OLIMPIA MILANO

'Olimpia Milano' is a Lega Basket Italian basketball team, based in Milan, Italy, founded in 1936 by Milan businessman Adolfo Bogoncelli. Its colors are red and white, and the team is sometimes referred as "Scarpette Rosse" (Little Red Shoes) because team officials imported from the United States red Converse All-Star shoes for players. The tag line stuck, and the nickname is still used by many fans today.
Their sponsorship has kept the team name changing frequently. From 1936 until 1955, Borletti sponsored the club. Sponsorship changed to Simmenthal until 1973, when Innocenti became the title sponsor, and Cinzano in 1976, with Billy in 1980.
Foreign players began playing in 1957, and the team kept winning the LEGA Basket Serie A championship of Italian basketball, with players from the 1960s including Nane Vianello, Sandro Riminucci, Pieri, and Bill Bradley.
In the 60's and the 1970s three teams were fighting across Europe for supremacy: Olimpia Milano, Ignis Varese, and Real Madrid; Pallacanestro Varese and Olimpia Milano were arch-rivals, as the two cities are 25 miles (40 km) apart. While Milano was a frequent Italian champion, they were unable to win the prestigious European Championship Cup.
Late in the 1970's, the quality of play declined, but Olimpia Milano still won a Cup Winner's Cup. In the second half of the 1970's the team signed several good players: the Boselli twins, Mike Silvester and Mike D'Antoni. American head coach Dan Peterson and a new sponsor led the team back to prominence, and the team was sold in 1980 to the Gabetti family. Top Italian superstar Dino Meneghin joined the team in 1981 and more players signed for Milano afterwards — John Gianelli, Roberto Premier. Bob McAdoo, Joe Barry Carroll, Russ Schoene, Antoine Carr, and Mike Brown followed.
During the 1980s, the qualified for nine LEGA championships finals, winning five, with the 1987 team winning LEGA Serie A, the European Championship (won also in 1988: both finals were won against Maccabi Tel Aviv), the Italian Cup and the Intercontinental Cup.
Led by point guard Sasha Djordjevic, the team won another Korac Cup in 1993.
Bepi Stefanel purchased the team in 1994, and the team signed notable European players like Dejan Bodiroga, Gregor Fucka, Sandro De Pol, and Nando Gentile. In 1996, the team won the Italian Cup and its 25th Italian National Chanpionship, celebrating the 60th anniversary of the club.
Team management has been inconsistent as ownership groups from 1998 to 2004 have included Warren Kidd, Hugo Sconochini, Claudio Coldebella and Petar Naumoski.
The current ownership, which bought the club in 2004, includes Adriano Galliani (President of Italian soccer club A.C. Milan), Massimo Moratti (vice president of rival Internazionale), and stylist Giorgio Armani, among others.
On January 25, 2006, in the midst of a disappointing season in the Euroleague and domestically, Djordjevic was named as the team's new coach. He left as coach after the 2006-07 season, but not before securing Olimpia a berth in the 2007-08 Euroleague.

Contents

2007-08 Roster

Notable past players

History of sponsorship names

External links

2007-08 Roster

		Cheyne Gadson	Point guard/Shooting guard
		Stefano Gentile	Point guard
5		Ansu Sesay	Power forward
6		Reece Gaines	Shooting guard
7		Hervé Touré	Forward
8		Danilo Gallinari	Small forward
9		Massimo Bulleri	Point guard
10		Pietro Aradori	Shooting guard
11		Casey Shaw	Center
12		Stefano Mercante	Point guard
13		Travis Watson	Power forward/Center
14		Dusan Vukcevic	Small forward/Shooting guard

Notable past players

★ Bill Bradley 1 season: '65/'66

★ Mike D'Antoni 13 seasons: '77 --- '90

★ Dino Meneghin 11 seasons: '81 --- '90, '93 --- '95

★ Roberto Premier 8 seasons: '81 --- '89

★ Antoine Carr 1 season: '83/'84

★ Joe Barry Carroll 1 season: '84/'85

★ Earl Cureton 2 seasons: '83/'84, '89/'90

★ Riccardo Pittis 9 seasons: '84 --- '93

★ Bob McAdoo 4 seasons: '86 --- '90

★ Piero Montecchi 5 seasons: '87 --- '92

★ Ricky Brown 1 season: '87 --- '88

★ Davide Pessina 5 seasons: '88-'89, '91 --- '95

★ Antonello Riva 5 seasons: '89 --- '94

★ Jay Vincent 1 season: '90-'91

★ Johnny Rogers 1 season: '91-'92

★ Aleksandar "Sasha" Djordjevic 2.5 seasons: '92 --- '94, '04/'05(2nd part)

★ Antonio Davis 1 season: '92-'93

★ Hugo Sconochini 4 seasons: '93 --- '95, '02 --- '04

★ Žan Tabak 1 season: '93-'94

★ Dejan Bodiroga 2 seasons: '94 --- '96

★ Ed Stokes 1 season: '94-'95

★ Gregor Fucka 3 seasons: '94 --- '97

★ Ferdinando Gentile 3.5 season: '94 --- '96, '96/'97(1st part), '97/'98

★ Sandro De Pol 3 seasons: '94 --- '97

★ Rolando Blackman 1 season: '95-'96

★ Anthony Bowie 1 season: '96-'97

★ Warren Kidd 3 seasons: '96 --- '98, '02-'03

★ Thurl Bailey 1 season: '97-'98

★ Flavio Portaluppi 12 seasons: Feb '89-'90, '92 --- '02

★ DeMarco Johnson 1 season: '98-'99

★ Melvin Booker 1 season: '98-'99

★ Shawn Respert 1 season: '99-'00

★ Stefano Rusconi 3 seasons: '99 --- '02

★ Lee Nailon 1 season: '99-'00

★ Michael Iuzzolino 1 season: '00-'01

★ Johnny Taylor 1 season: '00-'01

★ Louis Bullock 1 season: '01-'02

★ Martin Rancik 3 seasons: '01 --- '04

★ Henry Turner Uzun 1 season: '01-'02

★ Petar Naumoski 2 seasons: '02 -- '04

★ Hugo Sconochini 2 seasons: '02 -- '04

★ Rod Sellers 1 season: '03-'04

★ Beno Udrih 1 season: '03-'04

★ Dante Calabria 3 seasons: '04 --- '07

★ Jerry McCullough 1 season: '04-'05

★ Diego Fajardo 3 seasons: '04 -- '07

★ Preston Shumpert 1 season: '05-'06

★ Kiwane Garris 1 season: '06-'07

History of sponsorship names

★ Borletti 1936-1955

★ Simmenthal 1955-1973

★ Innocenti 1973-1975

★ Cinzano 1975-1978

★ Billy 1978-1983

★ Simac 1983-1986

★ Tracer 1986-1988

★ Philips 1988-1993

★ Recoaro 1993-1994

★ Stefanel 1994-1998

★ Sony 1998-1999

★ Adecco 1999-2002

★ Pippo 2002-2003

★ Breil 2003-2004

★ Armani Jeans 2004-

External links

★ Official Website