Ilirija Ljubljana

Ilirija head into the 2025–26 season back in the ABA League First Division. It follows a run through the lower tiers that took them from the Fourth Division in 2015 to the Third a year later, then two spells atop the Second League, before a runners-up finish in the ABA League Second Division in 2024–25 set up the playoff push.

The club had been here before. Ilirija reached the ABA League First Division in 2017–18, finished bottom of the table and went straight back down. Saša Dončić oversaw much of that rebuild as head coach and later as general manager.

Before any of that, Ilirija's identity was built in the Yugoslav-era Slovenian Republic League, which they won six times between 1961 and 1982. Goran Dragić started his professional career there in 2003 under coach Memi Bečirovič, before an NBA career that outgrew the club entirely. This season brings a different kind of NBA connection: Boban Marjanović has joined the roster.

Games against Slovan carry their own weight in Ljubljana. Ilirija play in the smaller hall at Hala Tivoli, a venue that holds 4,500.