Brose Bamberg

The 1. FC 01 Bamberg basketball team was promoted to the Basketball Bundesliga, the German Basketball League, for the first time in 1970.[3] In 1988, after being relegated and promoted twice (relegations in 1979 and 1983, promotions in 1982 and 1984), and with 1. FC 01 Bamberg facing bankruptcy, the basketball division split to form a new club: TTL Basketball Bamberg. TTL stands for Tapeten-Teppichboden-Land, which is a wallpaper and carpet company. It was the first time the team name had reflected the name of its main sponsor. From 1995, the team was called TTL uniVersa Bamberg after uniVersa Versicherungen, an insurance company. In 1992, the team won the German Cup, earning Bamberg its first basketball trophy.

In 2000, following financial difficulties, the team was rescued by the TSK company and changed its name to TSK uniVersa Bamberg.

Differences of opinion between the main sponsor and the club in 2003 jeopardized the team's position in the Bundesliga and led to a new change of name.

During the 2003–04 to 2005–06 seasons, the team played in the Bundesliga under the name of its new sponsor, as GHP Bamberg. Having come second in the Championship twice in a row, in 2004/05 the team brought the German Championship title home to Bamberg for the first time.[3] This meant that GHP Bamberg qualified for the EuroLeague. In the following season (2005–06), the Bamberg team made it into the EuroLeague Top 16. It also played in the BBL Cup Final and in the semi-finals of the BBL playoffs.

At the start of the 2006–07 season, the club changed its name to Brose Baskets to reflect the fact that Brose Fahrzeugteile GmbH & Co. KG had become the new primary sponsor. It was in this season that the team won its second Championship title. In 2007–08, the team did not manage to consolidate the previous year's success and was knocked out in the first round of the EuroLeague, having won two games. In May 2008, Brose Baskets failed to defend their Championship title, losing to EWE Baskets Oldenburg in the quarter-finals. One week later, trainer Dirk Bauermann announced his resignation.

On 2 June 2008, Chris Fleming signed a three-year contract as head coach. He had previously coached the Artland Dragons, who played Brose Baskets in the finals in 2007. Fleming, an American, was 38 at the time.[4] His long-term assistant coach, Arne Woltmann, also came with him from Quakenbrück.[5]

The first year under the new trainer was difficult and the team only just qualified for the playoffs (top eight teams), with two points more than the team in ninth place. Nevertheless, they went on to beat the team in second place, MEG Göttingen, but did not stand a chance against the Oldenburg team, who eventually won the Championship. In the following year, the points round did not go very well, but the team still qualified for the playoffs in fifth place. In the cup competition they made it into the Top 4 final in Frankfurt, where they beat Skyliners, the home team, by one point, bringing the cup back to Bamberg after 18 years, for the second time in the club's history. In the Championship playoffs, Bonn and Braunschweig, who had previously knocked Oldenburg, the winners of the first round, out of the competition, did not pose many problems and Bamberg went through to the finals. There they once again faced Skyliners Frankfurt. Brose Baskets lost the first home game but immediately fought back to achieve a 2:1 lead. Frankfurt won the fourth game in their own arena, which was as close run as the cup final had been. Eventually, however, Brose Baskets won the Championship title with a 72:70 in front of its own fans, achieving its first double win.

For the 2010–11 season, Brose Baskets managed to hold onto most of their players from the year before and made a few strategic additions. The well-rounded team went on to dominate the points round, losing only two out of 34 matches. The team also won the Cup competition,[3] defending their title against Braunschweig in the final in Bamberg, where they won 69:66. In the Championship competition, Brose Baskets beat Eisbären Bremerhaven easily in the quarter-final. In the semi-final, they suffered two surprise defeats away against Artland Dragons, and only won in the fifth deciding game. In the final against Alba Berlin, Brose Baskets once again displayed some weaknesses in their away performance. The Berlin team dominated most of the deciding game in the Stechert Arena, despite a good start from Brose Baskets. Nevertheless, Brose Baskets were able to turn the game around in the final quarter, finishing with a clear 72:65 victory. This earned them the German Championship title for the fourth time and meant they had achieved two double wins in succession. In this season, the team also won all their home Cup and Championship matches.

The Brose Baskets squad remained largely unchanged in the 2011–12 season, and departures were more than compensated for by strong additions. At the end of the main round, Bamberg was top of the table with 30 wins and four defeats. The team won the Cup again during this season.[3] In the Championship competition, Brose Baskets managed to beat Telekom Baskets Bonn 3:1 in the playoff quarter-final, despite suffering a surprise defeat in the first home game. This was their first defeat at home in 49 games. In the semi-final, Brose Baskets beat Artland Dragons, winning three out of a possible five games (best-of-five), and also won the final against ratiopharm Ulm 3:0. This was Brose Baskets’ third successive double win. Partly because of this success, several players signed bigger contracts with other teams at the end of the season, which meant it was not possible to keep the same squad intact the following season. Tibor Pleiß and Marcus Slaughter transferred to Spain, Brian Roberts and P.J. Tucker switched to the NBA, and Predrag Šuput moved to KK Cedevita in Croatia.

As in the previous season, it was possible to keep the core team together in 2012–13, but injuries during the season led to a number of changes, which weakened the team. Nevertheless, Brose Baskets finished the main round of the Beko BBL at the top of the table with 26 wins. In contrast with previous years, the team failed to get through the qualifying round of the Cup competition, losing 69:77 at home to FC Bayern München. In the Championship competition, Brose Baskets faced Phoenix Hagen, beating them 3:1 and making it through to the semi-final of the playoffs. Here they came up against FC Bayern München, who they managed to beat 3:2 after five games. This meant they were through to the final for the fourth time in a row. Here the champions of the previous three years faced EWE Baskets Oldenburg. Brose Baskets won 3:0 in three straight games, securing the Championship title for the fourth time in a row.[3]

In the regular season Brose Baskets could not defend its top seed position from the three previous years finishing second behind Bayern Munich and thus facing the 7th seeded Artland Dragons in the playoff quarterfinals. The Dragons pulled off an upset and beat Brose with 3–1.[6] The team also failed to reach the BBL-Pokal Final and did not accomplish much in its European campaign. After the season the club parted ways with head coach Chris Fleming.[7] Long time great players of the club John Goldsberry and Casey Jacobsen put an end to their careers, and had their jersey numbers retired by the club.[8]

In the 2014–15 season, Brose Baskets came back on top of the German basketball world, after they beat the defending champions Bayern Munich 3–2 in the Finals.[3] Bamberg also finished the regular season in the first place. Bamberg's Bradley Wanamaker was named Basketball Bundesliga Finals MVP.

In the 2015–16 season, Brose Baskets had an impressive EuroLeague campaign, in which the team survived the Regular Season and advanced to the Top 16. In the Bundesliga, Brose had an even more impressive season. The team finished first in the regular season by a wide margin, and eventually won the championship after sweeping all opponents in the playoffs.[9]

In August 2016, the Brose Baskets changed the name to Brose Bamberg.[10]

Through its championship in the 2015–16 season, Bamberg qualified for the 2016–17 EuroLeague, the first true European basketball league. Bamberg finished in the 10th place, with All-EuroLeague Second Team member Nicolò Melli leading the team.

In Germany, the team once again dominated. The BBL-Pokal was won after beating Bayern Munich in the Final. The ninth Basketball Bundesliga title of the club was won after sweeping EWE Baskets Oldenburg 3–0 in the BBL Finals.[11]

On 17 February 2019, Bamberg won its fifth BBL-Pokal after defeating Alba Berlin 83–82 in the final. In the 2018–19 season, Bamberg also made its debut in the Basketball Champions League. After playing in EuroLeague Basketball competitions since 2004, this was the first time the club participated in a FIBA-organised competition. In the quarter-finals, Bamberg narrowly beat defending champions AEK Athens to qualify for the 2019 Final Four.[12]

On 1 July 2020, Johan Roijakkers signed a 3-year contract as Bamberg's new head coach.[13]

• 
  GHP Bamberg era logo, 2003–2006.
• 
  Brose Baskets logo, 2006–2016.

• German League championship
  • Winners (9): 2004–05, 2006–07, 2009–10, 2010–11, 2011–12, 2012–13, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17
  • Runners-up (3): 1992–93, 2002–03, 2003–04
• German Cup
  • Winners (6): 1992, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2017, 2019
  • Runners-up (2): 2006, 2015
• German Champions Cup:
  • Winners (5): 2007, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015
  • Runners-up: 2013

• Basketball Champions League
  • Fourth place: 2018–19

• Zwolle, Netherlands Invitational Game
  • Winners (1): 2015
• Bamberg, Germany Invitational Game
  • Winners (2): 2016, 2017
• Bayreuth Tournament
  • Winners (1): 2016
• Gmunden, Austria Invitational Game
  • Winners (1): 2016