Early years Founded on 24 August 1926, the club entered its first competition in 1927, playing in the
Campionat de Catalunya de Basquetbol (Catalan Basketball Championship). During these early years, basketball in Catalonia was dominated by clubs such as
CE Europa,
Laietà BC and
Société Patrie (later
CB Atlètic Gràcia) and it was not until the 1940s that FC Barcelona created a basketball team. During this decade they won six
Copas del Generalísimo de Baloncesto and were runners-up once. In 1956 they were founding members of the
Liga Española de Baloncesto and finished as runners-up. In 1959 they won Spanish basketball's first-ever league and cup double.
Decline in the 1960s The 1960s and 1970s saw the team in decline. In 1961 the club president Enric Llaudet dissolved the team in spite of its popularity. However, in 1962, the club was reformed after a campaign by the fans. In 1964 the league's
Primera División was cut from fourteen teams to eight and the club found themselves in the
Segunda División after not finishing between the two first qualified teams in the relegation playoffs. However they quickly returned to the top division after being crowned
Segunda champions in 1965. During the 1970s the club was persistently overshadowed by its rivals
Real Madrid and
Joventut.
Revival in the 1980s In the 1980s club president
Josep Lluís Núñez gave the team his full support with the aim of making the club the best in Spain and Europe. His support produced results and during the decade inspired by their coach
Aíto García Reneses and players like
Juan Antonio San Epifanio (better known as Epi),
Andrés Jiménez,
Sibilio,
Audie Norris and
Solozábal, the club won six
Spanish championships, five
Spanish cups, two
European Cup Winners' Cups, the
Korać Cup and the World Championship. However the
European Cup remained elusive, ending as runners-up in 1984. In the 1987–88 season Barça won the
Copa Príncipe,
Liga ACB,
Copa del Rey and the
Supercopa completing a
quadruple.
Champions of Europe The club built on this success during the 1990s, winning a further four
Spanish championships and two
Spanish cups. They were still unable to win the
European Cup despite playing in a further four finals in 1990, 1991, 1996 and 1997. They also made a record six
EuroLeague Final Four appearances. The star player during this era was Juan Antonio San Epifanio. Their persistence eventually paid off and in 2003, inspired by
Dejan Bodiroga,
Gregor Fučka,
Šarūnas Jasikevičius and
Juan Carlos Navarro, they won the
EuroLeague, beating
Benetton Treviso 76–65 in front of a packed
Palau Sant Jordi in
Barcelona. They repeated the feat in 2010, defeating
Olympiacos by a wide 86–68 in Paris, and that October, they made further history when they beat the two-time defending NBA champion
Los Angeles Lakers – including
Kobe Bryant and FCB Bàsquet alumnus and Barcelona native
Pau Gasol – 92–88 at the Palau Sant Jordi as part of the
2010 NBA Europe Live Tour. The match was also notable for being both a match-up between the reigning NBA and EuroLeague champions and the first time a European team had won against a defending NBA champion. Two FCB Bàsquet players in that game – captain
Navarro and point guard
Ricky Rubio – either had or went on to play in the NBA.
Recent years In the following years, Barcelona would stay on top of Spanish basketball, playing almost all league and cup finals against rival
Real Madrid. From 2012 until 2014, Barcelona managed to reach the
Euroleague Final Four. However, it could not reach further than the semifinals. Barcelona won the Spanish Championship in
2014, but the next few seasons became absolute disasters, both in the Euroleague, and the Spanish League. However, the team saw a return to form in the
Copa del Rey, which was won in
2018, in
2019 and in
2021 defeating Real Madrid on all three finals. In
2021 the Spanish Championship was won for the 19th time—the first in seven years—and only a narrow defeat against
Anadolu Efes in the championship game of the
2021 EuroLeague Final Four prevented the Catalan giants from winning the competition for the third time. On June 21, 2023, Barça defeated
Real Madrid 82–93 to win their
20th Spanish Championship. == Sponsorship naming ==