Milan seemed destined for greatness from its beginnings. Founded in 1936, Milan immediately won four consecutive domestic titles. Thirty years later, the arrival of Bill Bradley helped turn Milan into a continental power as the club conquered the 1966 EuroLeague title in front of its home fans. Milan added three Saporta Cup trophies between 1971 and 1976 led by Art Kenney, Renzo Bariviera, Giorgio Giomo and Coach Cesare Rubini. The team tacked on Korac Cup crowns in 1985 and 1993. Mike D'Antoni, Dino Meneghin and Joe Barry Carroll helped Milan beat Varese in the 1985 Korac Cup final, while Aleksandar Djordjevic, Antonello Riva and Riccardo Pittis led Milan past Roma in the 1993 Korac Cup finals. Milan achieved its best moments with a classic team of stars: Meneghin, Bob McAdoo and D'Antoni. They led Olimpia to back-to-back EuroLeague titles in 1987 and 1988, both times against Maccabi Tel Aviv, under two different head coaches, Dan Peterson and Franco Casalini. Milan won both the Italian League and the Italian Cup in 1996 with Nando Gentile, Dejan Bodiroga and Gregor Fucka. A lengthy rough patch followed, but a new era began for Olimpia Milano when fashion mogul Giorgio Armani became the team’s main sponsor. Milan reached the Italian League finals in 2005 before losing against Climamio Bologna, but earned the right to play again in the EuroLeague. Armani Jeans Milano reached the EuroLeague Top 16 in the 2008-09 season after winning five of its last six regular-season games. The team also made it back to the Italian League finals, a feat it repeated in 2010. The club was back in the EuroLeague Top 16 in 2011-12 and the rise continued for the next two seasons. In 2013-14 Milan returned to prominence at the highest levels of European basketball when, led by Alphonso Ford Top Scorer Trophy winner Keith Langford, it clinched home-court advantage for the EuroLeague Playoffs. However, it was ousted by eventual champion Maccabi Tel Aviv. Milan refocused its efforts at home and knocked off Montepaschi Siena to win the Italian League for the first time since 1996. It kept adding titles - an Italian League and Cup double in 2016, a cup repeat in 2017 and another Italian League crown in 2018, but comes off a couple of title-free seasons. In the 2018-19 campaign, only five players took part in all of the team's EuroLeague games and even though Mike James was the Alphonso Ford Top Scorer Trophy winner (19.8 ppg.) and was chosen to the All-EuroLeague Second Team, it ranked 12th at the end of the regular season. Milan did not do well in domestic competitions; it lost against Virtus Bologna in the Italian Cup quarterfinals and was swept by Dinamo Banco di Sardegna Sassari in the Italian League semifinals. Last season, Milan ranked fourth in the Italian League at 14-7 and 12th in the EuroLeague at 12-16 when the season came to its premature end. All signs point to the team doing much better after making the right moves to climb higher.
Trophy Case
Euroleague: 1966, 1987, 1988 |
Cup of Cups: 1971, 1972, 1976 |
Korac Cup: 1985, 1993 |
Intercontinental Cup: 1987 |
Italian National League: (28) 1936, 1936-37, 1937-38, 1938-39, 1949-50, 1050-51, 1951-52, 1952-53, 1953-54, 1956-57, 1957-58, 1958-59, 1959-60, 1961-62, 1962-63, 1964-65, 1965-66, 1966-67, 1971-72, 1981-82, 1984-85, 1985-86, 1986-87, 1988-89, 1995-96, 2013-14, 2015-16, 2017-18 |
Italian National Cup: (7) 1972, 1986, 1987, 1996, 2016, 2017, 2021 |
Italian Supercup "Supercoppa": 2016, 2018, 2020
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