The 1959–60 FIBA European Champions Cup was third season of the European top-tier level professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

club competition FIBA European Champions Cup (now called EuroLeague). It was won by

Rīgas ASK Rīgas Armijas Sporta Klubs was a professional basketball club that was based in Riga, Latvia. History Rīgas ASK was founded in 1931, and started playing in the Latvian Basketball Championship. In the years that Latvia was controlled by the Sovi ...

for the third straight time, an accomplishment only achieved again by Jugoplastika in the late 1980s, in

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxon Valdez oil tanker runs ...

–

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phi ...

. In the

EuroLeague Finals The EuroLeague Finals are the championship finals of the EuroLeague competition. The EuroLeague is the highest level tier, and most important professional club basketball competition in Europe. Title holders * ......1958 Rīgas ASK * 195 ...

, Riga defeated the Soviet Union League club,

Dinamo Tbilisi Dinamo Tbilisi is a sports club from Tbilisi, Georgia. It was founded in 1925. Among its highest honors, is the European trophy earned by its football team which won the Cup Winners' Cup in 1981, beating FC Carl Zeiss Jena of East Germany 2–1 ...

, in both final games (51–61 & 62–69). Riga defeated Slovan Orbis Prague in the semifinals, and

AŠK Olimpija Košarkarski klub Olimpija ( en, Olimpija Basketball Club) was a men's professional basketball club based in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Olimpija has won 23 National League championships, including eight consecutive titles between 1992 and 1999. They ...

in the quarterfinals.

Competition system

21 teams. European national domestic league champions, plus the then current FIBA European Champions Cup title holders only, playing in a tournament system. The Finals were a two-game home and away aggregate.

First round

*Originally, the Champion of the Italian League was drawn to play against the Austrian champion, but the former was

Simmenthal Milano Pallacanestro Olimpia Milano, commonly known as Olimpia Milano or as EA7 Emporio Armani Milan after its title sponsor, is an LBA Italian professional basketball team, based in Milan, Italy. Its colors are white and red, and the team is sometimes ...

, who was banned in European competition. Since the Italian Federation refused to name another entrant in Champions Cup,

Union Babenberg The Austrian Basketball Bundesliga (in German: Österreichische Basketball Bundesliga) was the top men's professional basketball league in Austria.O ...

received a forfeit (2-0) in both games. **

Maccabi Tel Aviv Maccabi Tel Aviv ( he, מכבי תל אביב) is one of the largest sports clubs in Israel, and a part of the Maccabi association. Many sports clubs and teams in Tel Aviv are in association with Maccabi and compete in a variety of sports, such ...

withdrew before the competition due to internal problems and Fenerbahçe received a forfeit (2-0) in both games.

Second round

;Automatically qualified to the quarter finals: *

(title holder)

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Finals

1st leg: Vere Park,

Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of approximately 1.5 million p ...

, 10 May 1960Champions Cup 1959–60
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Vere Park during that Final
2nd leg: Daugava Stadion,

Rīga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Bal ...

, 15 May 1960;Attendance:17,000

Awards

FIBA European Champions Cup Finals Top Scorer

Jānis Krūmiņš Jānis Krūmiņš (30 January 1930 – 20 November 1994) was a Soviet Union, Soviet-Latvian people, Latvian professional basketball player. Helped by his height (about 220 cm, or 7'3"), he was the first giant Center (basketball), center th ...

(

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References

External links

1959–60 FIBA European Champions Cup

{{DEFAULTSORT:1959-60 FIBA European Champions Cup

FIBA The International Basketball Federation (FIBA ; French: ) is an association of national organizations which governs the sport of basketball worldwide. Originally known as the (hence FIBA), in 1989 it dropped the word ''amateur'' from its nam ...

EuroLeague seasons