Antibes

Every meeting with Monaco Basket has a name of its own on the Côte d'Azur, the "Derby de la Côte d'Azur."

Antibes got there first, at least on paper. The club took its current shape in Antibes in 1933. Three Pro A titles, in 1970, 1991 and 1995, came with four runner-up finishes stacked around them.

Then it fell apart. Financial trouble in 2002 tipped into administrative relegation, and by 2007 a team that had been champion of France was playing in the amateur ranks of Nationale 1. Getting back out took a title there in 2008, then a second-division championship in 2013 that put the club back where it had spent most of the twentieth century. Jean-Claude Bonato is the name still attached to that earlier era, his number retired and kept above the court as the reference point for what the club was before the collapse.

The rebuild has produced players rather than banners since: Timothé Luwawu-Cabarrot and Isaia Cordinier both came through Antibes on their way to bigger stages. What hasn't come back is the Coupe de France. Six semi-finals, spread from 1963 to 2017, and the trophy has never once followed.