FCBARCELONA.CAT

18.06.2009 22:08

15 league titles, 12 in the ACB

Gustau Galvache

FC Barcelona has now won 15 Spanish basketball league titles and, including the victory against TAU, 12 of them in the ACB, making Barça the most successful club in this competition.

Since the ACB was set up, 26 seasons ago, FC Barcelona has dominated the competition with 12 titles, well ahead of Real Madrid, with 8, and Juventut and TAU, with 2 apiece.

Titles in the 80’s

Barça has consistently dominated the ACB throughout the three decades of its existence. This run of success started in the fourth season after a playoff victory against Juventut, with a basket by Kenny Simpson that has remained in the fans collective memory.

The following three seasons - 87/88, 88/89 and 89/90 - also went to Barça making the Club the only team to have won the ACB league four seasons running.

Titles in the 90’s

League titles kept on coming in the 90’s. In a dramatic playoff against Unicaja Malaga, the team coached by Aíto García Reneses lifted the title in the 94/95 season and then went on to win the next two against Caja San Fernando and Real Madrid.

The victory against Real Madrid in 96/97 had a special significance. Barça had finished second in the regular phase giving Real Madrid the home advantage. In the fifth and final game, FC Barcelona won 69-82 and for the first time in the history of the competition the team that had finished first didn’t clinch the title. Once again Barça made history.

And also in the 21st century

This season’s triumph makes it four league titles so far in the 21st century. No other team has won as many titles in the new millennium.

The first came in 2000/01 and featured a young Pau Gasol. The 2002/03 season saw an historic basketball treble of Euroleague, Kings Cup and the ACB (against Pamesa).

The last league title before tonight’s came in 2003/04 against Estudiantes.

It all began in 1959

FC Barcelona first won the Spanish basketball league in 58/59. A national basketball league had only existed for three years and had been dominated up to then by Real Madrid.

With ‘Nino' Buscató directing operations on court and Jaume Isal on the coach’s bench, Barça finished top of the regular phase to win the first of the Club’s 15 state titles (at that time the playoffs didn’t exist). Prior to the establishment of the ACB, Barça also won the state league in 1980/81 and 1982/83.