DKV Joventut Badalona 2008-09, team profile
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 Another team backed by great tradition, DKV Joventut of Badalona, Spain, returns to the Euroleague for the 2008-09 season with the promise of dynamic basketball joined with a recharged record of recent successes. Joventut qualified as ULEB Cup champion for last season, the latest in a string of accolades that fill its trophy case. The winning ways in Badalona go back far. Joventut was founded in 1930 and quickly made a reputation based on its faith in homegrown players. A long list of the Joventut players brought up through its youth system features decades' worth of stars like Jordi Villacampa, the Margall brothers, the Jofresa brothers, Nino Buscato, Rudy Fernandez and Ricky Rubio. To its own mine of local talent, Joventut integrated outsiders like like Moka Slavnic, Joe Galvin and Corny Thompson. Joventut emerged as a national power by winning four Spanish Cup titles between 1948 and 1958 and its first league title in 1967, with Buscato as the star. It was not until Slavnic arrived in Badalona that the team would claim its second league title in 1978. Joventut continued to progress, winning its first European tropy by lifting the Korac Cup in 1981. Joventut would add a second Korac Cup title in 1990, sweeping the two-way finals against Scavolini. Soon after moving to Palau Olimpic, its current home court, Joventut won consecutive Spanish League titles in 1991 and 1992, the year in which the team lost the Euroleague final against Partizan in dramatic fashion. Joventut would only wait two more years to lift the crown, however. Villacampa and Thompson hit crucial three-pointers to beat Olympiacos 59-57 and win the Euroleague title in come-from-behind fashion. Joventut went on to add a Spanish King's Cup title in 1997 but a downturn followed.
2007-08 RESULTS | ULEB Cup | R. Season | 9-1 | Elimination | 4-0 | Final Eight | Champion |
| Spanish League | R. Season | 25-9 | Playoffs | Semis | Cup | Champion |
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Joventut started to shine again in the newborn ULEB Cup, reaching the semifinals in 2003. Joventut had its breakout season in 2006, as it advanced to the Spanish League semifinals for the first time since 1997 and won a new European trophy, the 2006 FIBA EuroCup. In 2007, Joventut returned to the Spanish League semifinals and made the Euroleague Top 16, thrilling the entire continent with its fun-to-watch basketball in its first appearance in the top competition in more than a decade. Last season, Joventut added the ULEB Cup crown to its roll of honors, losing just one game in the entire season. Joventut beat Pamesa Valencia and Galatasaray Cafe Crown in the Final Eight before clinching the title with a massive 54-79 win against Akasvayu Girona in the final as Fernandez was named MVP. Joventut also won the Spanish King's Cup and reached the Spanish League semifinals to round one of the best seasons in club history. The future looks brighter than ever for Joventut, a giant that has managed to get back to its glory days.
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Euroleague.net
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