Virtus Pallacanestro Bologna is a prominent Italian basketball club, based in Bologna. Virtus returned to Italy's top division for the 2005-06 season after two years in the second division.
Virtus was founded in 1879 as a gymnastics club, and fielded its first professional basketball teams in the 1920s. The club has won 15 national league titles in Italy's top division and 8 Italian Cups. It has also been a frequent participant in the Euroleague, the basketball equivalent to football's Champions League. Virtus' best season, as measured by trophies won, was 2000-01, when it won the Italian league, Italian Cup, and Euroleague titles (though the latter came against the field that did not include all of the Europe's national champions). It also won the Euroleague in 1998 led by Predrag Danilović.
However, several key members of Virtus' treble-winners left immediately after that accomplishment. After the 2001-02 season, Manu Ginobili, the Euroleague Final Four MVP in 2001, left for the NBA, as did another important player Marko Jarić. At the end of the 2002-03 season, Virtus suffered relegation from Italy's top division as a result of financial problems.
The local derby between Virtus and Fortitudo Bologna is one of the most intense in the entire world of sports. Sports Illustrated writer Alexander Wolff devoted a chapter of his 2002 basketball book, Big Game, Small World (ISBN 0-446-52601-0), to this rivalry.
Virtus' home stadium is PalaMalaguti.
