Club Cantera Base 1939 Canarias S.A.D.,[1] commonly known as CB Canarias and known as La Laguna Tenerife for sponsorship reasons, is a professional basketball team that is based in La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain. Domestically, the team plays in the top-level league in Spain, the Liga ACB and in European-wide competitions, the team plays in FIBA's Champions League (BCL). Their home arena is the Santiago Martín.
Canarias became a prominent club on the domestic scene during the 2010s, after securing promotion to the Liga ACB in 2014. Under the FIBA system, Canarias won two BCL championships (in 2017 and 2023) as well as three Intercontinental Cups (2017, 2020, 2023).
History
The team was founded in 1994, after the old CB Canarias club, that huge financial problems at that time, merged with other teams of the Spanish island of Tenerife, to create the new Tenerife Canarias club, which only played two seasons in the Liga EBA competition, at the time when that league was the second tier level of Spanish club basketball.
People who were in disagreement with that merger then created the new CB 1939 Canarias club, which inherited the colors and the logo of the club. In 2012, Iberostar Canarias was promoted to Spain's top-tier level Liga ACB competition, after the team won the championship of the LEB Oro. However, the club couldn't actually promote, due to the club's inability to fulfill the requirements needed to join the league that are requested by the league's organizer, the ACB.[2] One month later, on 20 July 2012, CB 1939 Canarias finally achieved the league promotion, after Lucentum Alicante's vacated place in the league was granted to CB 1939 Canarias.[3]
Alejandro Martínez, became the team's head coach in 2003, and he managed to lead the team to multiple league promotions, going up from the LEB Plata (Spanish third tier), to the top-tier level Liga ACB. He resigned from the team's head coaching position in 2015.[4]
In the 2016–17 season, Canarias returned to the European scene after 28 years. On 29 March 2017, Canarias qualified for the 2017 Final Four of FIBA's Basketball Champions League (BCL), which happened 36 years after the club's first league promotion up to Spain's previous top-level competition, the Liga Nacional, in 1981.[5][6] The 2017 Champions League Final Four was played at Canaria's home arena, the Pabellón Insular Santiago Martín. Canarias won the BCL championship, after beating the Turkish Super League club Banvit in the Final. The championship marked the first major title in the club's history.
In March 2020, the club stopped the 2019–20 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain.[9] The following season, the 2020–21 season, was the most successful season in the ACB in the team's history. After finishing third in the regular season, Canarias beat San Pablo Burgos before being eliminated in the semi-finals by Barcelona. In the 2021–22 season, Canarias won their second BCL championship after defeating fellow Spanish team Manresa in the final in Bilbao.[10]
Sponsorship naming
Partly due to sponsorship reasons, the team has been known by several names over the years:
^A homegrown player is a player that played for at least three years before the age of 20 on a Spanish team. In Liga ACB, the team must register at least four homegrown players in rosters of 10–12 players or at least three homegrown players in rosters of 8–9 players. In Champions League, the team must register at least five homegrown players in rosters of 11–12 players or at least four homegrown players in rosters of 10 players.
^A overseas player is a player from outside EEA, FIBA Europe or ACP states. In Liga ACB, the team may register at most two overseas players. In Champions League, the team did not have any limitations regarding the number of overseas players.
