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  • Writer's pictureMāris Noviks

The most decorated club from Romania: welcome, Dinamo Bucharest!




Dinamo Bucharest is the second club from Romania which will play in the European North Basketball league.


CSO Voluntari earned a silver medal on April 10, 2024, at the Final Four in Aarhus, Denmark.


Dinamo Bucharest was founded 1949, exactly 75 years ago.


Team won the first Romanian title in 1953.


The Floreasca hall was built for the 1953 World Youth Festival and became a place for Bucharest derby between Dinamo and CCA (now Steaua Bucharest).


Dan Niculescu – a former Romania international, participant of the 1952 Olympic games in Helsinki – became the head coach of the team in 1960.


Other big names include Strugaru, Giurgiu, Visner, Spiridon, Viciu, Albu, Cernea, Gheorghe Novac, Diaconescu, Chivulescu, Popa, Sandu Vinereanu and Claudiu Fometescu, the pinnacle of the 2000 generation.


The red dogs – Câinii roșii – won Romanian championship 22 times: 1953-1955, 1957, 1965, 1968-1977, 1979, 1983, 1988, 1994, 1997-1998, 2003.


Dinamo added four wins in Romanian Cup: 1967-1969 and 1980.


Dinamo Bucharest debuted at the European competitions in 1965, defeating Fenerbahce Istanbul in the first round of the FIBA European Champions Cup (a predecessor of Euroleague).


Romanians played three games against KK Zadar in the second round due to the fact that first two games ended on aggregate tie, 148-148, and no overtime was played.


Dinamo Bucharest made it to the quarterfinals group stage (eight teams split in two groups) in 1973 and played against powerhouses like Ignis Varese, CSKA Moscow and Slavia VŠ Praha.


Later the team played at the FIBA European league (existed 1991-1996).


In total, Dinamo Bucharest and Steaua Bucharest won 43 national titles between 1953 and 2003.


CSU Ploiesti became the most dominant team after that and posted 11 triumphs between 2004 and 2015 (except 2011).


Oradea and Cluj-Napoca took over in the years after.


Cluj-Napoca has won nine Romanian championships (1992, 1993, 1996, 2011, 2017, 2021-2024), while Oradea has three successes (2016, 2018, 2019).


This season, Dinamo Bucharest made it to the Top 10 group and qualified to the playoffs with a 6-12 record.


The Red dogs met top seeded Cluj-Napoca in the quarterfinals and lost the best-of-five series, 0-3.

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