Caen

The Derby Normand still carries the temperature of that rivalry with Rouen Métropole Basket and STB Le Havre.

Caen Basket Calvados grew out of the basketball section of Stade Malherbe Caennais, split off in 1959 once the football club let it go its own way. The name Caen Basket Calvados only arrived in 1982; before that it was simply Caen Basket Club, and the initials CBC stuck regardless. The club's best spell on court came early, third place in the French championship in 1960, 1976 and 1978, runner-up finishes in 1977 against ASVEL and in 1979 against Le Mans, and a run to the semi-finals of the FIBA Saporta Cup in 1977-78 that ended against Sinudyne Bologna.

What followed was harder. A crisis in 1997 pushed the club down as far as Nationale 4, an administrative relegation rather than a footballing one, and the rebuild took two decades to show results, capped by the NM1 title in 2017. Nicolas Batum passed through the academy between 2001 and 2003 before the NBA career that made his name elsewhere.

Relegation from Pro B in 2019 sent them back down again, and it took until 2024, with a playoff win over Saint-Vallier, to force a way back into Élite 2. That promotion is where the club stands now.