S.S. Felice Scandone was an Italian 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 (appro ...

club based in

Avellino Avellino () is a city and ''comune'', capital of the province of Avellino in the Campania region of southern Italy. It is situated in a plain surrounded by mountains east of Naples and is an important hub on the road from Salerno to Benevento. ...

Campania Campania is an administrative Regions of Italy, region of Italy located in Southern Italy; most of it is in the south-western portion of the Italian Peninsula (with the Tyrrhenian Sea to its west), but it also includes the small Phlegraean Islan ...

. Founded in 1948, the team has been a regular in the

Lega Basket Serie A The Lega Basket Serie A (LBA) is a professional men's club (sport), club basketball list of basketball leagues, league that has been organised in Italy since 1920. Serie A is organised by Lega Basket, which is regulated by the Italian Basketball ...

(LBA), the first tier of basketball in Italy, for 19 years (2000/01 to 2018/19). The club won the

Italian Cup Coppa Italia () is the annual domestic cup of Italian football. The knockout competition was organized by the DDS and the Lega Calcio until the 2009–10 season and by Lega Serie A ever since. Juventus is the competition's most successf ...

championship in 2008 and made several appearances in European club competitions, having played for 1 season in

EuroLeague The EuroLeague is a European men's professional basketball club competition. The league is widely recognised as the top-tier and the most prestigious men's basketball league in Europe. The league consists of 20 teams, of which 16 are given lon ...

( 2008/09), 3 seasons in FIBA Champions League (2016/17 to 2018/19) and reached

FIBA Europe Cup The FIBA Europe Cup (FEC) is an annual professional club basketball competition organised by FIBA for eligible European clubs. It is FIBA Europe's second level competition. Clubs mainly qualify based on their performance in national leagues an ...

final in season 2017/18. The club ceased its activities in 2021 due to

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the deb ...

History

The club was founded in 1948 as Felice Scandone Sports Society (S.S.), merging with Libertas Avellino two years later and CSI-Cestistica Irpina in 1968. After going between leagues from 1974 to 1995, the club settled in Serie B1. Two seasons later, coach Gianluca Tucci guided the team to the second division Serie A2. The turn of the millennium saw the side reach the first division

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

, placing ninth in 2001 at the end of their debut season. The next seasons were more complicated, with finishes of 14, 15, 16 and 12th place. When coach

Zare Markovski Zare Markovski (; born October 28, 1960, in Skopje) is a Macedonian former professional basketball player and head coach. Career Zare Markovski as player played in KK Rabotnički and MZT Skopje. His career as a player was short. At the age of 23 ...

, who had been coaching the side since 2002, left in 2005, the club ended the season in 17th place and should have been relegated if not for promoted Roseto's inability to play in the Serie A.

Matteo Boniciolli Matteo Boniciolli (born 18 April 1962) is an Italian basketball coach of Scafati Basket in the Italian Lega Basket Serie A (LBA). He has been a head coach since 1999, guiding several clubs in Italy and abroad to titles, also having taken charge ...

took over coaching duties following that season and kept Avellino away from the relegation places. The 2007–08 season saw Boniciolli lead Avellino to their best ever league finish of tied second-best with a 23–11 record and a league MVP title for Marques Green, their playoffs run was cut short in the semifinals by

Lottomatica Roma Virtus Roma 1960, commonly known as Virtus Roma, is an Italian professional basketball club based in Rome, Lazio. The club, named Pallacanestro Virtus Roma competed in the first division of Italian basketball, the LBA, for decades until 2020, whe ...

(the side who had finished joint second) after they had swept Capo d'Orlando in the quarterfinals. Even better for the side, players such as Green, Devin Smith and

Eric Williams Eric Eustace Williams (25 September 1911 – 29 March 1981) was a Trinidad and Tobago politician. He has been dubbed as the " Father of the Nation", having led the then-British Colony of Trinidad and Tobago to majority rule on 28 October 1956, ...

led Air Avellino to its first ever title ever, the 2008

, in its first participation in the competition, after beating La Fortezza Bologna 73–67 in the final with 18 points from the game MVP Smith. The 2008–09 season saw Avellino make their European debut, in the elite

. The team had a difficult period between 2011 and 2015, missing the playoffs in multiple occasions and changing the head coach almost every season. In 2016, the team led by coach Pino Sacripanti had a run of 20 victories in 26 games and reached the

final, losing to

Olimpia 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 ...

. Avellino finished the regular season in 3rd place, and eliminated Giorgio Tesi Group Pistoia 3–0, reaching the league semifinals against

Pallacanestro Reggiana Pallacanestro Reggiana, also simply known as Reggiana or Reggio Emilia, currently known for sponsorship reasons as Unahotels Reggio Emilia, is an Italian professional basketball team based in Reggio Emilia, Emilia-Romagna. It plays in the LBA as ...

, where the Hirpinian team lost the series in game 7 (4–3 overall), despite winning Game 4 by a 43-point margin. In the 2017–18 season, Scandone played its first European

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

, in the

. In an all-Italian final it lost to

Reyer Venezia S.S.P. Reyer Venezia Mestre, commonly known as Reyer Venezia or simply Reyer, is an Italian professional basketball club that is based in Venice, Veneto. The club currently plays in the Lega Basket Serie A (LBA), the highest tier of basketball i ...

. In July 2019, the LBA announced Scandone was not able to apply for a league license. The team joined the

Serie B Basket Serie B Basket is the third-tier men's basketball league in Italy. Format Teams are divided into four groups by geographical contiguity. Promoted teams gain access to the second-tier Serie A2 Basket, while relegated teams get demoted to play ...

, the national third level. In July 2021 the club was declared bankrupt and ceased its sporting activities. An unrelated club named Del Fes Avellino was named in the same year. Club logos and sporting legacies were at disposal of the bankruptcy trustee before getting acquired by a brand new legal entity in 2023, under the name of S.S. Felice Scandone Avellino 1948.

Honours

Domestic competitions

**Winners (1): 2008 ***Runner-up (1):

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

* Italian Supercup **Runner-up (2): 2008,

European competitions

**Runner-up: 2017–18

Players

Notable players

* Gianluca Festa 2 seasons: '99-'00, '00–'01 * Alex Righetti 1 season: '07–'08 * Adam Hanga 1 seasons: '14–'15 * Ante Grgurević 1 season: '02–'03 * Arijan Komazec 1 season: '03–'04 * Spencer Dunkley 2 seasons: '98–'99, '00–'01 * Dan Callahan 1 season: '00–'01 *

Todor Gečevski Todor Gečevski (; born 28 August 1977) is a Macedonian former professional basketball player. Standing at a height of , he played at the center and power forward positions. Professional career While playing with KK Zadar, Gečevski was named t ...

1 season: '02–'03 * Sérgio Ramos 1 season: '00–'01 * / Moon Tae-Jong 1 season: '01–'02 * Dusan Jelic Koutsopoulos 1 season: '02–'03 * Ignacio "Nacho" Rodilla 1 season: '04–'05 * Walter Bond 1 season: '97–'98 * Brandon Brown 1 season: '05–'06 * Dee Brown 1 season: '09–'10 *

Steve Burtt Sr. Steven Dwayne Burtt (born November 5, 1962) is an American former professional basketball player. The 6'2" point guard played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) sporadically from 1984 until 1993. He also had an established playing caree ...

1 season: '98–'99 * Junior Cadougan 1 season: '14–'15 * Jason Capel 1 season: '06–'07 * Geno Carlisle 1 season: '01–'02 * James Collins 1 season: '02–'03 * Ramel Curry 1 season: '06–'07 * Terry Dozier 1 season: '97–'98 * Nate Erdmann 1 season: '00–'01 * Tellis Frank 1 season: '98–'99 *

Tyrone Grant Tyrone Jeremy Grant (born January 24, 1977) is an American former professional basketball player and now CEO of Team First Inc as well as Wave Holistic Health. At a height of 2.02 m (6'7 ") tall, he played at the small forward and Power forward (b ...

1 season: '01–'02 * Marques Green 1 season: '07–'08 *

Nate Green Nate Green (born December 2, 1977) is a current NBA referee and retired American basketball player who played professionally in the Australian National Basketball League (Australasia), National Basketball League, the NBA Development League and It ...

2 seasons: '03–'05 * Harold Jamison 2 seasons: '03–'04, '06–'07 * Sydney Johnson 2 seasons: '00–'02 * Herbert Jones 1 season: '99–'00 * Cuonzo Martin 1 season: '97–'98 * James Nunnally 1 season: '15–'16 * Jamal Robinson 1 season: '01–'02 * Devin Smith 1 season: '07–'08 * Adonis Thomas * David Vanterpool 1 season: '02–'03 * Damon Williams 1 season: '04–'05 * David Young 1 season: '05–'06

Sponsorship names

Throughout the years, due to sponsorship, the club has been known as: *Pasta Baronia Avellino: (1996–1997) *Cirio Avellino: (1997–1998) *Select Avellino: (1998–1999) *Nicoloro Avellino: (1999) *De Vizia Avellino: (1999–2002) *Air Avellino: (2002–2011) *Sidigas Avellino: (2011–2019)

References

External links

Official Website

Serie A profile
Retrieved 23 August 2015 {{DEFAULTSORT:Felice Scandone 1948 establishments in Italy Avellino Basketball teams established in 1948 Basketball teams in Campania