Rockets is a German professional basketball team. It is originally based in

Gotha Gotha () is the fifth-largest city in Thuringia, Germany, west of Erfurt and east of Eisenach with a population of 44,000. The city is the capital of the district of Gotha and was also a residence of the Ernestine Wettins from 1640 until the ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

but plays its home games in

Erfurt Erfurt () is the capital (political), capital and largest city of the Central Germany (cultural area), Central German state of Thuringia, with a population of around 216,000. It lies in the wide valley of the Gera (river), River Gera, in the so ...

. The Rockets is the first team of the BiG Gotha basketball club. In 2017, Rockets promoted to the

Basketball Bundesliga The Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) (English language: ''Federal Basketball League''), for sponsorship reasons named easyCredit BBL, is the German basketball league system, highest level Sports league, league of professional club basketball in German ...

(BBL), the German first tier. Following its debut season in the BBL, the professional team of Rockets was dissolved. Since 2018-19 season the team plays in the 2. Regional League under the name BiG Rockets Gotha. On April 12, 2025 the team became champion of the 2. Regional Leauge and got promoted to the 4th tire 1. Regional League.

History

2017-02-02_Oettinger_Rockets_gegen_MLP_Academics_Heidelberg_by_Sandro_Halank%E2%80%9358

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 The ProB is the German basketball league system, third-tier level Sports league, league of professional club basketball in Germany. The league comprises 24 teams, separated into a Northern and a Southern Division. Officially, the ProB is part of ...

. In the 2011–12 season, Gotha was crowned ProB champions and the team was promoted to the second tier level

ProA The ProA is the German basketball league system, second-tier Sports league, league of professional club basketball in Germany. The league comprises 16 teams. Officially the ProA is part of the ''2. Basketball Bundesliga'', which consists of the t ...

. Since the 2016–17 season, the Rockets play in the Messe Erfurt, which has a capacity of 3,236 people. On 3 May 2017, the team earned promotion to the

by beating

Niners Chemnitz Niners Chemnitz e.V., also named Chemnitz 99, is a German basketball club based in Chemnitz, Saxony. Currently, the team plays in the Basketball Bundesliga. Since its foundation in 1999, the team has played in Germany's lower divisions but mov ...

in the semi-finals of the ProA to claim a promotion spot. 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". 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. The same year the second team of Rockets managed to win the 1. Regional League South-East and promoted to the

. 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

Notable players

* Konstantin Klein * Andreas Obst * Ekenechukwu Ibekwe * Nemanja Jaramaz *

David Hicks David Matthew Hicks (born 7 August 1975) is an Australian who attended al-Qaeda's Al Farouq training camp in Afghanistan. Hicks traveled to Pakistan after converting to Islam to learn more about the faith, eventually leading to his time in th ...

Darrel Mitchell Darrel Joseph Mitchell Jr. (born May 3, 1984) is an American former professional basketball player. He played high school basketball at St. Martinville Senior High School in St. Martinville, Louisiana, and was named Louisiana Mr. Basketball as ...

Marcus Monk Marcus Monk (born April 26, 1986) is an American former professional football wide receiver and a former professional basketball player. He was selected by the Chicago Bears in the seventh round of the 2008 NFL draft. He played college football a ...

* Travis Warech

Head coaches

Season by season

Source
Eurobasket.com
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Sponsorship names

Due to sponsorship reasons, the team has been known as: * Oettinger Rockets (2006–2017)

References

External links

Rockets Gotha official website

BiG Gotha official website
{{in lang, de Basketball teams in Germany Basketball teams established in 1998 Gotha Sport in Erfurt 1998 establishments in Germany