Olimpia Milano

Olimpia Milano is a Lega Basket Italian professional 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 red Converse All-Star shoes for players from the United States . The tag line stuck, and the nickname is still used by many fans today.

As usual in the Italian league, their sponsorship has kept the team name changing frequently. From 1936 until 1955, Borletti sponsored the club, then sponsorship changed to Simmenthal until 1973. Other famous sponsorships were Billy, Simac, Tracer and Philips in the Eighties. For past club sponsorship names, see the list below.

It's the most titled basketball team in Italy, having won 25 Italian Championships, 3 European Champions Cups, 4 Italian National Cups, 1 Intercontinental Cup, 3 Saporta Cups, 2 Korać Cups and many other youth titles.

Well-known players that have played with the team have included: Bill Bradley, Antoine Carr, Mike D'Antoni, Earl Cureton, Joe Barry Carroll, Bob McAdoo, Dino Meneghin, Ken Barlow, Albert King, Marc Iavaroni, Aleksandar Djordjevic, Antonio Davis, Darryl Dawkins, Hugo Sconochini, Gregor Fučka, Dejan Bodiroga, Rolando Blackman, Anthony Bowie, Thurl Bailey, Beno Udrih, Alejandro Montecchia, Danilo Gallinari and lately Maurice Taylor.

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 1970s, the quality of play declined, but Olimpia Milano still won a Cup Winners' Cup. In the second half of the 1970s 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 1987 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 Korać 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 Football club A.C. Milan), Massimo Moratti (President of rival club Internazionale), NBA star Kobe Bryant, 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. On January 2011, glorious coach Dan Peterson came back from retirement to replace Piero Bucchi as head coach. However, his stint at Olimpia Milano this time was quite short: after failing to reach the championship Finals, on June 9th Olimpia Milano announced Sergio Scariolo as new head coach for the 2011-12 season. The first player signed for the 2011-12 season is Omar Cook, American-born playmaker who played last season with Power Electronics Valencia.

Roster

Depth Chart

Notable players

Sponsorship names

Through the years, due to sponsorship deals, it has been also known as:^[1]

• Borletti (1936–55)
• Simmenthal (1955–73)
• Innocenti (1973–75)
• Cinzano (1975–78)
• Billy (1978–83)
• Simac (1983–86)
• Tracer (1986–88)
• Philips (1988–93)
• Recoaro (1993–94)
• Stefanel (1994–98)
• Sony (1998–99)
• Adecco (1999–02)
• Pippo (2002–03)
• Breil (2003–04)
• Armani Jeans (2004–2011)
• Emporio Armani (2011-present)

References

External links

• Official Website (Italian)
• Forum Olimpia Milano (Italian)