Club Baloncesto Málaga, S.A.D.,[2] for sponsorship reasons named Unicaja Málaga, is a Spanish professional basketball team that is based in Málaga, Spain. The team plays in the Liga ACB and the Basketball Champions League. The team is sponsored by the Spanish bank Unicaja.
| Unicaja | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 | |||
| Leagues | Liga ACB | ||
| Founded | 1977; 47 years ago (1977) | ||
| History | Caja de Ronda (1977–1992) Unicaja Mayoral (1992–1993) Unicaja Polti (1993–1994) Unicaja Málaga (1994–present) | ||
| Arena | Palacio de Deportes José María Martín Carpena | ||
| Capacity | 11,300[1] | ||
| Location | Málaga, Spain | ||
| Team colors | Forest Green, White, Purple and Lime | ||
| President | Eduardo García López | ||
| Head coach | Ibon Navarro | ||
| Team captain | Alberto Díaz | ||
| Ownership | Unicaja | ||
| Championships | 1 Spanish Championship 2 Spanish Cup 1 EuroCup 1 Champions League 1 Korać Cup | ||
| Retired numbers | 1 (5) | ||
| Website | unicajabaloncesto.com | ||
| |||
Unicaja was originally founded in 1977, as CB Caja de Ronda.[3][4] In 1992, the club merged another ACB team in the city of Málaga, CB Maristas de Málaga, which was originally founded in 1953 as Ademar Basket Club. Over the years, the club has featured players like: Nacho Rodríguez, Berni Rodríguez, Carlos Cabezas, Jorge Garbajosa, Marcus Brown, Sergei Babkov, Michael Ansley, Louis Bullock, and Kenny Miller, as well as numerous other well-known players. The club won its first title, when it won the European-wide third tier level FIBA Korać Cup in the 2000–01 season. They then won the Spanish King's Cup title in 2005. The next year, in the 2005–06 season, Unicaja won its first-ever Spanish League championship.
The club finished its best years to date, by qualifying for the 2007 Euroleague Final Four, where it was defeated in the semifinals by CSKA Moscow, and thus finished in third place in the EuroLeague. In October 2007, Unicaja faced the NBA's Memphis Grizzlies in a friendly match, and they defeated the Grizzlies, by a score of 102–99. That was one of the 17 times that an NBA team has lost to a foreign club. Pau Gasol and Juan Carlos Navarro, two of the greatest Spanish basketball players of all time, played for Memphis in that historical game.[5]
Málaga participated in the European-wide top-tier level league, the EuroLeague, for 15 consecutive seasons (2001–02 seasonto2015–16 season). However, in the summer of 2015, it lost its EuroLeague A-licence. Therefore, in the 2016–17 season, Unicaja participated in the second tier level EuroCup. The club immediately won the EuroCup title, in its first season in the league, after winning over Valencia Basket in the league's Finals.[6]
Since 1999, Unicaja Málaga has played its home games at the Palacio de Deportes José María Martín Carpena arena. The arena originally seated 9,743 spectators for basketball games, and was expanded in the year 2010, to a current seating capacity of 11,300 people for basketball games.[7]
| Unicaja retired numbers | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No | Nat. | Player | Position | Tenure | Ceremony date |
| 5 |  |
Berni Rodríguez | SG | 1998–2012 | 26 June 2012[8] 21 May 2017[9][10] |
Note: Flags indicate national team eligibility at FIBA-sanctioned events. Players may hold other non-FIBA nationalities not displayed.
| Unicaja roster | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | Coaches | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Updated: February 2, 2024 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Pos. | Starting 5 | Bench 1 | Bench 2 | Bench 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C | David Kravish | Yankuba Sima | Augusto Lima 
|
||
| PF | Dylan Osetkowski | Will Thomas | |||
| SF | Kameron Taylor | Melvin Ejim | Jonathan Barreiro | ||
| SG | Nihad Đedović | Tyson Carter | Tyler Kalinoski | ||
| PG | Kendrick Perry | Alberto Díaz |
Colours: Blue - homegrown player; Red - non–FIBA Europe player
Note: Flags indicate national team eligibility at FIBA-sanctioned events. Players may hold other non-FIBA nationalities not displayed.
| Criteria |
|---|
|
To appear in this section a player must have either:
|
Curro Ávalos Saúl Blanco Carlos Cabezas Iñaki De Miguel Alberto Díaz Dani Díez Roger Esteller Jaime Fernández Xavi Fernández Germán Gabriel Jorge Garbajosa Ricardo Guillén Carlos Jiménez Tomás Jofresa Chuck Kornegay Pablo Laso Jesús Lázaro Juan Antonio Orenga Alfonso Reyes Berni Rodríguez Mario Muñoz Oses Ignacio Rodríguez Dani Romero Gaby Ruiz Mike Smith Carlos Suárez Fran Vázquez Paco Vázquez Sergi Vidal
Jean-Jacques Conceição
Juan Ignacio Sánchez Walter Herrmann
Ademola Okulaja
Marcus Faison Jean-Marc Jaumin
JR Bremer Nedžad Sinanović
Vítor Faverani Rafael Hettsheimeir Augusto Lima Rafa Luz Paulo Prestes
Roderick Blakney Earl Calloway Earl Rowland
Kyle Wiltjer
Davor Kus Oliver Lafayette Veljko Mršić Sandro Nicević Hrvoje Perić Krunoslav Simon Zan Tabak Luka Žorić
Jiri Welsch
Christian Eyenga
Juan José García
Sasu Salin
Joseph Gomis Edwin Jackson Mathias Lessort Florent Pietrus Stéphane Risacher Moustapha Sonko Frédéric Weis
Giorgi Shermadini Shammond Williams
Robert Archibald Joel Freeland Darren Phillip
Ioannis Giannoulis Georgios Printezis Kostas Vasileiadis
Pavel Ermolinskij Jon Stefansson
Gal Mekel
Jeff Brooks
Kaspars Berzins Kristaps Valters
Gintaras Einikis Mindaugas Kuzminskas 
Domantas Sabonis
Richard Hendrix
Omar Cook Vladimir Golubović Kendrick Perry
Michał Chyliński Thomas Kelati Adam Waczyński Adam Wójcik
José Ortiz Daniel Santiago
Hamady Ndiaye Boniface Ndong
Milan Gurović Stefan Marković Dragan Milosavljević Dejan Musli Nemanja Nedović Kosta Perović Bojan Popović Vladimir Štimac Uroš Tripković
Zoran Dragić Erazem Lorbek Alen Omić Marko Tusek
Richard Petruska
Sergei Babkov Valeri Tikhonenko
Volodymyr Gerun Eugene Jeter
Panchi Barrera Jayson Granger Joe Arlauckas Victor Alexander James Augustine Mario Bennett Adrian Branch Marcus Brown Louis Bullock Jack Cooley Juan Dixon Zabian Dowdell Jamie Feick Gerald Fitch Kyle Fogg Marcus Haislip Marc Iavaroni Tarence Kinsey Tony Massenburg Ray McCallum Jr. Kenny Miller Gary Neal DeMarcus Nelson Andy Panko Brian Roberts Lou Roe Sean Rooks Ralph Sampson Paul Shirley Reggie Slater Ray Tolbert Marcus Williams David Wood| Season | Tier | Division | Pos. | W–L | Copa del Rey | Other cups | European competitions | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1978–79 | 2 | 1ª División B | 10th | 6–16 | ||||||
| 1979–80 | 2 | 1ª División B | 9th | 13–17 | ||||||
| 1980–81 | 2 | 1ª División B | 1st | 19–2–5 | ||||||
| 1981–82 | 1 | 1ª División | 10th | 10–1–15 | Round of 16 | |||||
| 1982–83 | 1 | 1ª División | 12th | 6–20 | Quarterfinalist | |||||
| 1983–84 | 1 | Liga ACB | 10th | 14–16 | ||||||
| 1984–85 | 1 | Liga ACB | 14th | 13–19 | ||||||
| 1985–86 | 2 | 1ª División B | 4th | 18–15 | ||||||
| 1986–87 | 2 | 1ª División B | 1st | 24–10 | ||||||
| 1987–88 | 1 | Liga ACB | 14th | 3–30 | Copa Príncipe | R16 | ||||
| 1988–89 | 1 | Liga ACB | 5th | 23–15 | Quarterfinalist | |||||
| 1989–90 | 1 | Liga ACB | 5th | 21–17 | Round of 16 | 3 Korać Cup | R1 | 1–1 | ||
| 1990–91 | 1 | Liga ACB | 10th | 19–21 | Third round | 3 Korać Cup | R1 | 0–2 | ||
| 1991–92 | 1 | Liga ACB | 14th | 16–23 | Second round | |||||
| Season | Tier | Division | Pos. | W–L | Copa del Rey |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1981–82 | 3 | 2ª División | 1st | ||
| 1982–83 | 3 | 2ª División | 2nd | ||
| 1983–84 | 3 | 2ª División | 2nd | ||
| 1984–85 | 2 | 1ª División B | 16th | 6–20 | |
| 1985–86 | 3 | 2ª División | 2nd | ||
| 1986–87 | 2 | 1ª División B | 18th | 12–22 | |
| 1987–88 | 2 | 1ª División B | 4th | 32–13 | |
| 1988–89 | 1 | Liga ACB | 15th | 22–17 | First round |
| 1989–90 | 1 | Liga ACB | 13th | 18–22 | Round of 16 |
| 1990–91 | 1 | Liga ACB | 14th | 18–22 | Second round |
| 1991–92 | 1 | Liga ACB | 15th | 15–22 | First round |
National:
International:
Other competitions:
ACB Three Point Shootout Champion
Basketball Champions League Final Four MVP
Baloncesto Málaga B is the reserve team of Unicaja, basketball based in Málaga.
From 2007 to 2016, Baloncesto Málaga had an agreement with CB Axarquía, for them to play as the club's main farm team, while Baloncesto Málaga B, which currently plays also under the name Unicaja, was the club's third team until the end of this contract.
On 14 July 2017, the club announced the creation of a women's team.[11]
Just in its second season, Unicaja promoted to Liga Femenina 2.[12]
| Season | Tier | Division | Pos. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017–18 | 3 | 1ª División | 2nd |
| 2018–19 | 3 | 1ª División | 1st |
