style="font-size: larger;"|Oliveirense Basquetebol

Club Name	União Desportiva Oliveirense
Image
Arena	Pavilhão Dr. Salvador Machado, Oliveira de Azemeis Oliveira de Azeméis Oliveira de Azeméis Municipality is located in Oporto Metropolitan Area in Portugal. It has a total area of 163.5 km² and a total population of about 70,000 inhabitants. The city itself has a population of more than 15,000. Oliveira de Azeméis is part of Oporto Metropolitan Area and it is located...   Portugal Portugal Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the... .
Manager	Ricardo Guimarães
League	CNB2
Position 2008-09	7th
Website	www.oliveirensebasquetebol.com

Oliveirense Basquetebol is an amateur 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 based in Oliveira de Azemeis

Oliveira de Azeméis

Oliveira de Azeméis Municipality is located in Oporto Metropolitan Area in Portugal. It has a total area of 163.5 km² and a total population of about 70,000 inhabitants. The city itself has a population of more than 15,000. Oliveira de Azeméis is part of Oporto Metropolitan Area and it is located...

, Portugal

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

. It plays in CNB2, but formerly played in the Portuguese LCB where it won the Portuguese Cup, the Portuguese Supercup and the League Cup twice, before disbanding due to claimed financial distress

Financial distress

Financial distress is a term in Corporate Finance used to indicate a condition when promises to creditors of a company are broken or honored with difficulty. Sometimes financial distress can lead to bankruptcy...

 by the president of União Desportiva Oliveirense, Eduardo Costa.

History

Since its beginning, Oliveirense Basquetebol was a powerhouse in the Portuguese basketball field. In its year of creation, due to the disbanding of the ARCA (Associação Recreativa e Cultural de Azeméis), Oliveirense won the 3rd Division Title, rising to a more competitive 2nd Division.

However, the 2nd Division crumbled to the power of the Oliveirense players, who claimed their second National Title in two years. The rugged battle between the Oliveirense Basquetebol and the main powerhouses of Portuguese basketball was now underway, as the team faced big names, such as SL Benfica

SL Benfica

Sport Lisboa e Benfica , commonly known as simply Benfica or occasionally as Benfica Lisbon, is a Portuguese multi-sports club based in Lisbon. Although they successfully compete in a number of different sports, Benfica is mostly known for its association football team...

 and FC Porto.

Once again, surprises were installed. With a brand new team and a new coach, Oliveirense did not do so well in its first season in the Portuguese LCB, however they were able to maintain their position and would later become, probably, the most powerful squad in Portuguese basketball history.

Years later, with the signing of Henrique Vieira as a coach, the 3-point expert Brian Crabtree as player, Oliveirense was the most dominant team in Portuguese basketball. During their Golden Years, Oliveirense won many of their palmares. They are, probably, the only team to have won all the National Titles except the Portuguese Championship. Their heated rivalry with Portugal Telecom

Portugal Telecom

Portugal Telecom is the largest telecommunications service provider in Portugal. Although it operates mainly in Portugal and Brazil, it has also a significant presence in Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Timor-Leste, Angola, Kenya, the People's Republic of China, and São Tomé and...

, who made a three-peat

Three-peat

Three-peat is a contraction of the words three and repeat, which has been trademarked for commercial use by retired basketball coach Pat Riley; the active trademarks in force are registered under numbers 1552980, 1878690, and 1886018...

 always beating Oliveirense, had names such as Luís Magalhães

Luís Magalhães

Luís Magalhães is a Portuguese basketball coach and the head coach of the Angola national basketball team. He succeeded fellow Portugal native Alberto Carvalho in 2009, and coached Angola at the FIBA Africa Championship 2009, where the team won its seventh consecutive African championship.Prior to...

 and the center Jean-Jacques

Jean-Jacques

Jean-Jacques is a French given name.Notable people bearing the name include:* Jean-Jacques Bertrand , the Premier of Quebec, Canada* Jean-Jacques Challet-Venel, a member of the Swiss Federal Council...

, which there were claims that referees where too scared to call a foul on Jean-Jacques, due to him being a physical specimen.

Finally, Oliveirense was able to defeat Portugal Telecom for the Portuguese Basketball SuperCup

Portuguese Basketball SuperCup

The Portuguese Basketball SuperCup is a men’s professional basketball competition in Portugal, which is also called and it is played by the Champion of the LCB and the wiiner of the Portuguese Cup....

. Oliveirense represented the Portugueses Basketball National Cup, which they won the season before and Portugal Telecom, of course, represented the LCB Champion.

With three years in the Championship Finals, they were defeated all three times by the squad of Portugal Telecom

Portugal Telecom

Portugal Telecom is the largest telecommunications service provider in Portugal. Although it operates mainly in Portugal and Brazil, it has also a significant presence in Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Timor-Leste, Angola, Kenya, the People's Republic of China, and São Tomé and...

. At the end of the last season championship win, Portugal Telecom disbanded through the will of the main shareholder, Portugal Telecom Comunicações.

With a, now, clear path to the championship, Oliveirense would once again fail to grab the Portuguese Championship, being eliminated in the second round of the playoffs. This was taken by fans as an enormous disappointment as the Oliveirense squad had the biggest names in the Portuguese LCB, such as veteran Carlos Seixas

Carlos Seixas

José António Carlos de Seixas, , was a Portuguese composer, the son of the cathedral organist, Francisco Vaz and Marcelina Nunes.Seixas was born in Coimbra...

, former NBA player Trevor Huffman, former Portugal Telecom player Doug Mouse and rising stars Carlos Abreu and Gregory Stempin.

Oliveirense would win a heated game against Ovarense Aerosoles for their last title as a professional team. They won the League Cup 83-77 against Ovarense Aerosoles and at the end of the amazing season, disaster struck the Basketball section.

Due to the financial distress of União Desportiva Oliveirense, Eduardo Costa, president of the club, disbanded the basketball section, the main profit winner of the franchise. Due to public disagreement and pressure by the most important basketball fans in Oliveirense, the youth teams were maintained.

Not being heard of one season, Oliveirense Basquetebol returned to the CNB2, the lowest division of Portuguese basketball. With former players form the youth teams, Oliveirense reached the 9th position in their first season and the 7th in their second season.

Current Squad 2008-09

#	Name	Age	Last Club
4		Rodrigo Carvalho	26	Inactive
5		Rómulo Costa	28	Inactive
6		Vitor Martins	27	Associação Desportiva Sanjoanense
7		Ricardo Magalhães	28	Sport Clube Conimbricense
8		Daniel Gonçalves	23	Inactive
9		Nuno Freitas	27	Inactive
10		Ronaldo Júnior	19	Oliveirense (Juniores)
11		Rui França	19	Oliveirense (Juniores)
12		Igor Soares	23	Inactive
13		Pedro Leite	28	Inactive
14		Fernando Costa	19	Oliveirense (Juniores)
15		Tiago Marques	19	Oliveirense (Juniores)
		Manuel Rodrigues	25	Inactivo
		Tiago Sá Silva	20	Oliveirense (Juniores)
		Diogo Brandão	19	Oliveirense (Juniores)
		José Luís Ribeiro	21	Oliveirense (Juniores)
Coach		Ricardo Guimarães	28	Coach of Oliveirense Cadetes
Physician		José França	43	Physician of Oliveirense since 1998