Though not quite as well-known as its football counterpart, FC Barcelona’s basketball team FC Barcelona Lassa is nothing to scoff at. In fact, the team has alone won 7 of the last 13 ACB championships, and in 2003, completed a Liga ACB, Copa del Rey and Euroleage Triple Crown. Playing its games at Palau Blaugrana, this high-achieving team continues to dominate the competition today.
History
On August 24th, 1926, FC Barcelona founded its very own basketball team, even before the consolidation of basketball in Catalonia in the 1930s. Entering its first competition the next year, the club played in the Campionat de Catalunya de Basquetbol (Catalonian Basketball Championship). Due to the fact that it was such a new team, plus that basketball wasn’t very large at all in Catalonia, FC Barcelona Lassa was dominated by other more prominent clubs. In reality, FC Barcelona only actually became established as a club in the 1940s, where their performance drastically changed. During this decade, the club won 6 Copas del Generalísimo and were runners-up once. Finally, in 1959 they won Spain basketball’s first-ever league and cup double.
However, FC Barcelona Lassa’s sudden rise to fame and glory didn’t last forever. During the 1960s and 70s, the team suddenly took a sharp decline. This was all due to the club president Enric Llaudet dissolving the team in 1961 despite its popularity among citizens. The tenaciousness of the fans wasn’t to be underestimated; in 1962, the club was reformed after a campaign run by the fans. Still, FC Barcelona Lassa’s bad luck continued to show itself as in 1964 the Primera División was cut from fourteen teams to eight, and the club found itself in the Segunda División. After being crowned the champions of the Segunda División the very next year, the team was returned to the top league.
Although they had a bit of success in the 60s and 70s, it wasn’t until the 1980s where the team had their true revival. Club president Josep Lluís Núñez gave the team his full support in an effort to make the club the best in Europe. This support produced incredible results, and during this decade the club won six Spanish championships, five Spanish cups, two European Cup Winners Cups, the Korać Cup, and the World Championship. Now there was just one goal for the rising team: the European Cup.
The club continued their success from the past decade during the 1990s by winning a further four Spanish championships and two Spanish cups. In 2003, the persistence of the team finally paid off when FC Barcelona Lassa won the Euroleague in Barcelona. The team repeated the feat in 2010, as well as beating NBA star Kobe Bryant the same year during the 2010 NBA Europe Live Tour. To this day, FC Barcelona Lassa has been dominating the league and continues the legacy of the FC Barcelona club.
If you’d like to learn more about this prestigious team, take a look at their official website.
