Club Profile: Telenet Giants Antwerp

Aug 24, 2020 by Eurocupbasketball.com Print
Club Profile: Telenet Giants Antwerp

Telenet Giants Antwerp will be making its return to the 7DAYS EuroCup after last playing in the competition in 2007-08. The 2019-20 season was highlighted by Antwerp winning the Belgian Cup for the second straight year despite seeing head coach Roel Moors leave and his assistant Christophe Beghin take over. After having lost to Oostende in the finals in 2017-18 and 2018-19, Antwerp struggled in the Belgian League with an 11-6 record and sat in third place when the COVID-19 pandemic prematurely ended the season. Antwerp also competed in the Basketball Champions League. However, after reaching the Final Four in 2019, the team went 4-10 in the 2019-20 group stage and was eliminated. Antwerp moves now to the EuroCup and hopes to find European success similar to what it achieved two years ago.

Telenet Giants Antwerp started its activities in 1995 when Sobabee merged with Racing Mechelen to bring a top division team to Antwerp for the first time in many years. Basketball had been always popular in Belgium's second-largest city, which Antwerpse, Zaziko, Brabo, Oxaco and Tunnel all called home. Racing Mechelen had been a dominant team in Belgium. Founded in 1940, it won seven Belgian League titles between 1965 and 1976. Mechelen reached its glory days in the late 1980s when it became a EuroLeague regular as well as the team to beat in Belgium. Antwerp won its eighth title in 1987 and then added six consecutive trophies from 1989 to 1994 with Bill Varner, Eric Struelens, Martin Haws, Daniel Herman, Jacques Stas, Kurt Portmann, Dirk Snyders and Marc Deheneffe among its stars. In those years, the club registered resounding EuroLeague wins against the likes of FC Barcelona, Aris Thessaloniki, Partizan Belgrade, Benetton Treviso and Real Madrid, among others. Racing Basket Antwerpen (RBA) was born before the start of the 1995-96 season. RBA soon found great success; it won the Belgian League in 2000 led by Roger Huggins and Louis Rowe and added the Belgian Cup that same season. Slow years followed as the team failed to reach the Belgian League semifinals for six consecutive years until 2006-07 when it broke with its recent past to start a new era. Antwerp won the Belgian Cup ad thus earned a ULEB Cup spot for the first time. It also reached the Belgian League semifinals. Antwerp advanced to the Belgian League semifinals in 2009 and 2010 as well while reaching the EuroChallenge quarterfinals in 2010. Two more semifinals followed in 2012 and 2014 - and in both seasons it also reached the Belgian Cup final. The 2015-16 campaign saw Antwerp return to the Belgian Cup final and the FIBA Europe Cup quarterfinals. After another exit in the Belgian League semifinals, Antwerp finally reached the finals in 2018 before losing to Oostende. Antwerp lost to Oostende in the 2019 finals, too, but defeated Oostende to win the 2019 Belgian Cup and finished third in the Basketball Champions League. In 2019-20, Antwerp claimed its second straight Belgian Cup, but slumped to an 11-6 record in the Belgian League for third place when the COVID-19 pandemic caused the season to be canceled. Antwerp now returns to the EuroCup and hopes to establish its name in this competition.