Caserta

Mirza Delibašić joined Caserta in 1983, a Yugoslav star arriving in a southern Italian town. Before he could play a championship game, he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage that nearly killed him. The club he never got to play for had been built on far less: Santino Piccolo and a group of local enthusiasts started it in 1951 as Sporting Club Juventus Caserta. They borrowed the name of the Turin football club, and with it the white and black. The early games were on clay courts. Only in 1982 did the team move into the PalaMaggiò, in Castel Morrone, which holds 6,387.

Caserta lost the Serie A final to Olimpia Milano in 1986 and again in 1987. In between came two European finals in the FIBA Korać Cup, against Banco di Roma and then FC Barcelona. The Italian Cup arrived in 1988. A year later Caserta lost the FIBA Saporta Cup final to Real Madrid.

The league title came in 1991. It remains the only one a Southern Italian team has won in the competition's history, and it came after Caserta had lost the two finals to Milan.

The 1990s ended badly. The club went bankrupt in 1998 and was refounded several times, as LBL-Juvecaserta, Juvecaserta Basket and now Juvecaserta Academy/Paperdi Caserta. It has often played in Serie B or Serie A2. The derby with Avellino, the Derby Campano, has outlasted the changes of name.

Caserta's best-known player is Oscar Schmidt, the Brazilian who played there from 1982 to 1990 and scored 9,143 points. His number 18 shirt has been retired.