FC Bayern München Basketball GmbH, commonly referred to as Bayern Munich, is a professional basketball club, a part of the FC Bayern Munich sports club, based in Munich, Germany. The club competes domestically in the Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) and internationally in the EuroLeague.
The team plays its home games at BMW Park, which was opened in 1972.
Bayern Munich has a long basketball tradition. Besides its most successful years in the 1950s and 1960s (German Championships in 1954, 1955, and German Cup in 1968), the club enjoyed remarkable popularity in 1956, when it even drew 40,000 fans to an open-air test game against Lancia Bolzano, once a top basketball club from Italy. Later, in 1966, the club was a founding member of the Basketball Bundesliga.[1]
In the following years, the club slowly, but surely, faded into obscurity, and in 1974, was even relegated to the German 2nd Division. For a long time after that, the club never completely recovered, and only had a few successful years (Bayern moved up to the Basketball Bundesliga in 1987, and stayed there until 1989).[1]
In 2008, the declared goal of the team was to return to the club's former glory, and return to the top German League, which it eventually did. In the near future, the club seeks to become a major force in European basketball, so that Bayern Munich will not only be well known for its football (soccer) operations, but also for its basketball operations as well.[2] In the 2012–13 season the club reached the semifinals, where it lost 3–2 against the reigning champions Brose Baskets.
Thanks to a wild card,[3] Bayern Munich played in the EuroLeague in the 2013–14 season. This was its first appearance in the top European championship, and it reached the Top 16 stage. On 18 June 2014, Bayern won its third national title when it beat Alba Berlin 3–1 in the Finals. It was the first title for the team since 1955; 59 years before. Star player of the team was Malcolm Delaney, who won both the MVP and Finals MVP.
In the 2014–15 season, Bayern failed to win a title. In the BBL Finals they were defeated by Brose Baskets, 3–2. The team had to wait until 2018 for its next championship, as they beat Alba Berlin 3–2 in the Finals that year. By winning the BBL, Bayern also qualified for the following EuroLeague season.
The official FC Bayern Basketball NBA 2K19esports team "Bayern Ballers Gaming" was founded in April 2018. The Ballers quickly became one of the best virtual basketball teams in the world: together with their coach Swen Müller, the team continued to climb the NBA 2K ProAM world ranking, making them one of the Top 5 European teams.[7]
References
^ abReisner, Dino (2010). Sonderheft Basketball 2010/2011 – Das Projekt (in German). Kicker. p. 107.
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