The new Austrian League superpower is ready to make its ULEB Cup debut, as three-time champion Allianz Swans Gmunden enters the competition to represent a rising basketball country. Union Gmunden opened its basketball section in 1965 and played its first game the following year. Gmunden made it to the regional league in 1970 and reached the Austrian second division in 1972. The team even made the top division in 1977 only to be relegated the following year. After an eight-year absence in the Austrian elite, Swans Gmunden reached it the top division again in 1992 behind Clarence Swearengen and Daryl Battles. The team was third in the 1993 Austrian League and took part in the 1994 Korac Cup, losing against Ghent in the preliminary round. That season, Swans was fourth in Austria and basketball fever reached Gmunden forever. Swans also played the 1995 Korac Cup, but also fell to the Austrian second division that season, only to return in 1997. Swans became a regular playoff team at home between 1998 and 2002, but its main sponsor bankrupt and Union Gmunden cannot afford the team anymore, so its basketball section becomes an independent club. It was the start of a new era for Gmunden, as it won the 2003 Austrian Cup, became the regular season champion and made the finals, losing against Kapfenberg in a heartbreaking five-game series. Top gun Deteri Mayes has led the club all the way in its recent success, becoming a basketball icon in Gmunden. Swans added another Austrian Cup title in 2004, but the best was yet to come. Swans finally lifted its first league trophy in 2005, sweeping Oberwart in the finals. The team has been unstoppable since that moment, adding two other league titles in 2006 and 2007, always led by an unstoppable Mayes. Gmunden now goes one step further by joining the ULEB Cup, getting ready to show that Austrian basketball gets better and better every season.