Virtus Bologna

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VidiVici Bologna

Founded	1927
Arena	PalaMalaguti (8278)
Team History	Virtus Pallacanestro Bologna (1927-present)
Team Colors	White and Black
Lega Basket Serie A	15 (1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1955, 1956, 1976, 1979, 1980, 1984, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1998, 2001)
Italian Cup	8 (1974, 1984, 1989, 1990, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2002)
Italian Supercup	1 (1995)
Euroleague	2 (1998, 2001)
Cup Winners' Cups	1 (1990)
Owner	Claudio Sabatini
Head Coach	Zare Markovski

Virtus Pallacanestro Bologna is a prominent Italian basketball club, based in Bologna. Virtus returned to Italy's top division for the 2005-06 season after two years in the second division.

Virtus was founded in 1879 as a gymnastics club, and fielded its first professional basketball teams in the 1920s. The club has won 15 national league titles in Italy's top division and 8 Italian Cups. It has also been a frequent participant in the Euroleague, the basketball equivalent to football's Champions League. Virtus' best season, as measured by trophies won, was 2000-01, when it won the Italian league, Italian Cup, and Euroleague titles (though the latter came against the field that did not include all of the Europe's national champions). It also won the Euroleague in 1998 led by Predrag Danilović.

However, several key members of Virtus' treble-winners left immediately after that accomplishment. After the 2001-02 season, Manu Ginobili, the Euroleague Final Four MVP in 2001, left for the NBA, as did another important player Marko Jarić. At the end of the 2002-03 season, Virtus suffered relegation from Italy's top division as a result of financial problems.

The local derby between Virtus and Fortitudo Bologna is one of the most intense in the entire world of sports. Sports Illustrated writer Alexander Wolff devoted a chapter of his 2002 basketball book, Big Game, Small World (ISBN 0-446-52601-0), to this rivalry.

Virtus' home stadium is PalaMalaguti.

1 Current roster
2 Famous players
3 Famous coaches
4 List of former sponsorship names
5 External links

[edit] Current roster

5	Vlado Ilievski	Playmaker
6	Travis Best	Playmaker
7	Brett Blizzard	Shooting guard
8	Ilian Evtimov	Small forward
9	Christian Drejer	Power forward
11	Andrea Crosariol	Center
12	Guilherme Giovannoni	Power forward
13	Oscar Gugliotta	Guard
14	Dusan Vukcevic	Small forward
15	Kris Lang	Center
16	Fabio Di Bella	Playmaker
17	Simone Bonfiglio	Playmaker
19	Riccardo Malagoli	Center
20	Andrea Michelori	Power forward