Olimpia Milano

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Olimpia Milano

Leagues

Euroleague, Lega Basket Serie A

Founded

1936

History

Pallacanestro Milano (1936-present)

Arena

Forum di Assago

(capacity 11,200 seats)

Location

Milan, Italy

Team colors

White and red

President

Giorgio Corbelli (owner)

Head coach

Attilio Caja

Championships

Lega Basket (25): 1936, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1962, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1972, 1982, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1989, 1996
Euroleague (3): 1966, 1987, 1988
Intercontinental Cup (1): 1987
Cup Winners' Cup (3): 1971, 1972, 1976
Korac Cup (2): 1985, 1993

Website

http://www.olimpiamilano.com

Uniforms



Home



Away

Olimpia Milano is a Lega Basket Italian basketball team, based in Milan, Italy, founded in 1936 by Milan businessman Adolfo Bogoncelli. Its colors are red and white, and the team is sometimes referred as "Scarpette Rosse" (Little Red Shoes) because team officials imported from the United States red Converse All-Star shoes for players. The tag line stuck, and the nickname is still used by many fans today.

Their sponsorship has kept the team name changing frequently. From 1936 until 1955, Borletti sponsored the club. Sponsorship changed to Simmenthal until 1973, when Innocenti became the title sponsor, and Cinzano in 1976, with Billy in 1980.

1 History
2 2007-08 Roster
3 Notable past players
4 History of sponsorship names
5 External links

[edit] History

Foreign players began playing in 1957, and the team kept winning the LEGA Basket Serie A championship of Italian basketball, with players from the 1960s including Nane Vianello, Sandro Riminucci, Pieri, and Bill Bradley. In the 60's and the 1970s three teams were fighting across Europe for supremacy: Olimpia Milano, Ignis Varese, and Real Madrid; Pallacanestro Varese and Olimpia Milano were arch-rivals, as the two cities are 25 miles (40 km) apart. While Milano was a frequent Italian League champion, they were unable to win the prestigious European Championship Cup.

Late in the 1970's, the quality of play declined, but Olimpia Milano still won a Cup Winners' Cup. In the second half of the 1970's the team signed several good players: the Boselli twins, Mike Silvester and Mike D'Antoni. American head coach Dan Peterson and a new sponsor led the team back to prominence, and the team was sold in 1980 to the Gabetti family. Top Italian superstar Dino Meneghin joined the team in 1981 and more players signed for Milano afterwards — John Gianelli, Roberto Premier. Bob McAdoo, Joe Barry Carroll, Russ Schoene, Antoine Carr, and Mike Brown followed.

During the 1980s, they qualified for nine LEGA championships finals, winning five, with the 1987 team winning LEGA Serie A, the European Championship (won also in 1988: both finals were won against Maccabi Tel Aviv), the Italian Cup and the Intercontinental Cup. This gave the club the coveted Triple Crown in Basketball and the even rarer Quadruple Crown.

Led by point guard Sasha Djordjevic, the team won another Korac Cup in 1993. Bepi Stefanel purchased the team in 1994, and the team signed notable European players like Dejan Bodiroga, Gregor Fučka, Sandro De Pol, and Nando Gentile. In 1996, the team won the Italian Cup and its 25th Italian National Championship, celebrating the 60th anniversary of the club.

Team management has been inconsistent as ownership groups from 1998 to 2004 have included Warren Kidd, Hugo Sconochini, Claudio Coldebella and Petar Naumoski. The current ownership, which bought the club in 2004, includes Adriano Galliani (Managing Director of Italian soccer club A.C. Milan), Massimo Moratti (President of rival club Internazionale), and stylist Giorgio Armani, among others.

On January 25, 2006, in the midst of a disappointing season in the Euroleague and domestically, Djordjevic was named as the team's new coach. He left as coach after the 2006-07 season, but not before securing Olimpia a berth in the 2007-08 Euroleague.

[edit] 2007-08 Roster

5	Ansu Sesay	Power forward
6	Fabio Di Bella	Point guard
8	Danilo Gallinari	Small forward
9	Giuliano Maresca	Shooting guard
11	Casey Shaw	Center
12	Melvin Booker	Point guard
13	Travis Watson	Center
14	Dušan Vukčević	Small forward/Shooting guard
15	Mindaugas Katelynas	Small forward
16	Stefano Gentile	Point guard
18	Anthony Giovacchini	Point guard
	Sandro Marelli
	Davide Marelli