Albania National Basketball Team - History

History

Basketball started spreading in Albania in the 20s, after the First World War with the creation of the first multi-sports societies. One of the oldest clubs that has paractised basketball is SK Tirana. No professional championships would start until the end of the Second World War. The first National Basketball Committee was created in September 1945 which would be responsible for the basketball problems in Albania. This opened the way for the Albanian Basketball Association ( originally Federata Shqiptare e Basketbollit ) to be formed a year later in 1946. In 1947 the Albanian Basketball Association became memebr of FIBA. The first basketball championship started in 1946 while just a year later started the women basketball championship with the participation of eight clubs from all over Albania. In 1951 the Albanian Basketball Federation started a new tournament that would be open to all professional and amateur basketball clubs in the country, the Republic's Cup. In 1952 was started also the Women's Republic Cup and the youths Republic's Cup. Another more massive basketball tournament was included in the National Spartakiada from 1959 to 1989. Basketball has greatly developed in Albania and is now the second favourite sport of every Albanian. In 1999 the Albanian Basketball Association decided to start another tournament, the Basketball Super-Cup.

Read more about this topic:  Albania National Basketball Team

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    Regarding History as the slaughter-bench at which the happiness of peoples, the wisdom of States, and the virtue of individuals have been victimized—the question involuntarily arises—to what principle, to what final aim these enormous sacrifices have been offered.
    Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)

    We have need of history in its entirety, not to fall back into it, but to see if we can escape from it.
    José Ortega Y Gasset (1883–1955)

    No event in American history is more misunderstood than the Vietnam War. It was misreported then, and it is misremembered now.
    Richard M. Nixon (b. 1913)