1987-88

The second season of Valencia Basket's history, already under the name of Pamesa Valencia, comes with a great initial news: The team leaves Mislata to play in the Pabellón Municipal de la Fuente de San Luís, a place that has seen all the years of the club's history since then until today. It is a very different Fonteta to the one of the present time, without all the conditioning and still without inferior ring.

To the bench, to lead the new project, arrived a man of recognized prestige as Antoni Serra. The coach from Mataró, with experience in the highest category in Manresa, Badalona, and above all, in Fútbol Club Barcelona, with which he had conquered the Spanish league and had become one of the strongest teams in the old continent. Serra will symbolize a first very strong commitment to reach higher levels.

The structure of the squad changed completely from one year to the next, and from the previous year only Paco Guillén and Paco Pallardó were retained. The incorporations give a leap forward to the group, with players that would be so important in the following years as Sergio Coterón, fundamental in the promotion, Jerry Herranz or Roberto Íñiguez, coming from the U18 team of Baskonia. Along with them, Paco Solsona arrives to the team, fundamental in the outside, in addition to Manu Rodríguez, who arrives from Tizona with the vitola of being one of the best in the Primera B.

The initial pair of Americans for this team was formed by Clyde Mayes and Larry Spicer. Mayes was a player coming from TDK Manresa, with whom he had established himself as one of the best rebounders in the ACB, and who came to Valencia with the reputation of being a serious and tough player, a bombshell for a Primera B team. Spicer, forward, came from Oximesa Granada, although his adaptation to the team was not the best, and it was soon decided to replace him in exchange for a more inside player.

The start did not convince Serra, who soon decided to make two changes that would change the dynamic, leaving out Manu Rodriguez and Larry Spicer. The casualty of Rodriguez would give again a place in the team to Paco Guillén, who would settle in the point guard position next to Roberto Íñiguez. In place of Spicer, Orlando Phillips, a short power forward with a great physical presence and a good mid-range shot, joins the team. The Mayes-Phillip pairing gave the inside game a much-needed consistency.

It was the first season in which the rivalry with the neighboring town of Llíria began to be noticed. The game at the Fonteta is followed with greater intensity in the stands, with quite a lot of public displaced. The match played in other team's court already breathes the tension of these clashes, facing a team formed by players like Dan Palombizio or Quique Andreu.

As the season progressed, the crowd at La Fonteta saw promotion getting closer and closer. A victory at home against another favorite, CajaMadrid, where Juan Antonio Orenga and Quique Villalobos, among others, played, convinced the team of the feasibility of the objective, which was getting closer and closer. The resounding victory, together with a magnificent performance by Coterón, put the team on the road, for which only one hurdle remained: overcoming a play-off against Metro Santa Coloma with the home court factor against them.

The ACB expanded its number of teams from 16 to 24, but to reach one of the places was not going to be easy, because the Catalans had a pavilion where they were very strong and because they had a player who would soon become one of the sensations of the ACB, Dan “Bingo” Bingenheimer, great stopper and rebounder, as well as one of the classics of Spanish basketball as Andreu Casadevall on the bench.

But the feat was accomplished. The first game was won in Santa Coloma thanks to three heart-stopping final minutes in which Pamesa Valencia turned around a game in which it was losing for most of the minutes. Penya Arròs Caldòs immortalized the moment of victory with the team.

In the second game, already in the Fonteta, both the public and the players are aware that the clash must not escape. The stands are crowded and they are trying to add new seats for a larger capacity, using mechanotube stands. The game is dominated by a small difference but is won in front of the local delirium, the court is invaded due to the overflowing joy. On May 4, 1988, Pamesa Valencia achieved promotion to the ACB League in its second year of life.