s.Oliver Würzburg

The old DJK Würzburg

The DJK Sport Association was founded on September 16, 1920 in Würzburg. Due to the geographic location of its home office, the DJK soon founded a local club in Würzburg. However, the different athletic departments found themselves divided among various Catholic clubs. During the Third Reich, all DJK affiliates were banned by the government. After World War II, the DJK consolidated all of its local departments into DJK Würzburg. Today the club has over 3000 members, including a variety of non-Catholic members.

The club's top women's handball team played in the Handball-Bundesliga Frauen, the top flight of women's handball in Germany, from 1976 to 1985, during the 1987–88 season and from 1993 to 1995.

The club's basketball department gained fame in the 1990s as both the men's and women's teams qualified for the top German Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) division. The women's team played many years in the first and second divisions and was crowned German Champion in 1993. In 1989, the men's team made the jump into the second division. In 1997, featuring Dirk Nowitzki in the line-up, DJK Würzburg claimed the 2nd Division South title, qualifying for the Basketball Bundesliga. In 2001, DJK spun off its men's basketball team into a private corporate entity, now known as the Würzburg Baskets, to capitalize on their growth as a professional basketball team. DJK Würzburg has produced numerous players who have gone on to have success in the BBL, with the senior men's German national basketball team and, for Nowitzki, the NBA.

In 2005, the club resigned its spot in the BBL and the club stopped competing.

The current club

In 2007, American businessman Jochen Bähr acquired a license in the Regional league for a new team in Würzburg with the aim to reach the Pro A in few seasons.

In 2011, the Würzburg Baskets, now by the name of s.Oliver Baskets (after their new sponsor s.Oliver), gained promotion from the PRO A (German Second Division), and moved up to the Basketball Bundesliga (German First Division). In its first season back in the first division, in 2011-12, the team reached the German League semifinals, after beating Alba Berlin by 3–1 in the quarterfinal series of the playoffs. In 2012–13 the actual club played in Europe for the first time, in the second tier Eurocup.^[1] In 2013–14 they relegated from the BBL. They immediately promoted back to the first tier in the 2014–15 season. The 2015-16 season was finished on rank 8, thus qualifying for the playoffs for the second time after 2012. In quarterfinals the team was eliminated by future league champion Brose Baskets, losing every game with at least a 35-point margin.

On July 15, 2016 the team changed their name from "s.Oliver Baskets" to "s.Oliver Würzburg" to strengthen the identification of team and city. Additionally the sponsoring contract with s.Oliver was extended through 2019.^[2]

Current roster

s.Oliver Würzburg roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. No. Nat. Name Ht. Wt. Age C 5000000000000000000♠0 Olaseni, Gabriel 7000210000000000000♠2.10 m (6 ft 11 in) 7002111000000000000♠111 kg (245 lb) 25 – (1992-12-29)29 December 1992 PG 7000100000000000000♠1 Hulls, Jordan 7000183000000000000♠1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) 7001830000000000000♠83 kg (183 lb) 28 – (1990-04-16)16 April 1990 PF 7000800000000000000♠8 Richter, Johannes 7000204999999999999♠2.05 m (6 ft 9 in) 7001980000000000000♠98 kg (216 lb) 24 – (1993-12-06)6 December 1993 G/F 7000900000000000000♠9 Cooks, Xavier 7000202999999999999♠2.03 m (6 ft 8 in) 7001840000000000000♠84 kg (185 lb) 23 – (1995-08-19)19 August 1995 PF 7001110000000000000♠11 Lončar, Krešimir 7000210000000000000♠2.10 m (6 ft 11 in) 7002115000000000000♠115 kg (254 lb) 35 – (1983-02-12)12 February 1983 PG 7001120000000000000♠12 Bowlin, Skyler 7000189000000000000♠1.89 m (6 ft 2 in) 7001780000000000000♠78 kg (172 lb) 29 – (1989-07-13)13 July 1989 SF 7001210000000000000♠21 Koch, Florian 7000197000000000000♠1.97 m (6 ft 6 in) 7001860000000000000♠86 kg (190 lb) 26 – (1992-03-26)26 March 1992 PG 7001220000000000000♠22 Wells, Cameron 7000186000000000000♠1.86 m (6 ft 1 in) 7001940000000000000♠94 kg (207 lb) 30 – (1988-09-23)23 September 1988 F 7001340000000000000♠34 Hoffmann, Felix 7000195000000000000♠1.95 m (6 ft 5 in) 7002100000000000000♠100 kg (220 lb) 29 – (1989-07-11)11 July 1989 PG 7001350000000000000♠35 Loesing, Brad 7000182000000000000♠1.82 m (6 ft 0 in) 7001870000000000000♠87 kg (192 lb) 29 – (1989-10-09)9 October 1989 F 7001300000000000000♠30 Ellis, Perry 7000202999999999999♠2.03 m (6 ft 8 in) 7002102000000000000♠102 kg (225 lb) 25 – (1993-09-14)14 September 1993	Head coach Denis Wucherer Assistant coach(es) Stephen Arigbabu Liam Flynn Legend (C) Team captain Injured Roster Updated: 7 September 2018

Depth chart

Notable players

To appear in this section a player must have played at least two seasons for the club AND either:

- Set a club record or won an individual award as a professional player.
- Played at least one official international match for his senior national team at any time.

• Dirk Nowitzki
• Robert Garrett
• Demond Greene
• Maxi Kleber
• Olumide Oyedeji
• LaMonte Ulmer

Notable coaches

• Gordon Herbert (2000–2001)
• Dirk Bauermann (2017-2018)

Second team

Würzburg's second team plays in the ProB, the German third division.

TG s.Oliver Würzburg roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. No. Nat. Name PG 7000400000000000000♠4 Julius Böhmer SG 7000500000000000000♠5 Lennart Stechmann PG 7000600000000000000♠6 Philipp Hadenfeldt SF 7000800000000000000♠8 Nils Leonhardt SF 7001110000000000000♠11 Julian Albus PF 7001130000000000000♠13 Dexter Sienko PF 7001140000000000000♠14 Jonas Weitzel C 7001150000000000000♠15 Flynn Fischer PF 7001160000000000000♠16 Tilman Buschbeck	Head coach Eric Detlev Assistant coach(es) Sepher Tarrah Legend (C) Team captain Injured Roster Updated: 28 September 2018

Friendships

For many years, the fan-base of Würzburg has been connected, in a friendly way, with the supporters of the Baskets Bonn. ^[3]

Rivalries

Within the Basketball Bundesliga, the city closest to Würzburg is Bamberg. Hence, between the Baskets Würzburg and the Baskets Bamberg, there has been an intense rivalry.^[4] Traditionally, the rivalry has been dominated by Bamberg because of its superior finances.