, Pablo Laso made the leap to the first team after his trip at an American institute with only 16 years, which together with another youth player like Aitor Zárate formed the youngest guards in the league. As a counterpoint to this commitment to youth, an illustrious veteran of Spanish basketball like Miguel López signed for the team. Completing the incorporations with the arrival of Terry White as new foreign player for the team led by Xabier Añua.

In 1985, the club won its first official title, the Copa Asociación which was played among the teams eliminated in the first round of the league playoffs. In the final, the team won to the Zaragoza led by Pepe Laso in Villanueva de La Serena (Badajoz). José Antonio Querejeta was the top scorer of the game with 30 points and the team earned the qualification to the Korać Cup for the following season. At the institutional level, Jose Antonio Santamaría is again the club president. The 1985–86 season was marked by the Korać Cup debut. The first rival was the Dutch Super Cracks Werkendam, which was clearly defeated at home (73–88) and overwhelmingly in Vitoria-Gasteiz (130–94). The next rival was the French ASVEL. In the home game, the Basque team fell against the French team 84–94, but this defeat did not undermine the team hopes to seek the comeback weeks later in Lyon. The game played in the French town at the end of game resulted in a draw at 88 points, but the competition system computed the difference in points of both clashes and meant the elimination of the Basque team from the competition.

1990–2010: introducing in European basketball and first trophies

With José Antonio Querejeta as president, the club grows exponentially. Herb Brown signed as head coach and Alfredo Salazar began his travels through Argentina to capture talent. In 1991, the club left Polideportivo Mendizorrotza to move to the Araba Arena, which lived its extension from 5,000 to 9,500 spectators at the end of the decade. In 1993, Manel Comas signed as head coach. With Manel Comas, the team won its first Spanish King's Cup, when Pablo Laso and Velimir Perasović led the team to an historical win. The club was already making noise internationally too, reaching the FIBA European Cup final in both 1994 and 1995. When it hosted the same title game in 1996, the team pleased its many fans by downing PAOK behind 31 points from Ramón Rivas. After the departure of Manel Comas, Sergio Scariolo signed as head coach. With Scariolo, the team made its first Spanish Championship playoff final in 1998 and added a second Spanish King's Cup title in 1999. Names like Ramón Rivas, Marcelo Nicola, Juan Alberto Espil, Pablo Laso, Elmer Bennett or Velimir Perasović were some of the protagonists of that decade.

The team started the 21st century with Duško Ivanović on the bench. In his first year, they then found quick success in the newly reborn EuroLeague. With a deep roster featuring Elmer Bennett, Saulius Štombergas, Victor Alexander, Fabricio Oberto and a young Luis Scola, Baskonia reached the 2001 Euroleague Finals, before losing to Virtus Bologna in the fifth and final game on the road. With winning momentum and the additions of Dejan Tomašević and Andrés Nocioni, the team achieved its first double in the next season, with another Spanish King's Cup trophy and its first Spanish League title ever. Baskonia snatched two more Spanish King's Cups, in 2004 and 2006, as Luis Scola and Pablo Prigioni played decisive roles, and success followed the team in the EuroLeague. Baskonia's arrival to its first EuroLeague Final Four in 2005 couldn't have been louder, as the team upset favored host CSKA Moscow in the semi-finals, but couldn't overcome defending champ Maccabi in the title game.

Back home, Baskonia again reached the Spanish League finals, only to lose in dramatic fashion. Baskonia returned to the EuroLeague Final Four in 2006, but once again Maccabi stood in its way, this time in the semi-final. The team also made it to the Spanish League finals, but was swept there. The next season, Baskonia won its EuroLeague regular season and Top 16 groups before sweeping Olympiacos in the Playoffs, as Scola became the Euroleague Basketball's top all-time scorer at that time. Nonetheless, eventual champion Panathinaikos downed Baskonia in the semi-finals and once home again in Spain, Baskonia lost in the semi-finals.

2010–present: new arena and the new EuroLeague era

In 2012, its arena Fernando Buesa Arena was expanded to 15,504 seats and the many initiatives the club continues to put into practice show that Baskonia is always moving forward. The club reached the EuroLeague Playoffs in 2011 and 2012 and reached the Top 16 14 times in 15 years. In 2016, Baskonia returned the EuroLeague Final Four for the first time in eight years, as the club made it to the 2016 Final Four. Here the team was defeated after overtime in the semi-final by Fenerbahçe. In the third place game, Baskonia lost to Russian side Lokomotiv Kuban.

In the 2016–17 season, the EuroLeague adopted a new league-style format in which a round-robin season of sixteen teams was played. In the first season in the new format, the team changed its core of players and also its head coach, but still remained deep in the playoff zone for most of the regular season and ended up advancing to the next phase with a 17–13 record and seventh place. A four-game winning streak in December and another in March covered up for a negative run of six losses in seven games between Rounds 17 and 23. Baskonia clinched a playoff berth for the 10th time in 12 seasons, but there the team was swept by CSKA Moscow after three tough games. Ádám Hanga was one of the team leaders and was chosen as the EuroLeague Best Defender by the league's head coaches, and Baskonia showed, once again, its innate ability to sign talent that seemed to go under the radar for everybody else with names like Shane Larkin, Johannes Voigtmann and Rodrigue Beaubois playing major roles.

In the 2017–18 season, the club advanced to the playoffs for the third consecutive year and put up a major fight against Fenerbahçe before falling in four games. None of that was looking likely when the Basque club suffered a shocking start, losing its first four games to signal the departure from the coaching position of club legend Pablo Prigioni. The man appointed to turn things around was Pedro Martínez, who immediately effected a remarkable revival as Baskonia won four of its next five games to ignite its challenge. A mid-season dip left the side in the bottom half of the standings heading into the final few weeks of the regular season, but then came a dramatic surge in form that yielded six consecutive win, with the consistent excellence of versatile big man Tornike Shengelia earning him the monthly MVP award for March. A top half finish was sealed with a home win over Maccabi Tel Aviv in Round 29, and although disappointment followed against Fenerbahçe, that playoff berth was a just reward for Baskonia's typically spirited recovery from its slow start. The team was also highly competitive on the domestic front, earning a second-place finish in the Spanish League after pushing Real Madrid hard in the finals.

Sponsorship naming

The club was often referred to for years as TAU Cerámica, a Spanish brand name of ceramics manufacturer TAULELL, which name sponsored the club from 1987 to 2009. Originally, TAULELL used another of its brand names, Taugrés, as the name of the team, before changing the name to TAU Cerámica in 1997. TAU, Taugrés and TAU Vitoria were also frequently used to refer to the team. Baskonia, Saski Baskonia, and Saski Baskonia, S.A.D. refer to the name of the actual sports club itself. In 2009, the Spanish credit union Caja Laboral became the new name sponsor of the club and increased the amount of money that the name sponsor contributes to the sports club's budget. In 2016, Laboral Kutxa end its sponsorship naming to Baskonia.

Baskonia has received diverse sponsorship names along the years:

Caja Álava (1983–1987)

Taugrés (1987–1997) / Tau Cerámica (1997–2009)

Caja Laboral / Laboral Kutxa (2009–2016)

Kirolbet Baskonia (2018–2020)

TD Systems Baskonia (2020–2021)

Bitci Baskonia (2021–2022)

Cazoo Baskonia (2022–2023)

Kosner Baskonia (2025–)

Arena

Since 1991, Baskonia has played its home games at the Fernando Buesa Arena, which has a seating capacity of 15,504 people for basketball games. The arena was originally called the Pabellón Araba, from 1991 to 2000. The arena was extensively renovated and expanded in the year 2012.

The arena hosted the 1996 FIBA European Cup Final, in which Baskonia won the title and also hosted the 2010 Eurocup Finals, before hosting the EuroLeague Final Four in 2019.

Players

Retired jerseys

Despite not having retired any number in its history, five of the club's most notable players have a jersey with the number they wore in their time with the team hung at the Fernando Buesa Arena. These are Pablo Prigioni (#5), whose shirt was put on display in 2017; Igor Rakočević (#8) and Sergi Vidal (#9), who followed suit in 2020; Luis Scola (#4), who was inducted in 2023; and Tiago Splitter (#21), who was inducted in 2024.

Notable players

Head coaches

Source: baskonistas.com

Honours and other achievements

Other Achievements

EuroLeague

Runners-up (2): 2000–01, 2004–05

3rd place (1): 2005–06

4th place (3): 2006–07, 2007–08, 2015–16

Final Four (6): 2001, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2016

FIBA Saporta Cup

Runners-up (2): 1993–94, 1994–95

Spanish League

Runners-up (5): 1997–98, 2004–05, 2005–06, 2008–09, 2017–18

Spanish Cup

Runners-up (3): 1994, 2003, 2008

Spanish Supercup

Runners-up (2): 2011, 2018

Association Cup

Winners (1): 1985

2nd Division

Winners (1): 1971–72

Basque Cup

Winners (4): 2010–11, 2011–12, 2018–19, 2022–23

Trofeo Diputación / Álava

Winners (29): 1991, 1992, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024

Estella, Spain Invitational Game

Winners (1): 2007

Individual awards

Spanish Cup MVP

Joe Arlauckas – 1993

Velimir Perasović – 1994

Pablo Laso – 1995

Elmer Bennett – 1999

Dejan Tomašević – 2002

Pablo Prigioni – 2007

Mirza Teletović – 2009

Trent Forrest – 2026

Supercup MVP

Luis Scola – 2005

Tiago Splitter – 2006, 2007

Pablo Prigioni – 2008

Baskonia B

Baskonia B is the reserve team of Baskonia. It currently plays in Tercera FEB, the fourth tier of Spanish basketball.