Rockets (basketball club)

Rockets is a German professional basketball team. It is originally based in Gotha, Germany but plays its home games in Erfurt. The Rockets is the first team of the BiG Gotha basketball club.

BiG Rockets Gotha
BiG Rockets Gotha logo
Founded2 July 1998 (1998-07-02)
ArenaTurnhalle KGS Gotha
Capacity500
LocationGotha, Germany
Team colorsBlue, White
   
PresidentAndy Dittmar
Head coachKemal Velishaev
Championships1 ProB
Websitewww.big-gotha.de

In 2017, Rockets promoted to the Basketball Bundesliga (BBL), the German first tier. Following its debut season in the BBL, the professional team of Rockets was dissolved.[1] Since 2018-19 season the team plays in the 2. Regional League under the name BiG Rockets Gotha.

History
Oettinger Rockets home game in 2017
Retin Obasohan

The Oettinger Rockets were found as the first team of the club Gotha e.V. which was founded on 2 July 1998. The team started in the Bezirksliga and promoted to the fourth tier 1.Regionliga in 2005.

In the 2009–10 season, the Rockets was promoted to the national third level, the ProB.[2] In the 2011–12 season, Gotha was crowned ProB champions and the team was promoted to the second tier level ProA.[3]

Since the 2016–17 season, the Rockets play in the Messe Erfurt, which has a capacity of 3,236 people.[4] On 3 May 2017, the team earned promotion to the Basketball Bundesliga by beating Niners Chemnitz in the semi-finals of the ProA to claim a promotion spot.[5][6]

Rockets Gotha started the 2017–18 season as "Oettinger Rockets", named after its main sponsor Oettinger Brauerei. However, from January 2018 the main sponsor left and the club would be simply known as "Rockets".[7] In its debut season in the BBL, Rockets ended in the 17th place and relegated back to the ProA. In July 2018, the organization announced that it was not able to play in the professional ProA league.[1]

The same year the second team of Rockets managed to win the 1. Regional League South-East and promoted to the ProB. Due to loss of the main sponsor Oettinger Brauerei the team decided to sell their ProB licence to Basketball Löwen Erfurt and continue to compete in the 2. Regional League under the name of BiG (Basketball in Gotha) Rockets Gotha.

Honours
Winners: 2011–12

Players

Current roster
BiG Rockets Gotha roster
PlayersCoaches
Pos.No.Nat.NameHt.Age
PG 5 Germany Deubner, Franz
PF 6 Germany Schiller, Lorenz 2.01 m (6 ft 7 in) 23 – (2000-04-05)5 April 2000
F 6 Germany Lenz, William Valentin 1.94 m (6 ft 4 in) 19 – (2004-02-20)20 February 2004
F/C 7 Germany Enders, Jonas
C 8 Germany Keßler, Simon
F 9 Germany Pleta, Dominykas 2.02 m (6 ft 8 in) 19 – (2004-10-06)6 October 2004
SF 10 Germany Hüller, Magnus 1.96 m (6 ft 5 in) 21 – (2002-01-07)7 January 2002
PF 12 United States Franklin, Robert 1.96 m (6 ft 5 in) 42 – (1981-01-20)20 January 1981
F 13 Germany Rösler, Tom 1.98 m (6 ft 6 in) 19 – (2003-11-22)22 November 2003
PF 13 Germany Lechler, Adrian 1.98 m (6 ft 6 in) 21 – (2002-07-01)1 July 2002
C 14 Germany Jäschke, Maximilian
PG 15 Germany Arpasi, Moritz 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) 19 – (2004-03-24)24 March 2004
SG 17 Slovakia Kancír, Peter
SG 47 Germany Wolter, Nils
Head coach
  • Vacant
Assistant coach(es)
  • Germany Jannek Fritzschek
Legend
  • (C) Team captain
  • (DP) Development player
  • Injured Injured
Updated: 4 October 2020

Notable players

Note: Flags indicate national team eligibility at FIBA-sanctioned events. Players may hold other non-FIBA nationality not displayed.

Criteria

To appear in this section a player must have either:

  • Set a club record or won an individual award while at the club
  • Played at least one official international match for their national team at any time
  • Played at least one official NBA match at any time.

Head coaches
Period Coach
2003–2007Germany Peter Krautwald
2007–2009Germany Alexander Uth
2009–12/2009Lithuania Dainius Pleta
12/2009–2010United States Mike Smith
2010–2011Russia Alexander Chartschenkow
2011–11/2012Switzerland Marko Simić
12/2012–2013Germany Christoph Nicol
2013–2017Germany Chris Ensminger
2017–2018Germany Ivan Pavić
2018–10/2019Germany Valentino Lott
10/2019–11/2019Germany Ronny Schönau/Peter Krautwald
11/2019–03/2020Spain Iria Uxía Romarís Durán
09/2020Russia Kemal Velishaev

Season by season
Season Tier League Pos.
2010–11 3 ProB 9th
2011–12 3 ProB 1st
2012–13 2 ProA 14th
2013–14 2 ProA 7th
2014–15 2 ProA 4th
2015–16 2 ProA 3rd
2016–17 2 ProA 2nd
2017–18 1 BBL 17th
2018-19 5 2. Regional League 7th
2019-20 5 2. Regional League 8th

Source: Eurobasket.com

Sponsorship names
The logo of the Oettinger Rockets

Due to sponsorship reasons, the team has been known as:

References
  1. "Gotha | Erfurt: Aus für Profi-Basketball bei den Rockets | MDR.DE". www.mdr.de. Archived from the original on 2018-07-02.
  2. Peter Sack. "BiG - Basketball in Gotha: Rockets starten in der Pro B Süd" (in German). Retrieved 2017-03-07.
  3. Peter Sack. "BiG - Basketball in Gotha: Rockets weiter in der ProB" (in German). Retrieved 2017-03-07.
  4. Peter Sack. "BiG - Basketball in Gotha: Rockets spielen nächste Saison in der Messe Erfurt". www.big-gotha.de. Retrieved 2016-12-11.
  5. "Unfassbare Aufholjagd: Rockets siegen und steigen in die Bundesliga auf". 2017-05-03.
  6. "Oettinger Rockets zweiter Aufsteiger in die easyCredit BBL". zweite-basketball-bundesliga.de. 2017-05-03. Retrieved 2017-05-04.
  7. "Thüringer Bundesliga-Basketballer gehen letztmals als "Oettinger Rockets" auf Korbjagd" (in German). Thueringer-allgemeine.de. 30 December 2017. Retrieved 9 January 2018.
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