Legabasket

Lega Basket Serie A is the highest-tier level of club basketball in Italy. The league currently has 16 teams and only one relegates to the second division (the winner of Serie A2 gets the promotion to the first division). The league is being organized by the Italian Basketball Federation (FIP) which is affiliated to FIBA.

Serie A was considered for many years the strongest domestic championship in Europe, as many teams managed to sign big names to huge contracts and Italian teams also dominated the continental championships (Italian clubs won the EuroLeague 13 times). Although it’s still one of the top leagues in Europe, currently it falls behind the Spanish ACB, the VTB United League or even the Turkish Basketball League. While certain teams (especially Olimpia Milan) still have huge financial power, some other iconic teams disappeared from the landscape of Serie A basketball. The most notable ones are of course Benetton Treviso, which won 5 times the Italian league between 1992 and 2006 and Montepaschi Siena, which dominated Italian basketball between 2004 and 2013 winning 6 titles ( the last 2 titles were later revoked by FIP because of financial fraud ).

The most successful teams in the Italian league history are Olimpia Milan with 28 titles, Virtus Bologna with 15 titles and Varese with 10 titles won.

Lega Basket Serie A featured throughout the years some of the greatest players in European basketball. Players such as Antonello Riva, Radivoj Korac, Drazen Dalipagic, Mike D’Antoni, Oscar Schmidt, Toni Kukoc, Carlton Myers, Sasha Danilovic, Manu Ginobili, Gianluca Basile, Danilo Gallinari, Bo McCalebb, Luigi Datome and many others marked their name in the Serie A history books.