Trisha Shetty (Editor)

Liga Națională (men's basketball)

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Sport
  
Basketball

No. of teams
  
13

Continent
  
FIBA Europe

Number of teams
  
13

TV partners
  
Digi TV, TVR

CEO
  
Horia Păun

Country
  
Romania

Most recent champion(s)
  
CSM Oradea

Date founded
  
1932

Liga Națională (men's basketball) wwwtotalbaschetroPictures201292315435623

Teams
  
CS Universitatea Cluj‑Napoca, CSU Sibiu, BC Mureș, SCM U Craiova, CS Phoenix Galați

The Liga Națională is the top-tier professional basketball league of Romania. There are 13 teams in men's Liga Națională.

Contents

The regular season begins in October and is played over a normal round-robin home-and-away basis. The first eight clubs qualify for the play-offs. The play-offs are played using the knock-out format. The quarter-finals, semifinals and finals use "best of five" series since 2014. The last two teams following the regular season are automatically relegated to the Division B.

History

The championship was founded in 1932. The most successful club is Dinamo Bucureşti with 22 titles, followed closely by Steaua Bucureşti with 21. But in recent years Asesoft Ploieşti is the best team in the country, winning the championship seven times in a row from 2004–10 and again in 2012–2014. Asesoft is the only Romanian team who won a European competition, namely the FIBA EuroCup Challenge, in 2005.

Notable Liga Națională players

Romanian basketball had a bright past with three of its former players being inducted in the European Basketball Hall of Fame, as a recognition for their careers. They are:

  • Gheorghe Mureșan – Signed in 1993 with the Washington Bullets, becoming the tallest player ever in the NBA. Played six successful seasons with the Bullets and the New Jersey Nets, averaging a career 9.8 points, 6.4 rebounds and 0.5 assists. Named NBA Most Improved Player following the 1995–96 NBA season. Began his career playing two years for Universitatea Cluj-Napoca.
  • Antonio Alexe – Played all his career in the Romanian and Hungarian basketball leagues. Became Romanian champion three times, twice with Asesoft Ploiești and once with West Petrom Arad, before dying in a tragic car accident, in 2005.
  • Constantin Popa – After debuting in Divizia A for BC Dinamo Bucureşti, went overseas to play for the University of Miami in NCAA Division I, becoming the tallest player ever in the history of the school. Drafted by the Los Angeles Clippers in the 1995 NBA Draft, he never played in the NBA, but had a successful career in the CBA, before returning to Europe.
  • Cătălin Burlacu – Played in the Italian, Estonian and German basketball leagues, but he also played in Romania at West Petrom Arad and Asesoft Ploiești.With Asesoft Ploiești he has won the championship from 2004 to 2006 and from 2008 to 2014 excluding the 2011 season.
  • Levente Szijarto – Played all his career in the Romanian basketball league at West Petrom Arad, U Mobitelco Cluj and Asesoft Ploiești.With Asesoft Ploiești he has won the championship between 2003 and 2014 except the 2011 season in which U Mobitelco Cluj won the title.

    • References

    Liga Națională (men's basketball) Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA