About

U-Banca Transilvania Cluj-Napoca, commonly known as U-BT Cluj-Napoca, is a professional basketball club based in Cluj-Napoca, Romania that competes domestically in the Liga Națională de Baschet and internationally in the EuroCup. Like other teams that were initially part of the Universitatea Cluj multi sports club, the basketball team keeps the letter U (short form of Universitatea) in its name. The main sponsor of the team is the locally based banking institution Banca Transilvania. The team colors are black and white. U-BT Cluj-Napoca plays its home games at the BTarena, which accommodates 10,000 spectators, or in Horia Demian Sports Hall with a capacity of 2,525 spectators. Initially being founded in 1947, the basketball team split from the parent sports club at the beginning of the 2000s, retaining its place in the top tier of Romanian basketball. While the current club is widely considered as the successor of the team that won three league titles before the turn of the century, the parent club claims all the trophies won before 2002 as part of its own records. In 2017, an image partnership was agreed between U-BT Cluj-Napoca and FC Universitatea Cluj (the local football club which itself was functioning as a private entity following its split from the parent sports club), uniting them under the same brand. Therefore, beginning with the 2017-18 season, U-BT Cluj-Napoca uses the same logo as the football club. In all its forms since the 1940s, the club has won nine Romanian League Championships, seven Romanian Cups, and four Romanian Supercups, while also performing very good in European competitions, reaching the quarterfinals of both the Basketball Champions League and the EuroCup in recent seasons. The most famous name who played for the club is undoubtedly Gheorghe Mureșan, who remains to this day the only Romanian ever to play in the NBA. Another mention should go to Mihai Silvășan, who played for the Cluj team between 2002 and 2015, and then became the club's head coach in 2016.