Baloncesto Málaga


Baloncesto Málaga S.A.D., also known as Unicaja for sponsorship reasons, is a professional basketball club based in Málaga, Spain. The team plays in the Liga ACB and the Champions League.
Founded in 1977, the team is sponsored by the Spanish bank Unicaja and has carried that sponsorship name since 1992. They play their home games at the Palacio de Deportes José María Martín Carpena, shortly known as the "Martín Carpena". Unicaja has won one Liga ACB title, in 2006, as well as three Copas del Rey, one EuroCup, two Basketball Champions League, one FIBA Korać Cup and two FIBA Intercontinental Cup titles.

History

Unicaja was originally founded in 1977, as CB Caja de Ronda. 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 professional club [basketball system|European-wide third tier level] FIBA Korać Cup in the 2000–01 [FIBA Korać Cup|2000–01 season]. They then won the Spanish King's Cup title 2005 [Copa del Rey de Baloncesto|in 2005]. The next year, in the ACB season|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.
Málaga participated in the European-wide top-tier level league, the EuroLeague, for 15 consecutive seasons. However, in the summer of 2015, it lost its EuroLeague A-licence. Therefore, in the EuroCup Basketball|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.
From 2001–02 to 2020–21 seasons, the team competes in Euroleague Basketball competitions, until they switched to FIBA's Basketball Champions League since the 2021–22 season. In the 2023–24 season, Uncaja won the championship after defeating Canarias in the final, which took place in Belgrade. As European champions, Unicaja then played in the 2024 FIBA Intercontinental Cup in Singapore, and won its first world-level title.
In the following 2024–25 season, Unicaja once again won the BCL championship, after defeating Galatasaray in the final of the 2025 [Basketball Champions League Final Four|Final Four] in Athens. They became the second team to win consecutive league titles, following San Pablo Burgos.

Home arenas

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.

Players

Notable players

Spain
Europe
USA
Rest of Americas
Africa

Head coaches

Honours and awards

Domestic competitions

Spanish LeagueSpanish CupSpanish Supercup
  • '''Liga de Verano ACB'''

European competitions

EuroLeagueEuroCupFIBA Champions League

Worldwide competitions

Other competitions

  • 2nd division championships:
  • *1ª División B: 1981, 1987
  • Andalusia Cup:
  • *1996, 2001, 2003, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021, 2023, 2024, 2025.
  • Torrox, Spain Invitational Game
  • *2008
  • Trofeo de Platja d'Aro
  • *2008
  • Trofeo Pollinica
  • *2008
  • Trofeo Ciudad de Cordoba, Spain
  • *2009

Individual awards

ACB Finals [Most Valuable Player Award|ACB Finals MVP]
Spanish Cup MVP
ACB Slam Dunk Champion
ACB Three Point Shootout Champion
  • Paco Vázquez – 2001
All-EuroLeague Second Team
All-ACB First Team
All-ACB Second Team
EuroCup Finals MVP
Basketball [Champions League Final Four MVP]

Reserve team

Baloncesto Málaga B is the reserve team of Unicaja basketball based in Málaga, and play in the Tercera FEB.
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.

Women's team

On 14 July 2017, the club announced the creation of a women's team.
Just in its second season, Unicaja promoted to Liga Femenina 2.