Instituto Viver Basquetebol

Instituto Viver Basquetebol, most often called Lobos Brasília, was a professional basketball team from Brasília, in Brazil’s Federal District. It was founded in 2000 and got its new name in 2009, having started out as the team of Salgado de Oliveira University (UNIVERSO). From 2010 until 2017, it was linked to the Centro Universitário de Brasília (UniCEUB) and went by UniCEUB/BRB/Brasília. The club played its home games at Nilson Nelson and, for smaller matches, at ASCEB. It was disbanded in 2017.

Because Brasília lacks a strong soccer tradition, the UniCEUB/BRB basketball team became a local favorite. On-court success helped cement that support, especially the third straight Novo Basquete Brasil (NBB) title in the 2011–2012 season, which gave the club four national championships in six consecutive finals appearances. The team also made history as the first Brazilian club to win the FIBA Americas League, the continent’s top FIBA club competition, by beating Mexico’s Halcones Xalapa on their home court in the 2008–09 season.

**History**

**2000–06: Creation and consolidation** The Instituto Viver Basquetebol began in 2000 when Salgado de Oliveira University started a basketball team in Brasília. From the start, it dominated the local Federal District scene, winning Metropolitan Basketball Championships. In 2003, after landing a major sponsor in BRB Bank, the team appeared nationally for the first time. That season, as Universo/BRB/Brasília, it won the Brazilian Basketball Supercup with a roster that included national-team veterans Ratto, Alexey Carvalho, and Sandro Varejão. That Supercup title earned the team a spot in the 2004 Brazilian Basketball Championship. Keeping most of the same players, it won the 2004 Supercup as well, securing a second straight year in the top national competition. Under coach José Roberto Lux, the team finished fourth in the 2005 Brazilian Championship. The next year, the squad was built to win the national title, but the season ended in controversy: the 2006 Brazilian Championship was never officially completed because Brasília filed a court injunction claiming a Telemar Rio de Janeiro player was ineligible during the hexagonal round that would have decided the finalists.