Paris Basketball is a French professional basketball club based in Paris. The club currently plays in the LNB Pro A, the first division of basketball in France, and the EuroLeague since 2024–25.
Founded in 2018, Paris plays its home games at the Adidas Arena. Three years after its establishment, Paris promoted to the first-level LNB Pro A for the first time, in 2021. In 2024, the team won the LNB Pro A Leaders Cup and the 2023–24 EuroCup titles.
The club started as a project to bring a big basketball club to the city of Paris, led by David Kahn, former director of the Minnesota Timberwolves of the National Basketball Association (NBA). In July 2018, the creation of the professional club was announced.[1] At the revealing, the ambitions were to be a team in the EuroLeague, the highest-level European league, by 2022. The future home arena of the team would be an arena in Quartier de La Chapelle, that was constructed for the 2024 Olympics. The team immediately entered the LNB Pro B, the national second-tier league, as the club bought the licence of HTV Basket.[2] The club would play its home games in the Halle Georges Carpentier, waiting for the construction of the Paris Arena II.
The team began in the Pro B under head coach Jean-Cristophe "JC" Prat, who developed an effective style of play, which showcased young players such as Ismaël Kamagate, Juhann Begarin and Dustin Sleva.[3]
In the 2020–21 season, Paris finished in the second place in the LNB Pro B championship and thus were promoted to the LNB Pro A for the first time in club history.[4] During that season, rapper Sheck Wes also played for the team for three games while coming off the bench for Paris.
In July 2022, Paris signed Will Weaver as the team's new head coach.[5] Paris Basketball was selected to play in the 2022–23 season of the EuroCup, its debut in European competition.[6]
In June 2023, Paris signed Finnish head coach Tuomas Iisalo, who led Bonn to a maiden Basketball Champions League title in the previous year.[7] On 18 February 2024, Paris won their first trophy in team history, as they won the 2024 LNB Pro A Leaders Cup title, by defeating Nanterre 90–85 in the final, with a 26-point performance of the MVP T. J. Shorts.[8] In the Pro A, they set a French basketball record with 25 consecutive wins,[9] and finished second after losing to Monaco in the league finals. Paris won the 2023–24 EuroCup, after 2–0 in finals against JL Bourg, another French team.[10] Following their championship, Paris Basketball earned their promotion to the 2024–25 season of the EuroLeague.[9] Starting from that season, Paris Basketball will also launch its women's team.[11]
After their most EuroCup-winning season, coach Iisalo left the team to sign for the Memphis Grizzlies of the National Basketball Association (NBA).[12] In June 2024, Tiago Splitter was signed as his replacement, which was Splitter's first head coaching job.[13]
Note: Flags indicate national team eligibility at FIBA-sanctioned events. Players may hold other non-FIBA nationalities not displayed.
Note: Flags indicate national team eligibility at FIBA-sanctioned events. Players may hold other non-FIBA nationalities not displayed.
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Chris Goulding
Amar Gegić
Juhann Bégarin Nobel Boungou Colo Sylvain Francisco Ismaël Kamagate Victor Samnick Amara Sy Axel Toupane Daniel Dillon.svg/1280px-Flag_of_Canada_(Pantone).svg.png){kind=small}
Kris Joseph Jevohn Shepherd
Evans Ganapamo
Marquez Haynes
Karim Ezzedine
Ben Uzoh
Alfonso Plummer
Sheck Wes
Michael Roll
Kyle Allman Jeremy Evans Kyle O'Quinn Aamir Simms Dustin Sleva Tyrone Wallace
Mikael Jantunen