“The Southern Star will continue to shine“. So the president Nando Marino concludes the message to the fans Happy Casa Brindisi after relegation to Serie A2 after 12 years of LBA. Today, 28 April 2024, New Basket Brindisi bids farewell to the top flight, closing a historic and unforgettable cycle of twelve consecutive seasons in Serie A, an indelible sign of a historic era for Apulian basketball.
Never in the history of professional sport of any discipline had a team from Puglia managed to play twelve consecutive seasons in their top league. From the season of the return to Serie A in 2012/13 to the current 2023/24 season, an absolute record has been established which belongs to New Basket Brindisi with 398 games played in official Legabasket competitions (regular season, Italian Cup, Super Cup and playoffs championship).
A twelve-year journey dotted with great results and emotions, as the club recalls:
5 participations in the Scudetto Play Offs (one Semi-final); 8 participations in the Final Eight of the Italian Cup (two Finals); 3 participations in the Italian Super Cup; 7 participations in the European Cups (1 Eurochallenge – 1 Eurocup – 3 Basketball Champions League – 2 Europe Cup).
The words of President Fernando Marino
“Today is a very sad day for our society and for the city of Brindisi; we tried in every way and the boys on the pitch in these last few games gave everything with great pride and dignity. It is a huge disappointment to have to give up Serie A after twelve sporting seasons experienced as great protagonists, coming close to winning the Italian Cup on two occasions, excelling in the championship against the great powers of Italian basketball and hitting the parquet of prestigious European arenas. On the saddest day of these years, I particularly want to thank our commendable fans, my incomparable traveling companions, the Brindisi Vola a Canestro association and the many Sponsors who supported us especially in the most difficult moments, all together becoming a fundamental part of the blue-white family. In particular I want to thank Adriano Cassano and the whole Happy Casa Store family; they believed in us in the most difficult moment, together we made history. I also want to thank all the coaches, athletes, managers and collaborators who have honored our colors in recent years by making us experience an unforgettable journey. It will take time to get over the disappointment, but we want to immediately gather all the strength and energy to start again and return to where we belong. We have done it in the past, we will do it this time too. The Southern Star will continue to shine.”
