Antibes Sharks
| Antibes Sharks | |||
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| Leagues | LNB Pro A | ||
| Founded | 1933 | ||
| History |
Olympique Antibes (1933–2012) Antibes Sharks (2012–present) |
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| Arena | Azur Arena Antibes | ||
| Capacity | 5,249 | ||
| Location | Antibes, France | ||
| Team colors | Navy, Gold, Azure, White |
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| Championships | 3 French Championships | ||
| Website | sharks-antibes.com | ||
| Uniforms | |||
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Olympique Antibes Juan-les-Pins Côte d'Azur, or OAJLP, or Antibes Sharks, is a basketball club from the city of Antibes, France. The club's men's senior team currently plays in LNB Pro A, the French first division.
The basketball team rose to prominence in the years 1950–60. In 1970, the team won the championship of France thanks to players of exception like Jean-Claude Bonato, Dan Rodriguez and Jacques Cachemire.
At the beginning of the Eighties, Antibes suffered several disappointing seasons, but improved throughout the decade, and eventually won the LNB Pro A title in 1991. At the beginning of the Nineties, Antibes regularly contended for titles alongside Limoges and Pau-Orthez.
In 1995, the club won a third national title before being plagued by financial problems. In 2002, in spite of finishing in a position that would have kept them safe from relegation, the club was dropped to LNB Pro B for lack of financial guarantees. Antibes then went through difficult years in Pro B. Then, in 2006–07, the club were relegated from Pro B to the nominally amateur Nationale 1. Although their 16th-place finish that season would normally have kept them safe from relegation, that season saw three teams relegated instead of the normal two because of a decision to reduce the number of teams in the top Pro A league. They would return to the professional ranks at the first opportunity, winning the Pro B crown in 2008.
For the 2013 season, Antibes has new ambitions in a Pro B league where the other favourites are clubs like Pau-Orthez, Hyères Toulon, two teams coming from Pro A, and Bourg-en-Bresse. They end up in fifth place at the end of the regular season and win the play-offs against Champagne Châlons Reims, synonym with a spot in the Pro A championship from next season. Yet in the following year, they finish bottom of the league with 6 wins and 24 defeats, and returned once more to the Pro B.
During the 2014-2015 season, they finish 6th of the regular season, and win also the Leaders Cup, a victory that, as a matter of fact, guaranteed them a playoff spot. They win the playoffs against Denain after having defeated Nantes and Le portel on their way to the final. Just one year after leaving the Pro A championship they earned the right to go back to the elite tier.
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Wikipedia