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 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.
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 Philis in the
Eighties.
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,
Gregor Fučka,
Dejan Bodiroga,
Rolando Blackman,
Anthony Bowie,
Thurl
Bailey,
Beno Udrih,
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 soccer 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.
Roster
Depth Chart
Notable players
History of sponsorship names
- Borletti 1936–1955
- Simmenthal 1955–1973
- Innocenti 1973–1975
- Cinzano 1975–1978
- Billy 1978–1983
- Simac 1983–1986
- Tracer 1986–1988
- Philips 1988–1993
- Recoaro
1993–1994
- Stefanel 1994–1998
- Sony 1998–1999
- Adecco 1999–2002
- Pippo 2002–2003
- Breil 2003–2004
- Armani Jeans 2004–
External links
Wikis
Quiz
Map
Search