The Crailsheim Merlins, for sponsorships reasons named Hakro Merlins Crailsheim, is a professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

club based in

Crailsheim Crailsheim is a town in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. Incorporated in 1338, it lies east of Schwäbisch Hall and southwest of Ansbach in the Schwäbisch Hall district. The city's main attractions include two Evangelical churches, a ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. Established in 1986, the club plays in 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 season ...

(BBL), the highest professional league in Germany. The club is a part of the multi-sports club

TSV Crailsheim TSV Crailsheim is a German association football club from the town of Crailsheim, Baden-Württemberg. History Founded as the gymnastics club ''Turnverein Crailsheim'' in 1846, the association today has over 3,000 members in 20 departments, inc ...

. Home games are played in the Arena Hohenlohe, which has a capacity of 3,000 people.

History

The club was founded on 31 January 1986 by a group of students. Until 1994, the team was only active at the lower local leagues and had problems in finding a hall to play at. A year later, the club found a new home in the barracks of departed American armed forces. In 2001, the Merlins managed to promote to the German second division, now the

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 ...

, for the first time. A new home arena was found again, in the form of a renovated market hall. In the 2013–14 season Merlins promoted to the

, by reaching the

Finals. The club managed to avoid relegation in its first season in the league, because

Artland Dragons QTSV Quakenbrück, representing its professional team as Artland Dragons, is a basketball club based in Quakenbrück, Germany. Their home arena was the Artland Arena, which has room for 3,000 spectators. From 2003 till 2015 the club played in the ...

was relegated the club received a wild card. However, in the following 2015–16 season the team was relegated once again after finishing last. In the 2020-21 season, coach

Tuomas Iisalo Tuomas Iisalo (born 29 July 1982) is a Finnish basketball coach and former player. He currently is the head coach of the Telekom Baskets Bonn. Standing at , Iisalo played as shooting guard during his playing career. He also played for the Finnish ...

guided the Merlins to their first Bundesliga playoff appearance in club history. Iisalo left Crailsheim at the conclusion of the 2020-21 campaign, Sebastian Gleim was named the new head coach. In the 2021–22 season, Crailsheim made its European debut as it was placed in the regular season of the

FIBA Europe Cup The FIBA Europe Cup (FEC) is an annual professional club basketball competition organised by FIBA for eligible European clubs. It is FIBA's European-wide second level. Clubs mainly qualify for the competition based on their performance in nation ...

. On 13 October 2021, the Merlins recorded an away win over

Bakken Bears Bakken Bears is a Denmark, Danish professional basketball club based in Aarhus. The club plays in the Basketligaen, the top tier basketball league in Denmark. Founded in 1953, the club has won the Basketligaen 20 times and holds the record for t ...

in their debut. The same season, the Merlins also reached the final of the

2021–22 BBL-Pokal The 2021–22 BBL-Pokal was the 55th season of the BBL-Pokal, the domestic cup competition of the Basketball Bundesliga (BBL). Alba Berlin won their eleventh title by defeating Crailsheim Merlins in the final. Participants The sixteen highest p ...

, its first final appearance in the national cup. The Merlins eventually lost to 86–78 to

ALBA Berlin Alba Berlin is a German professional basketball club that is based in Berlin, Germany. The club was founded in 1991, and is today the largest German national basketball club by membership figures. Alba Berlin hosts its home games at the Mercedes ...

Sponsorship names

Due to sponsorship reasons the team has been known as: *Proveo Merlins: 2007–2009 *Hakro Merlins Crailsheim: 2018–present

Honours

BBL-Pokal Basketball Bundesliga-Pokal, commonly known as the BBL-Pokal, is the annual national basketball cup competition in Germany. Since 2009, the title has been awarded to the winner of a tournament competition between top clubs of each Basketball Bund ...

*Runners-up (1): 2021–22

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 consi ...

*Winners (1): 2008–09

Players

Current roster

Notable players

Head coaches

Season by season

References

External links

*
Team profile at Eurobasket.com
{{FIBA Europe Cup 2022–23 Basketball teams established in 1986 1986 establishments in Germany Basketball clubs in Baden-Württemberg