Unicaja retain Fiba Intercontinental Cup with win over NBA G League United in Singapore

SINGAPORE – When Ibon Navarro was named as Unicaja coach in February 2022, the Spaniard found a team who were more of a candidate for relegation from the Liga ACB – the top Spanish professional basketball league – than a championship contender. 

His appointment was described on the official site as taking charge of “a new project that starts today”.

More than three years later, it is a project that has yielded seven trophies and propelled Unicaja into one of the most successful clubs in the world. Attendance at their home games has also more than doubled to an average of 9,771 spectators per game.

In the last 2½ seasons, Navarro’s plan has brought the club six trophies: the Copa del Rey in 2023 and 2025, Basketball Champions League 2024 and 2025, Fiba Intercontinental Cup 2024 and Endesa Super Cup 2024.

On Sept 21 at the half-full 12,000-capacity Singapore Indoor Stadium, Unicaja claimed their latest piece of silverware under Navarro, as they retained their Fiba Intercontinental Cup (ICC) crown. The Spanish side prevailed with a 71-61 win over NBA G League United

in a repeat of the 2024 final at the same venue

.

The latest triumph marks the fifth time a Spanish side have lifted the trophy in the last seven editions, and extends Spain’s dominance in this competition to 12 titles.

Such is the 49-year-old’s impact on the team that “Ibon has a plan” is a regular chant heard during their home matches at their Jose Maria Martin Carpena Arena home in Malaga.

“How long do we have to talk about this?” Navarro quipped, drawing laughter from the room after The Straits Times asked him at the post-final press conference how he had instilled a winning habit in the team.

The Spaniard attributed the success to a special bond between players and staff.

Navarro added: “It is not only the quality of the players, but the quality of the people. It feels like a home. And then you also need to be lucky. It is not always that you can put 12 or 13 players together and it works. We were lucky.”

He said he is “super happy” to have won the ICC, where attendance was more than 26,000 over four days, again, adding: “You never know when it’s going to be the last one… we’re going to try to enjoy it like it is the last one.”

American guard Tyler Kalinoski, 32, who joined the club just a few months after Navarro, knows the magic touch that his coach possesses.

Kalinoski, who was named the ICC’s Most Valuable Player after a 12-point performance in the final, said: “Before I signed, I remember my phone call with him, it was all about sacrifice.

“And I remember he sat us down during one practice... and he opened our eyes to say, ‘hey, look, it might not be you in this game, it might be someone else, but to realise that if we sacrifice, play our role, do the things we want to do to win, we’re going to be successful and we’re going to win championships.

“You might have to put your points aside, put your stats aside and that was his big plan.

“From the beginning, everyone bought into it and now we’re seeing the success.”

Unicaja’s two-peat in Singapore is made more special as they had arrived with a new-look team, with several changes to the roster.

Last season’s ICC MVP Dylan Osetkowski, Spanish centre Yankuba Sima and influential American guard and small forward Kameron Taylor – who all started the 2024 final – have left the club, while new players such as James Webb III, Xavier Castaneda, Emir Sulejmanovic and Chris Duarte have arrived.

G League United started brightly and took a 10-0 lead early in the first quarter. Unicaja eventually got going but at half-time, it was G League United who had a slim lead at 36-33. 

About two minutes into the third quarter, Unicaja led for the first time and never looked back as they posted a strong 23-5 run before the final stanza. 

Both teams had been near-flawless in the lead-up to the final as they advanced to the championship game by winning both their matches during the group phase.

Joseph Blair, head coach of the NBA G League United – a team composed of selected players of the NBA G League, which serves as the developmental league of the National Basketball Association (NBA) – was proud of his charges despite the loss.

He said: “We all met together three weeks ago for the first time and we spent a week together in Sacramento, just trying to become a team and trying to get to know each other... I’m proud of what we did, especially for the limited time we had together.”

Earlier in the day, Libyan side Alahli SC made history as the first team from Africa to finish on the podium after a 91-82 win over Americas champions Flamengo of Brazil in the third-place play-off.

Australia’s reigning National Basketball League champions Illawarra Hawks took down Japan’s Asian champions Utsunomiya Brex 93-69 to finish fifth.