Amsterdam Basketball

Amsterdam Basketball was a Dutch professional basketball club from the city of Amsterdam, established in 1995 and dissolved in 2011. The club won the Dutch championship seven times and the Dutch Cup five times.

Amsterdam
Founded21 July 1995
Dissolved11 August 2011
History
ArenaSporthallen Zuid
Capacity3,000
LocationAmsterdam, Netherlands
Championships7 Dutch Leagues
5 Dutch Cups

History

Early years (1995–1997)

After it was announced that the Graydons Canadians, a team from Amsterdam would not participate in the Eredivisie of 1995–96, Ed de Haas, Carlo Brunink and Oscar Kales founded the club. The club immediately started playing in the highest division in the Netherlands, and was named Finish Profiles Amsterdam after the new main sponsor. In the first season Tyrone Marionneaux was the head coach and Finish Profiles ended on a 9th place.

In the 1996–97 Jan Willem Jansen became head coach and new players like Mario Bennes were acquired, which led to the team winning the NBB Cup and reaching the league Finals. The club also played for the first season with the name Amsterdam Astronauts, which referred to the home arena of the club, the Apollohal.

First European games and Dutch titles (1997–2002)
Sporthallen Zuid, home arena of Amsterdam

In 1997–98 the club debuted in Europe and started a second team, that would play in the Promotiedivisie. From that point some good years for the club began, as one of the all-time great coaches in Dutch basketball history Ton Boot started coaching the team. In the 1998–99 season the club won its first Dutch championship and reached the semifinals of the Korać Cup, in which it lost to Racing Basket Paris. In that semifinals the team played against later NBA All-Star Tony Parker. In the 2000–01 season the 3rd straight Dutch title was one. Before the 2001–02 season the club moved to Sporthallen Zuid, which had a capacity of 3,000. Another championship was won in the Sporthallen. The club had a tough season the following year, as newly formed EiffelTowers Nijmegen took the trophies.

Golden Years (2003–2009)
Arik Shivek coached Amsterdam to three DBL titles

In the 2003–04, season Israeli head coach Arik Shivek became head coach of Amsterdam, and some memorable players were acquired in Joe Spinks, Mario Bennes (who played earlier with the club), Chris McGuthrie and Teddy Gipson. The club also got a new main sponsor in Demon and was renamed Demon Astronauts. In 2004–05, the fifth national title was won, after Amsterdam beat Landstede Basketbal 4–0 in the Finals.

In 2005–06 and 2006–07, Amsterdam played as the Amsterdam Astronauts and ended in the 2nd and 6th places in the Eredivisie.

In May 2007, businessman Roel Pieper got the job of chairman of the club. MyGuide became the new main sponsor of the club. In 2008–09 and 2009–10, the club won their sixth and seventh titles, both by beating EiffelTowers Den Bosch 4–3 in the Finals. Also, captain Peter van Paassen won the league MVP award in both seasons.

Even though Amsterdam won their 2009 title on May 31, they had to wait till June 15 to officially get their title. Amsterdam player Orien Greene had used cannabis, but because the letter to inform the club never arrived the club got to keep their title.

To add to the turmoil, both main sponsors of the club (MyGuide and Eclipse-Jet) went bankrupt,[1] so the team played without a sponsor in the 2009–10 season.

Rebuilding and disappearance (2009–2011)

The team was renamed ABC Amsterdam. The team, led by domestic players as DBL All-Stars Jessey Voorn, Dimeo van der Horst and Ramon Siljade did manage to reach the Playoffs in the 2009–10 and 2010–11 seasons.

The team was dissolved on August 11, 2011, after it couldn't find a main sponsor that was willing to invest enough money to keep the club in the DBL.[2] For the first time since the foundation of the Eredivisie, no team from Amsterdam played in the league. In the 2012–13 season, BC Apollo entered as new team from Amsterdam.

Sponsorships names
  • 1995-1997: Finish Profiles Amsterdam
  • 1997-2003: Ricoh Astronauts
  • 2003-2006 Demon Ricoh Astronauts
  • 2006-2007 Amsterdam Astronauts
  • 2007-2009 MyGuide Amsterdam
  • 2009-10 EclipseJet-MyGuide Amsterdam
  • 2010-2011 ABC Amsterdam

Honours

Domestic competitions

Dutch League

Dutch Cup

  • Winners (5): 1996–97, 1997–98, 1998–99, 2003–04, 2005–06

European competitions

FIBA Korać Cup

  • Semi-finalist (1): 2000-01

Season by season
Season Tier League Pos. Dutch Cup European competitions
1995–96 1 Eredivisie 9th
1996–97 1 Eredivisie 2nd Winner 3 Korać Cup
R1
1997–98 1 Eredivisie 3rd Winner 3 Korać Cup
1998–99 1 Eredivisie 1st Winner 3 Korać Cup
1999–00 1 Eredivisie 1st 2 Saporta Cup
L16
2000–01 1 Eredivisie 1st 3 Korać Cup
SF
2001–02 1 Eredivisie 1st 2 Saporta Cup
RS
2002–03 1 Eredivisie 3rd 2 ULEB Cup
RS
2003–04 1 Eredivisie 3rd Winner
2004–05 1 Eredivisie 1st 3 FIBA Europe League
L16
2005–06 1 Eredivisie 3rd Winner 2 ULEB Cup
RS
2006–07 1 Eredivisie 4th 3 FIBA EuroCup
RS
2007–08 1 Eredivisie 1st Runner-up
2008–09 1 Eredivisie 1st Runner-up 3 EuroChallenge
QF
2009–10 1 Eredivisie 7th Runner-up 3 EuroChallenge
RS
2010–11 1 DBL 8th

Notable players

To appear in this section a player must have either: played at least one season for the club, 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 or performed very successfully during period in the club or at later/previous stages of his career.

gollark: Wait, I can just use it as a desktop application, much easier.
gollark: I should probably tell it to not use enderium too.
gollark: -halt
gollark: What does it mean "too big"?
gollark: -generate 4x4x4 efficiency no cryotheum no helium no emerald

References
  1. "Sponsor basketballers EclipseJet MyGuide failliet". sportfotografie.us. 2008-11-07. Retrieved 2014-02-03.
  2. "RTV N-H - Sport - ABC Amsterdam wordt opgeheven". rtvnh.nl. 2011-08-01. Retrieved 2014-02-03.
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