Olympique Antibes

Antibes Sharks
Leagues LNB Pro A
Founded 1933
History 1933 – present
Arena Azur Arena Antibes
Arena Capacity 5,249
Location Antibes, France
Team colors Navy, Gold, Azure, White
                   
Championships 3 French Championships
Website www.antibes-basket.com
Uniforms
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Olympique Antibes Juan-les-Pins Côte d'Azur, or OAJLP, or Antibes Sharks, is a basketball club from the city of Antibes, France. The club's men's senior team currently plays in LNB Pro A, the French second division.

History

The basketball team rose to prominence in the years 1950–60. In 1970, the team won the championship of France thanks to players of exception like Jean-Claude Bonato, Dan Rodriguez and Jacques Cachemire.

At the beginning of the Eighties, Antibes suffered several disappointing seasons, but improved throughout the decade, and eventually won the LNB Pro A title in 1991. At the beginning of the Nineties, Antibes regularly contended for titles alongside Limoges and Pau-Orthez.

In 1995, the club won a third national title before being plagued by financial problems. In 2002, in spite of finishing in a position that would have kept them safe from relegation, the club was dropped to LNB Pro B for lack of financial guarantees. Antibes then went through difficult years in Pro B. Then, in 2006–07, the club were relegated from Pro B to the nominally amateur Nationale 1. Although their 16th-place finish that season would normally have kept them safe from relegation, that season saw three teams relegated instead of the normal two because of a decision to reduce the number of teams in the top Pro A league. They would return to the professional ranks at the first opportunity, winning the Pro B crown in 2008.

For the 2013 season, Antibes has new ambitions in a Pro B league where the other favourites are clubs like Pau-Orthez, Hyères Toulon, two teams coming from Pro A, and Bourg-en-Bresse. They end up in fifth place at the end of the regular season and win the play-offs against Champagne Châlons Reims, synonym with a spot in the Pro A championship from next season.

But the following year they finish bottom of the league with 6 wins and 24 defeats, and return once more to the Pro B.

During the 2014-2015 season, they finish 6th of the regular season, and win also the Leaders Cup, a victory that, as a matter of fact, guaranteed them a playoff spot. They win the playoffs against Denain after having defeated Nantes and Le portel on their way to the final. Just one year after leaving the Pro A championship they earned the right to go back to the elite tier.

Honours

Season by season

Season Tier League Pos. Postseason French Cup
2008–09 2 LNB Pro B 11 – Round of 16
2009–10 2 LNB Pro B 16 – Quarterfinalist
2010–11 2 LNB Pro B 14 – Quarterfinalist
2011–12 2 LNB Pro B 11 – Round of 32
2012–13 2 LNB Pro B 5 Promoted (Playoffs) Round of 16
2013–14 1 LNB Pro A 16 Relegated Round of 64
2014–15 2 LNB Pro B 6 Promoted (Playoffs)

Famous players

To appear in this section a player must have either:

NBA game at any time.

Note: Flags indicate national team eligibility at FIBA sanctioned events. Players may hold other non-FIBA nationality not displayed.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Tuesday, January 26, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.