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 (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

but plays its home games in

Erfurt Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits ...

. The Rockets are 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 highest level league of professional club basketball in Germany. The league comprises 18 teams. A BBL seaso ...

(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.

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 were promoted to the national third level, the

ProB The ProB is the third-tier level 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 the '' 2. Basketball Bundesliga'', which con ...

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

ProA Proas are various types of multi-hull outrigger sailboats of the Austronesian peoples. The terms were used for native Austronesian ships in European records during the Colonial era indiscriminately, and thus can confusingly refer to the do ...

. Since the 2016–17 season, the Rockets play in the

Messe Erfurt The Messe Erfurt is a convention center including an indoor arena, in Erfurt, Germany. Its seating capacity Seating capacity is the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, in terms of both the physical space available, and limita ...

, 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, the team has played in Germany's lower divisions but moved up se ...

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 Oettinger Brauerei is a brewery group in Germany. Oettinger was Germany's best selling beer brand between 2004 and 2013 with an annual output of in 2011. Oettinger's headquarters are in Oettingen in Bayern but they also have breweries in Mön ...

. 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 promote to the

. Due to loss of the main sponsor

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

Notable players

Konstantin Klein Konstantin Kasimir Sidney Konga (born 21 May 1991 as ''Konstantin Kasimir Sidney Klein'') is a German professional basketball player for Eisbären Bremerhaven of the German ProA. Standing at 1.87 m (6 ft 1.5 in) he plays at the point guard p ...

Andreas Obst Andreas Obst (born 13 July 1996) is a German professional basketball player for Bayern Munich of the Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) and the EuroLeague. Professional career On 14 June 2016 Obst was sent on loan to Gießen 46ers by Brose Bamberg. O ...

Ekenechukwu Ibekwe Ekenechukwu Brian "Ekene" Ibekwe (born July 19, 1985) is a Nigerian American professional basketball player for Urunday Universitario of the Liga Uruguaya de Básquetbol. He played college basketball for the University of Maryland at Colle ...

Nemanja Jaramaz Nemanja Jaramaz ( sr-cyr, Немања Јарамаз; born July 10, 1991) is a Serbian professional basketball player for KK Dynamic Belgrade of the Basketball League of Serbia. Standing at , he plays at the shooting guard position. Professio ...

David Hicks David Matthew Hicks (born 7 August 1975) is an Australian who attended al-Qaeda's Al Farouq training camp in Afghanistan, and met with Osama bin Laden during 2001. He was then detained by the United States in Guantanamo Bay detention camp ...

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 a s ...

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

Travis Warech Travis Warech (טרוויס ווריק; born July 5, 1991) is an American-German-Israeli professional basketball player who last played for Hapoel Tel Aviv of the Israeli Basketball Premier League. He played college basketball for Saint Michael' ...

Current roster

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