Bilbao Basket

Bilbao's other big club plays in a city that already has one institution defined by loyalty to homegrown players. Club Basket Bilbao Berri formed on 7 March 2000 from the remnants of Cajabilbao and SD Patronato, and spent four seasons working through LEB and LEB 2 before beating Baloncesto León in the promotion semi-finals in 2004.

The club has changed its sponsored name eight times since then — RETAbet, Dominion, Gescrap, now Surne — but the shirt colours have stayed black and silver throughout, which is where the nickname Men in Black comes from. Two numbers are out of circulation at the Bilbao Arena: 14, for Javi Salgado, captain through the promotion years and the 2011 final; and 15, for Álex Mumbrú, who played from 2009 to 2018 and led the side through its strongest run in the top flight, including the 2010–11 Liga ACB final against FC Barcelona, lost 3–0, and a EuroLeague quarter-final the following year.

Financial trouble caught up with the club in July 2014, when the Liga ACB voted to exclude it; the decision was overturned within a month, but relegation eventually came on 13 May 2018, in a Basque derby lost 78–74 to Baskonia. European competition has offered a way back into the conversation: the FIBA Europe Cup went to Bilbao in 2024–25, then again the following season.

That derby against Baskonia remains the fixture that matters most here, not because of table position but because Vitoria-Gasteiz sits close enough for the rivalry to run on more than statistics — a Basque Derby in the fullest sense, the one date in the calendar Bilbao circles regardless of form.