Asociación Deportiva Atenas, known simply as Atenas or Atenas de Córdoba, is a sports club

Sports club

A sports club or sport club, sometimes athletics club or sports association is a club for the purpose of playing one or more sports...

 based in Córdoba

Córdoba, Argentina

Córdoba is a city located near the geographical center of Argentina, in the foothills of the Sierras Chicas on the Suquía River, about northwest of Buenos Aires. It is the capital of Córdoba Province. Córdoba is the second-largest city in Argentina after the federal capital Buenos Aires, with...

, Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

. It was founded in 1938 and is mostly known for its achievements in basketball

Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

. Their home arena is Polideportivo Carlos Cerutti

Polideportivo Carlos Cerutti

Polideportivo Municipal Carlos Cerutti is an indoor arena in Córdoba, Argentina. It is primarily used for basketball and is the home arena of the Asociación Deportiva Atenas. It holds 3,730 people....

, while some high attendance games are held at the Orfeo Superdomo

Orfeo Superdomo

The Orfeo Superdome is an indoor sports arena, located in Córdoba, Argentina. The seating capacity of the arena is 14,000 and is primarily used for basketball, volleyball and tennis.Its opening was on 6 September 2002, with a concert by rock band Divididos....

.

History

The club was founded on March 7, 1938 mainly by former members of the New Tennis Club. Sports practiced at the club include athletics

Athletics (track and field)

Athletics is an exclusive collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking. The most common types of athletics competitions are track and field, road running, cross country running, and race walking...

, chess

Chess

Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...

, biking, swimming

Swimming (sport)

Swimming is a sport governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation .-History: Competitive swimming in Europe began around 1800 BCE, mostly in the form of the freestyle. In 1873 Steve Bowyer introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native...

, gymnastics

Gymnastics

Gymnastics is a sport involving performance of exercises requiring physical strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, and balance. Internationally, all of the gymnastic sports are governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique with each country having its own national governing body...

, judo

Judo

is a modern martial art and combat sport created in Japan in 1882 by Jigoro Kano. Its most prominent feature is its competitive element, where the object is to either throw or takedown one's opponent to the ground, immobilize or otherwise subdue one's opponent with a grappling maneuver, or force an...

 and karate

Karate

is a martial art developed in the Ryukyu Islands in what is now Okinawa, Japan. It was developed from indigenous fighting methods called and Chinese kenpō. Karate is a striking art using punching, kicking, knee and elbow strikes, and open-handed techniques such as knife-hands. Grappling, locks,...

. However, Atenas is internationally recognised for its basketball

Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

 team.

Before the creation of the Liga Nacional de Básquet (first Argentine nation-wide professional league), Atenas was successful at the Cordobese

Córdoba Province (Argentina)

Córdoba is a province of Argentina, located in the center of the country. Neighboring provinces are : Santiago del Estero, Santa Fe, Buenos Aires, La Pampa, San Luis, La Rioja and Catamarca...

 local basketball league, winning the championship consecutively between 1948 and 1957 (exception made of 1953).

Since the creation of the Liga Nacional in 1984, Atenas has become the most successful team in the league, winning the championship 9 times: 1987, 1988, 1990, 1991–92, 1997–98, 1998–99, 2001–02, 2002–03 and 2008–09. Moreover, the Córdoba outfit has won the Liga Sudamericana

Liga Sudamericana

The Liga Sudamericana is the second most important South American basketball tournament at club level, the first being the FIBA Americas League. It is organized by the South American Basketball Confederation.The league usually includes domestic champions, and some runner-ups, from the leading...

 (South American League) in 1997, 1998 and 2004, and the former Campeonato Sudamericano de Clubes

Campeonato Sudamericano de Clubes

The Campeonato Sudamericano de Clubes is an international men's basketball cup competition organized by the South American Basketball Confederation and played annually by invitee South American clubs.-Format:...

 (South American Clubs Championship) in 1993, 1994, and 1996.

Many Argentine internationals

Argentina national basketball team

The Argentina national basketball team represents Argentina in basketball international competitions, and is controlled by the Argentine Basketball Federation....

 have played in Atenas, namely Fabricio Oberto

Fabricio Oberto

Fabricio Raúl Jesús Oberto is an Argentine professional basketball player. At and , he plays as a center. With Liga Nacional de Básquet in his native Argentina, Oberto began playing professionally in 1993 and later played overseas with teams in Spain and Greece...

, Walter Herrmann

Wálter Herrmann

Walter Herrmann Heinrich is an Argentine professional basketball player. He is listed at 6'9" and 225 lbs. He was a key member of the Argentinian national basketball team that won the gold medal during the 2004 Olympic Basketball Tournament...

, Marcelo Milanesio

Marcelo Milanesio

Marcelo Gustavo Milanesio is an Argentine former professional basketball player. One of the most important figures in Argentine basketball, he obtained 16 Argentine championships, and was twice named MVP. He was also the player with most assists in at the 1994 World Championship...

, Héctor Campana

Héctor Campana

Héctor Oscar "Pichi" Campana is an Argentine former basketball player and current vice-governor of his native Córdoba Province, for the Justicialist Party. At club level, Campana won 7 times the Liga Nacional de Básquet and 3 times the Liga Sudamericana...

, Patricio Prato

Patricio Prato

Patricio Prato is an Argentine basketballer. He stands 194 cm. His father Fernando was a player as well. Currently he plays for NGC Cantu. He played his college ball in the United States for St. Bonaventure University.-Clubs:*Atenas de Córdoba*Skipper Bologna*S.S. Felice Scandone*Solsonica...

, Gabriel Mikulas, Diego Lo Grippo, Fernando Prato, Bruno Lábaque, Leonardo Gutiérrez, Juan Manuel Locatelli, Diego Osella

Diego Osella

Diego Marcelo Osella is a retired basketball player. With the Argentine national team, he competed at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, finishing in ninth place in the overall-rankings...

, Carlos Cerutti

Carlos Cerutti

Carlos Alberto Cerutti was an Argentine basketball player. A center, Cerutti was three times Argentine league champion with Atenas . He was selected as the league's finals Most Valuable Player in 1988, and also participated in the all-star games of 1989 and 1990.Cerutti also represented the...

 and Juan Espil

Juan Espil

Juan Alberto Espil is a male basketball player from Argentina who plays as a shooting guard for Weber Bahía Estudiantes....

, among others.

Current roster

Retired Numbers

Atenas has retired three numbers in the LNB, being the first team which retired a jersey (in 2002, with Marcelo Milanesio's legendary #9).

Number	Name	Position	Years with the team	Note	Refs
5	Héctor Campana Héctor Campana Héctor Oscar "Pichi" Campana is an Argentine former basketball player and current vice-governor of his native Córdoba Province, for the Justicialist Party. At club level, Campana won 7 times the Liga Nacional de Básquet and 3 times the Liga Sudamericana...	Shooting guard Shooting guard The shooting guard , also known as the two or off guard, is one of five traditional positions on a basketball team. Players of the position are often shorter, leaner, and quicker than forwards. A shooting guard's main objective is to score points for his team...	1982-2002	Number retired in 2005
9	Marcelo Milanesio Marcelo Milanesio Marcelo Gustavo Milanesio is an Argentine former professional basketball player. One of the most important figures in Argentine basketball, he obtained 16 Argentine championships, and was twice named MVP. He was also the player with most assists in at the 1994 World Championship...	Point guard Point guard Point guard , also called the play maker or "the ball-handler", is one of the standard positions in a regulation basketball game. A point guard has perhaps the most specialized role of any position – essentially, he is expected to run the team's offense by controlling the ball and making sure that...	1987-88, 1991-92, 1996-2000, 2002-04	Number retired in 2002
11	Diego Osella Diego Osella Diego Marcelo Osella is a retired basketball player. With the Argentine national team, he competed at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, finishing in ninth place in the overall-rankings...	Center Center (basketball) The center, colloquially known as the five or the post, is one of the standard positions in a regulation basketball game. The center is normally the tallest player on the team, and often has a great deal of strength and body mass as well...	1988-92, 1993-2001, 2003-10	Number retired in 2011