Herbalife Gran Canaria enters its first Turkish Airlines EuroLeague campaign aiming to compete at as high a level as it has in the 7DAYS EuroCup in recent years. Founded in 1963, Gran Canaria reached the Spanish first division in 1985, but did not gain a foothold for good until 1995-96. The club played its first Spanish League playoff game in 2000 and competed in the Korac Cup in 2001. Gran Canaria made its ULEB Cup debut in 2003-04 and got to the eighthfinals before losing to Real Madrid. It did not return to the ULEB Cup elimination series until 2007 when it lost in the eighthfinals against FMP. Gran Canaria enjoyed a great EuroCup season in 2009-10, but a home loss against Panellinios in a do-or-die game prevented the team from reaching the EuroCup Finals. Great results finally arrived in the 2012-13 season, when Gran Canaria reached the Spanish Copa del Rey and the Spanish League semifinals for the first time. Another step forward came in 2013-14 when it moved to the magnificent 11,500-seat Gran Canaria Arena and finished the Spanish League regular season with a club-record 22 wins. That set the basis for a 2014-15 EuroCup season to remember, in which EuroCup Coach of the Year Aito Garcia Reneses and All-EuroCup center Walter Tavares led Gran Canaria all the way to the EuroCup Finals. The team won 21 of its first 22 games and swept Cedevita Zagreb, Pinar Karsiyaka Izmir and UNICS Kazan in the elimination rounds, however, Khimki Moscow Region was the better team in the finals. Gran Canaria also returned to the Spanish League playoffs and hosted the Copa del Rey final eight. The team got to the 2016 Copa del Rey title game against Real Madrid, which ultimately prevailed. Gran Canaria used a strong season to get back to the EuroCup semifinals, but lost by 1 point in the two-game total-points series to eventual champion Galatasaray Odeabank Istanbul. Gran Canaria returned to the Spanish League playoffs in the next two seasons, where twice it lost to Baskonia Vitoria Gasteiz in a do-or-die Game 3. Gran Canaria lifted the Spanish SuperCup trophy, its first title, and went back to the EuroCup playoffs in 2017, but Hapoel Bank Yahav Jerusalem stood in its way. Gran Canaria had a strong 2017-18 season, in which the team was competitive on all fronts; it made it to the EuroCup quarterfinals and reached the Spanish SuperCup title game and the Spanish Copa del Rey semifinals. When it was time to fight for a EuroLeague spot, Gran Canaria was ready. It came down to a do-or-die Game 3 in a best-of-three quarterfinal playoffs series against Valencia. Gran Canaria trailed 80-75 with 10 seconds left in regulation but took the game to overtime and won it 89-92 to clinch a EuroLeague berth. As the club keeps growing every season, simply participating in the EuroLeague will not be enough to satiate this growing power.
Trophy Case
| Spanish Supercup "Supercopa": 2016 |