Braga BC

Ana Pinheiro came through the youth academy at Braga before moving on to play in the NCAA at the University of Idaho, and one reason the Portuguese Basketball Federation lists Braga as a Clube Formador. The section carries the badge of the wider Sporting Clube de Braga, formed in September 2005, and wears the red and white the football side made famous, which is where the nickname Arsenalistas comes from. For most of its history the team sat in the lower divisions, and the turn came in the 2017/18 season, when it won the third-tier Proliga. Promotion to the top flight, the Liga Portuguesa de Basquetebol, followed only in April 2025. Games are played at the AMCO Arena, which holds 1,250. Carlos "Litos" Cardoso has been pre-selected for the senior national team, another name the club points to when it talks about what the academy produces. In basketball the sharper local contest is with Galitos Basquetebol, separate from the football rivalry with Vitória SC known as the Clássico do Minho. The team enters its first season among Portugal's elite with no national cup or European silverware behind it, promotion itself standing as the honour on the record so far.