Košarkarski klub Koper Primorska ( en, Koper Primorska Basketball Club), commonly referred to as KK Koper Primorska, was a men's professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

club based in

Koper Koper (; it, Capodistria, hr, Kopar) is the fifth largest city in Slovenia. Located in the Istrian region in the southwestern part of the country, approximately five kilometres () south of the border with Italy and 20 kilometres () from Triest ...

, Slovenia. The club was formed by the merger of KOŠ Koper and KK Lastovka in 2016, and was disbanded in 2020 due to financial problems. Primorska became the Slovenian champions in 2019, and also won the

Slovenian Cup Slovene or Slovenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Slovenia, a country in Central Europe * Slovene language, a South Slavic language mainly spoken in Slovenia * Slovenes, an ethno-linguistic group mainly living in Slovenia * Sl ...

three times in a row between 2018 and 2020.

History

KK Primorska was founded in 2016 by the merger of KK Lastovka and ŠD Koš Koper. The team finished in seventh place in its debut season in the Slovenian national league. In its second season, Sixt Primorska competed in the second-level regional league,

ABA League Second Division The ABA League Second Division, also ABA League 2, is the 2nd-tier men's basketball division of the ABA League system. It is run by the ABA League JTD. It is a regional competition between men's professional clubs from six countries: Bosnia and H ...

, where they lost in the final against

KK Krka Košarkarski klub Krka (English: Basketball Club Krka), commonly referred to as KK Krka or simply Krka, is a professional basketball team based in Novo Mesto, Slovenia. The team competes in the Premier A Slovenian Basketball League and the ABA Le ...

. During the 2018–19 season, Sixt Primorska won a historic "quadruple" after winning in all four competitions in which they played (

national league The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

, domestic cup, domestic supercup, and

). As a result, they earned a place in the

ABA League First Division The ABA League, renamed to the ABA League First Division in 2017, is the ABA League system, 1st-tier regional men's professional basketball league that originally featured sports club, clubs from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, f ...

for the 2019–20 season. Before the 2019–20 season, the club changed its name to Koper Primorska. In December 2019 it was reported that the club became financially unstable, and that several players, including head coach

Jurica Golemac Jurica Golemac (born May 29, 1977) is a Croatian-born Slovenian professional basketball coach and former player. He currently serves as the head coach for Cedevita Olimpija of the Slovenian League, ABA League and the EuroCup. He is 2.09 m ...

, have left the club. Despite this, the club still managed to win their third consecutive domestic cup title in February 2020 with a win over Cedevita Olimpija. After the season, which ended early because of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, the club did not obtain a licence for the national top division, issued by the

Basketball Federation of Slovenia The Basketball Federation of Slovenia ( sl, Košarkarska zveza Slovenije) also known as KZS is the governing body of basketball in Slovenia. It was founded in 1950 as a member of the larger Yugoslav Basketball Federation (see also: Basketball in ...

. However, in late June 2020, the licence was granted after a successful appeal. On 7 September 2020, Primorska withdrew from the 2020 Slovenian Supercup due to roster problems. In the same month, the club reportedly withdrew from the ABA League due to serious financial difficulties. On 14 September, however, the club officially announced that they had found new partners and would play in the ABA League and the Slovenian top division. In November 2020, the club became a

shareholder A shareholder (in the United States often referred to as stockholder) of a corporation is an individual or legal entity (such as another corporation, a body politic, a trust or partnership) that is registered by the corporation as the legal o ...

of the Adriatic Basketball Association, following a transfer of

shares In financial markets, a share is a unit of equity ownership in the capital stock of a corporation, and can refer to units of mutual funds, limited partnerships, and real estate investment trusts. Share capital refers to all of the shares of ...

from MZT Skopje. However, in December 2020, Primorska was disqualified from the

ABA League The ABA League, renamed to the ABA League First Division in 2017, is the 1st-tier regional men's professional basketball league that originally featured clubs from the former Yugoslavia (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, North Mace ...

after failing to play two consecutive games due to financial problems. Later that month, the club also withdrew from the national league and was disbanded.

Season-by-season records

Head coaches

* Aleksander Sekulić, 2016–2017 *

, 2017–2019 * Andrej Žakelj, 2019–2020

References

External links

ABA League Team ProfileEurobasket.com Team Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Koper Primorska, KK Basketball teams established in 2016 Basketball teams disestablished in 2020 Basketball teams in Slovenia Sport in Koper 2016 establishments in Slovenia 2020 disestablishments in Slovenia