S.L. Benfica (basketball)

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Benfica
Leagues Liga Portuguesa de Basquetebol,
FIBA Europe Cup
Founded 20 March 1927 (97 years ago) (1927-03-20)[1]
History S.L. Benfica
(1927–present)
Arena Pavilhão Fidelidade
Arena Capacity 2,400
Location Lisbon, Portugal
Team colors Red, White, Black
              
President José Tomaz
Head coach Carlos Lisboa
Championships 26 Portuguese Leagues
21 Portuguese Cups
Website slbenfica.pt
Uniforms
Kit body thinwhitesides.png
Home jersey
Kit shorts redsides.png
Team colours
Home
Kit body thinredsides.png
Away jersey
Kit shorts redsides.png
Team colours
Away
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Alternate jersey
Kit shorts redsides.png
Team colours
Alternate
Active departments of
Sport Lisboa e Benfica
Football pictogram.svg Futsal pictogram.svg Basketball pictogram.svg
Football Futsal Basketball
Roller hockey pictogram.svg Handball pictogram.svg Volleyball (indoor) pictogram.svg
Roller hockey Handball Volleyball
Rugby union pictogram.svg Athletics pictogram.svg Swimming pictogram.svg
Rugby union Athletics Swimming
Table tennis pictogram.svg Cue sports pictogram.svg Canoeing (slalom) pictogram.svg
Table tennis Billiards Canoeing


Sport Lisboa e Benfica is a professional basketball team based in Lisbon, Portugal. Benfica are the current champions, having won four consecutive leagues, and are the most successful Portuguese club.

Founded in 1927, they play in the Liga Portuguesa de Basquetebol (LPB), although in June 2007 the team decided to leave the professional top league, then known as LCB, and join the Proliga,[2] a league organized by the Federação Portuguesa de Basquetebol. From 2008 onwards, they returned to the LPB after the Portuguese federation took over the realms of competition.

Benfica is the team with the most national senior titles, having the record for most championships, cups, league cups, super cups, and other national competitions, with a total of 79 titles. It is also the Portuguese team that advanced the furthest in the European top club basketball championship, now known as the Euroleague.

Some of their most memorable moments were when they won European clashes against the likes of European clubs which have won the Euroleague, such as Buckler Bologna, Real Madrid, Cantù, Cibona, Joventut Badalona, Panathinaikos, Partizan, or CSKA Moscow.[1][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] Despite basketball not being nearly as popular with the population as football, Benfica also enjoyed a major rivalry with FC Porto until 2012.

Along with its several junior teams that play in their respective top division championships, Benfica also has a developmental basketball team, Benfica B, that plays in the Proliga, the second highest tier in Portuguese basketball, after the LPB in which the main team competes.[11]

History

Early years

Created on 20 March 1927,[1] the basketball team followed the steps of many other sports that were supported by the club, achieving great success almost immediately. The team established itself as a main contender by the 1940s and during the whole 1960s gained the status of championship favourite and was already the club with the most titles won. By this time the club had won eight national championships and eight cups. This dominating spell decreased the following decade until the early 1980s. In this time-span Benfica could only win two championships, in the 1969–70 and the 1974–75 season, but won four national cups, the second most prestigious Portuguese tournament, in 1969–70, 1971–72, 1972–73 and 1973–74. After these years, Benfica again dominated the national scene.

Golden years

The most successful period of the club was between 1985 and 1995. In eleven seasons, the team won ten national titles, seven of which in a row, five national cups, five league cups and six super cups, achieving the best season ever by a Portuguese basketball team in 1994–95 winning the Portuguese League, Portuguese League Cup, Portuguese Super Cup, Portuguese Basketball Cup and finishing the European Champions' Cup in the Top 16. One of the highlight from that European Champions' Cup season was a 22-point victory (102–80) against CSKA Moscow in Lisbon on 12 January 1995.[10] Benfica also made successful international campaigns in the other seasons considering the budget the team had compared with other European big teams. Some of the most successful of those campaigns include the 1993–94, when Benfica was close to reach the Top 8,[12] and for a third season in a row Benfica managed to reach the Top 16 again in the European Champions' Cup, in 1995–96, grabbing a win against Panathinaikos, the eventual champions.[13][8]

Decline in the late 1990s

This period was followed by a dark era in which Benfica was internally overshadowed by Ovarense, Portugal Telecom and FC Porto. Even though this period is considered to be a dark one, Benfica did manage to reach the LPB final once as well as winning Super Cups and finishing runners-up in the national cup and in the league cup. Also noteworthy is an away win against Real Madrid, in the 1996–97 EuroCup, the same season the Spaniards won the competition.[4] The team finally decided to withdraw from the top tier and applied for the second league, the Proliga,[2] which was the highest division run by the Federação Portuguesa de Basquetebol. However the first division was folded and the LPB was again being overviewed by the national federation. This allowed the team to make a comeback to the main league.

Revival in the late 2000s

After more than a decade without any titles and in the same season Benfica had made a return to the first league, the 2008–09 season, the team won the Portuguese League, with a perfect score of 100% wins during the regular season, becoming the second team in the world to do so, after Maccabi Tel Aviv in the 1970s, and thrashing Ovarense 4–0 in the best-of-four game final. Benfica won the championship again the following season with a 91% winning record in the regular stage and a 4–1 final against Porto. The recent success brought the team to participate in the EuroChallenge, thus marking the end of a mid-term long hiatus from Portuguese clubs in European basketball competitions. The following year, Benfica won the League Cup and the Super Cup but did not renew the championship as it lost 4–3 in the final to Porto.

Recent years

In the next season Benfica regained the title of Portuguese champion after defeating Porto in their home court Dragão Caixa (53–56) in the last best-of-five series game following a 2–2 playoff tie. Benfica retained the title the following season, having only lost two games, one in the regular season, and the other in the play-off final, which they won 3–1 against Académica de Coimbra, both defeats coming only in overtime. Overall Benfica won every title except the Cup, losing against Vitória de Guimarães in the final, amassing only three losses in the entire season in all competitions. On 23 May 2014, Benfica defeated Vitória de Guimarães (3–0) and conquered its 25th champions title (third consecutive), completing the domestic treble of League, Portuguese Cup and Hugo dos Santos Cup. In this season they won a total of 4 titles (including the 2013 Super Cup).

In the 2014–15 season, Benfica returned to the European competitions, playing in EuroChallenge where they finished in third place of Group E. At domestic level, Benfica won all the five competitions.[14][15]

Starting the 2015–16 season, they won their fifth and fourth consecutive António Pratas Trophy, and set a new club record of ten consecutive Portuguese trophies won.[16]

Honours

Domestic competitions

International competitions

Players

Current roster

S.L. Benfica roster
Players Coaches
Pos. # Nat. Name Ht. Wt. Age
SG 6 Portugal Ferreirinho, Carlos 2.00 m (6 ft 7 in) 92 kg (203 lb) Script error: The function "age_generic" does not exist.(1991-12-31)31 December 1991
PG 8 Portugal Carreira, Diogo (C) 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) 81 kg (179 lb) Script error: The function "age_generic" does not exist.(1978-12-02)2 December 1978
PF 9 United States Wilson, Jeremiah 2.05 m (6 ft 9 in) 100 kg (220 lb) Script error: The function "age_generic" does not exist.(1988-04-19)19 April 1988
PG 10 Portugal Fernandes, Mário 1.74 m (5 ft 9 in) 80 kg (176 lb) Script error: The function "age_generic" does not exist.(1982-04-25)25 April 1982
PG 11 Portugal Oliveira, Nuno 1.86 m (6 ft 1 in) 85 kg (187 lb) Script error: The function "age_generic" does not exist.(1989-08-20)20 August 1989
F 12 Montenegro Loncovic, Marko 2.00 m (6 ft 7 in) 97 kg (214 lb) Script error: The function "age_generic" does not exist.(1991-02-03)3 February 1991
PG 13 Portugal Gameiro, Diogo 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) 81 kg (179 lb) Script error: The function "age_generic" does not exist.(1995-08-13)13 August 1995
G 14 United States Cook, Daequan 1.96 m (6 ft 5 in) 95 kg (209 lb) Script error: The function "age_generic" does not exist.(1987-04-28)28 April 1987
C 15 United States Gentry, Fred 2.03 m (6 ft 8 in) 110 kg (243 lb) Script error: The function "age_generic" does not exist.(1977-07-07)7 July 1977
SF 17 Portugal Soares, João 2.03 m (6 ft 8 in) 91 kg (201 lb) Script error: The function "age_generic" does not exist.(1990-03-27)27 March 1990
SF 18 Serbia Stankovic, Velkjo 2.00 m (6 ft 7 in) 96 kg (212 lb) Script error: The function "age_generic" does not exist.(1997-08-11)11 August 1997
PG 21 Portugal Barroso, Tomás 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) 88 kg (194 lb) Script error: The function "age_generic" does not exist.(1990-11-02)2 November 1990
SF 23 Portugal Andrade, Carlos 1.97 m (6 ft 6 in) 109 kg (240 lb) Script error: The function "age_generic" does not exist.(1978-04-27)27 April 1978
C 24 Portugal Monteiro, Ricardo 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) 112 kg (247 lb) Script error: The function "age_generic" does not exist.(1997-02-13)13 February 1997
Head coach

Carlos Lisboa

Assistant coach(es)

Nuno Ferreira


Legend
  • (C) Team captain
  • Injured Injured

Roster
Updated: 19 February 2016


Depth chart

Pos. Starting 5 Bench 1 Bench 2 Bench 3
C Fred Gentry Ricardo Monteiro
PF Jeremiah Wilson Marko Loncovic
SF Carlos Andrade João Soares Velkjo Stankovic
SG Daequan Cook Nuno Oliveira Carlos Ferreirinho
PG Mário Fernandes Tomás Barroso Diogo Carreira Diogo Gameiro

Home arenas

Results in European competitions

[18]

Former coaches

Former notable players

Won an official title or individual titles

References

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  16. http://www.slbenfica.pt/noticias/detalhedenoticia/tabid/2788/ArticleId/43105/language/pt-PT/.aspx
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External links

  • No URL found. Please specify a URL here or add one to Wikidata. (Portuguese)