AS Monaco Basket facts for kids

Quick facts for kids AS Monaco
Nickname	La Roca Team Les Rouges et Blancs (The Red and Whites) Roca Boys
Leagues	LNB Élite EuroLeague
Founded	1928; 97 years ago (1928)
Arena	Salle Gaston Médecin
Capacity	5,000
Location	Fontvieille, Monaco
Team colors	Red, White and Gold
President	Alexey Fedorychev
General manager	Oleksiy Yefimov
Head coach	Vassilis Spanoulis
Championships	1 EuroCup 2 French Championships 1 French Cup 3 French League Cup
Uniforms
Home Away

AS Monaco Basket, commonly referred to as AS Monaco or simply Monaco, is a French-registered Monaco-based professional basketball club. They are a part of the Monaco-based multi-sports club of A.S. Monaco, which was founded in 1924.

The club's basketball section was founded four years later in 1928, and it currently competes in the French top-tier level LNB Pro A and the EuroLeague. Monaco plays their home games at Salle Gaston Médecin.

Monaco was the runner-up of the EuroLeague in 2025, and has won the EuroCup title in 2021, one French Cup in 2023, and three Leaders Cups.

History

About four years after the parent athletic club, A.S. Monaco, was itself founded, A.S. Monaco Basket was founded in 1928. They finished as runners-up in the French top-tier level Nationale 1 (current LNB Pro A) following the 1950 season, which is regarded as one of their greatest successes in their history. Monaco also won the LNB Pro B (French 2nd Division) championship in the 1973 season, with one of the greatest offenses on the European continent.

A.S. Monaco Basket joined the Nationale 1 for the 1973–74 season, where they finished in ninth place. They made their first appearance in the European 3rd-tier level FIBA Korać Cup in the 1974–75 season, where they lost in the group stage to other notable teams, such as the French League club ASVEL Basket, the Bulgarian League club Levski Sofia, and the Italian League club AMG Sebastiani Basket. They entered the same tournament again in the 1982–83 season, but lost to Dynamo Moscow in the semifinals qualification battle, in the Top 16 group stage, despite a far better finish in the tournament overall.

Entering the 1980s, Monaco was in the process of securing their title as one of the most dangerous teams in French basketball. They reached the finals game of the French Federation Cup, where they lost to Limoges CSP, by a score of 96–81. The Red and Whites also became a threat in the LNB Pro A (French 1st Division), what the league had been renamed to, after former NBA player, Robert Smith, joined the team in 1985. Smith was named the 1987 French League All-Star Game MVP.

After Smith left the team, Monaco found themselves descending in the league. They were relegated to the second division LNB Pro B, later in the decade, and eventually ended up in the Nationale 1 Division. They would not return to the LNB Pro A, the highest division of basketball in France, for many years to come. In 2014, A.S. Monaco Basket was crowned the champions of the French third-tier league, the Nationale Masculine 1 (NM1), and they returned to the LNB Pro B (French 2nd Division).

In the 2014–15 season, Monaco became the French 2nd-tier LNB Pro B champions, and they were finally promoted back to the top-tier league in France, the LNB Pro A. In 2015, the Ukrainian businessman and philanthropist, Sergey Dyadechko, became the President of A.S. Monaco Basket. In the 2015–16 season, Monaco won the 2016 edition of the French Pro A League Cup, after beating Élan Chalon in the finals, by a score of 99–74. Monaco player, Jamal Shuler, was named the French Pro A Leaders Cup MVP.

In the 2016–17 season, Monaco returned to European-wide competitions, when it qualified for one of the pan-European secondary level competitions, the FIBA Basketball Champions League. They finished the season in third place. In 2017, the charity fund, DSF, founded by the club's owner, Dyadechko, became a sponsor of A.S. Monaco Basket. The club also played in the FIBA Champions League, during the 2017–18 season, in which they finished in second place, after they lost to the Greek League club AEK Athens in the final, by a score of 100–94. The club won the 2017 French Pro A League Cup and the 2018 French Pro A League Cup titles. They also finished in second place in the French Pro A League, in the 2017–18 season.

In European-wide competitions, Monaco spent the next three seasons (2018–19, 2019–20, and 2020–21) playing in the other pan-European secondary level competition, the EuroCup, subsequently winning it in 2020–21. In the 2021–22 season, Monaco made its debut in the EuroLeague, the highest pan-European level. Finishing seventh in the regular season with a 15–13 record, Monaco qualified for the playoffs where they lost 2–3 to the second-seeded Olympiacos.

The following season, Monaco was eligible for another EuroLeague season because of their good performance the previous season. They made the playoffs for a second season in a row.

On April 22, 2023, Monaco won its first major trophy when it won its maiden French Basketball Cup with Monaco, after beating ASVEL in the final. Élie Okobo was the cup final's MVP after his 20-point performance. In the same 2022–23 season, Monaco reached new height on the continental level after reaching the 2023 EuroLeague Final Four after beating Maccabi Tel Aviv in the playoffs. They became the third French League club ever to reach the Final Four (after ASVEL and Limoges) and the first to do so in 26 years.

In the 2024–25 season, the Vassilis Spanoulis-coached team made it to the EuroLeague Final Four, and advanced to the final after upsetting first-seed Olympiacos. In the championship game, the Roca Team eventually lost to Fenerbahçe.

Arena

A.S. Monaco Basket plays its home games at the 5,000 seat Salle Gaston Médecin, which is a part of the Stade Louis II sports complex.

Monaco was originally supposed to play its 2021–22 EuroLeague games in the 5,249 seat Azur Arena, which is located nearby in Antibes. The decision was later overturned, and the team instead played in its usual home arena in Monaco.

Logos

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  A.S. Monaco Basket Amateur

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  A.S. Monaco Basket

Players

Current roster

AS Monaco roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. No. Nat. Name Ht. Wt. Age G 0 Okobo, Élie 1.91 m (6 ft 3 in) 86 kg (190 lb) 27 – (1997-10-23)23 October 1997 F 4 Blossomgame, Jaron 2.01 m (6 ft 7 in) 100 kg (220 lb) 31 – (1993-09-16)16 September 1993 SG 8 Loyd, Jordan 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in) 95 kg (209 lb) 31 – (1993-07-27)27 July 1993 C 9 Papagiannis, Georgios 2.21 m (7 ft 3 in) 121 kg (267 lb) 27 – (1997-07-03)3 July 1997 F/C 10 Theis, Daniel 2.03 m (6 ft 8 in) 113 kg (249 lb) 33 – (1992-04-04)4 April 1992 SF 11 Diallo, Alpha 2.01 m (6 ft 7 in) 95 kg (209 lb) 27 – (1997-06-29)29 June 1997 F/C 12 Cornelie, Petr 2.11 m (6 ft 11 in) 108 kg (238 lb) 29 – (1995-07-26)26 July 1995 C 14 Jaiteh, Mouhammadou 2.11 m (6 ft 11 in) 112 kg (247 lb) 30 – (1994-11-27)27 November 1994 F/C 20 Motiejūnas, Donatas 2.13 m (7 ft 0 in) 118 kg (260 lb) 34 – (1990-09-20)20 September 1990 SF 22 Tarpey, Terry 1.96 m (6 ft 5 in) 95 kg (209 lb) 31 – (1994-03-02)2 March 1994 SG 23 Begarin, Juhann 1.96 m (6 ft 5 in) 84 kg (185 lb) 22 – (2002-08-07)7 August 2002 F 30 Brown, Vitto 2.03 m (6 ft 8 in) 107 kg (236 lb) 29 – (1995-07-13)13 July 1995 G 32 Strazel, Matthew 1.82 m (6 ft 0 in) 81 kg (179 lb) 22 – (2002-08-05)5 August 2002 PG 33 Calathes, Nick 1.98 m (6 ft 6 in) 97 kg (214 lb) 36 – (1989-02-07)7 February 1989 PG 55 James, Mike (C) 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) 89 kg (196 lb) 34 – (1990-08-18)18 August 1990	Head coach Vassilis Spanoulis Assistant coach(es) Ilias Kantzouris Kostas Charalampidis Manuchar Markoishvili Sergiy Gladyr Mirko Ocokoljić Team manager Oleksiy Yefimov Legend (C) Team captain Injured Roster Updated: 24 May 2025

Depth chart

Trophies and honors

Domestic competitions

• French League

Winners (2): 2022–23, 2023–24

Runners-up (4): 1949–50, 2017–18, 2018–19, 2021–22

• French Cup

Winners (1): 2022–23

Runners-up (1): 1982–83

• Leaders Cup

Winners (3): 2016, 2017, 2018

Runners-up (1): 2025

• French Pro B

Champions (2): 1972–73, 2014–15

• French NM1

Champions (1): 2013–14

European competitions

• EuroLeague

Runners-up (1): 2024–25

Third place (1): 2022–23

• EuroCup

Champions (1): 2020–21

• Basketball Champions League

Runners-up (1): 2017–18

Third place (1): 2016–17

Other competitions

• Berlin, Germany Invitational Game

Winners (1): 2019

Season by season

Notable players

Head coaches

Head Coach	Years
Bill Sweek	1985–1990
Jean-Pierre Baldwin	1999–2000
Philippe Beorchia	2000–2003
Claude Palanca	2003–2004
Stéphane Dao	2004–2007
Georgy Adams	2007–2010
Jean-Michel Sénégal	2010–2013
Savo Vučević	2013–2015
Philippe Beorchia	2015
Zvezdan Mitrović	2015–2018
Sašo Filipovski	2018–2019
Saša Obradović	2019–2020
Zvezdan Mitrović	2020–2021
Saša Obradović	2021–2024
Vassilis Spanoulis	2024–present

See also

In Spanish: AS Mónaco Basket para niños