Pacific Caesar

Pacific Caesar Surabaya is a professional basketball team based in Surabaya, Indonesia. The club is one of the oldest basketball club in the country. For most of their existence, the club was an amateur basketball club until they joined KOBATAMA in 1992 until 2000. They joined the NBL Indonesia (currently IBL Indonesia) in 2011–12 season. Ever since then, they competed in the highest level of Indonesian basketball, IBL.

History

Founding

Pacific Caesar Surabaya is one of the oldest basketball clubs in Indonesia. After stumbling through the Indonesian professional basketball league, they are now one of the most promising clubs. The existence of Pacific Caesar as a basketball club is also not in doubt, because they have been more than half a century. Club Pacific was founded in 1968. To be precise, on May 8, 1968, as an amateur club. Pacific was founded by Bambang Susanto since he was 17 years old, and continues to manage this club until now. Pak Bambang's dream of establishing Pacific was actually simple. He wanted to set up a basketball school for young people, and now Pacific was complete as a club. Have a professional team, coaching that go hand in hand, and a sports hall as the main supporting facilities.

KOBATAMA/PBL era

Pacific's journey in professional basketball competition began in 1992 at the Main Basketball Competition ( Kobatama). Apart from Pacific, there were teams from East Java, namely Golden Hand and Halim Kediri. After running for a long time, Pacific declared retirement from the league for a decade (2000–2010).

They had tried their luck in the Premier Basketball League (PBL). In the 2010-2011 PBL season, Pacific was the runner-up. Pacific finally returned to the highest caste of Indonesian basketball.

NBL/IBL era

Pacific began to appear again on the national basketball scene to be precise at the 2011–2012 NBL Indonesia. But during its four years of participation, Pacific always failed to get positive results. Pacific always inhabits the bottom of the standings in the regular season. Various ways have been done by Pacific to improve performance, such as changing coaches. Pacific was once polished by a coach from the Philippines, Arturo Lozada Cristobal.

Then in the following season (2012-2013) they were led by Eddy Santoso. The two coaches took turns handling Pacific in the next two seasons. However, the last one who coached Pacific at NBL Indonesia 2014-2015 was Arturo Lozada Cristobal. At IBL 2016, Pacific Caesar appeared with a new face. Coach Bai (Arturo Lozada Cristobal) is no longer head coach. Pacific is handled by Bambang Susanto himself, who is also the owner of the club. Suk Fuk - his nickname - was accompanied by an assistant coach, the late Hari Suharsono. The results are the same, Pacific has yet to get maximum results. Because they appear with new faces of young players.

Pacific's performance improved sharply during the 2017 IBL era. They benefited from a league policy that included two foreign players. Pacific management is very careful in choosing players. They got a guard from the United States, David Seagers, and forward from Canada, Kevin Loiselle. Their presence succeeded in bringing Pacific to the top, as well as for the first time Pacific was able to appear in the playoffs. Bish as a coach was also nominated for the IBL 2016 Coach of The Year. Unfortunately they failed to continue their steps after losing two games in the playoffs from Aspac Jakarta.

Pacific has shown brilliant achievements in two consecutive seasons thereafter. They entered the playoffs at the 2017-2018 IBL, and even reached the semifinals at the 2018-2019 IBL. Pacific is no longer a team that is the butt in the league. They are now transformed into one of the great strengths of Indonesian basketball. One might look at Pacific's accomplishments in recent years. But the truth is that Pacific is a great team, with a long history and proud achievements.

In January 2020, Pacific launched a new logo to mark a new decade of Pacific's participation in the IBL and to signify its new ambition to be a mainstay in the IBL's title race.

For the 2023 IBL season, Pacific announced a partnership alongside a club from Medan, Methodist 2 Hawks on September 19, 2023. With this partnership, the club changed its name for the season to Elang Pacific Caesar Surabaya.

NBL/IBL record

Roster

Pacific Caesar Legend's

* Ateng Sugianto
* Dian Heryadi
* Willy Winoto

Awards

Defensive Player of The Year

# Indra Muhammad (2020)

Rookie of the Year

# Aven Ryan Pratama (2023)

Notable players

:To appear in this section a player must have either:
- Set a club record or won an individual award as a professional player.

- Played at least one official international match for his senior national team or one NBA game at any time.
* Dian Heryadi
* Indra Muhamad
* Muhammad Nur Aziz Wardana
* Nick Wiggins
* Kevin Loiselle
* Kamani Johnson
* Keljin Blevins

References

External links

Team's profile
on IBL website
{{NBL – Indonesia

Basketball teams in Indonesia
Sport in Surabaya
Basketball teams established in 1968
1968 establishments in Indonesia