Rockets is a German professional basketball team. It is originally based in Gotha, Germany, but plays its home games in Erfurt. The Rockets is the first team of the BiG Gotha basketball club.
In 2017, Rockets promoted to the Basketball Bundesliga (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 2nd Regional League under the name BiG Rockets Gotha. On April 12, 2025 the team became champion of the 2nd Regional League and got promoted to the 4th tier 1st Regional League.
History
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. In the 2011–12 season, Gotha was crowned ProB champions and the team was promoted to the second tier level ProA.
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 Basketball Bundesliga by beating Niners Chemnitz 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 ProB. 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 2nd Regional League under the name of BiG (Basketball in Gotha) Rockets Gotha.
Honours ProB Winners: 2011–12 2nd Regional League Winners: 2024-25
Players Current roster
Notable players
Konstantin Klein Andreas Obst Ekenechukwu Ibekwe Nemanja Jaramaz David Hicks Darrel Mitchell Marcus Monk Travis Warech
Head coaches Period Coach 2003–2007 Peter Krautwald 2007–2009 Alexander Uth 2009–12/2009 Dainius Pleta 12/2009–2010 Mike Smith 2010–2011 Alexander Chartschenkow 2011–11/2012 Marko Simić 12/2012–2013 Christoph Nicol 2013–2017 Chris Ensminger 2017–2018 Ivan Pavić 2018–10/2019 Valentino Lott 10/2019–11/2019 Ronny Schönau/Peter Krautwald 11/2019–03/2020 Iria Uxía Romarís Durán 09/2020 Kemal Velishaev
Season by season SeasonTierLeague 2010–113 ProB9th 2011–123 ProB1st 2012–132 ProA14th 2013–142 ProA7th 2014–152 ProA4th 2015–162 ProA3rd 2016–172 ProA2nd 2017–181 BBL17th 2018-195 2nd Regional League7th 2019-205 2nd Regional League8th 2020-215 2nd Regional League- 2021-225 2nd Regional League10th 2022-235 2nd Regional League5th 2023-245 2nd Regional League2nd 2024-255 2nd Regional League1st 2025-264 1st Regional League12th Source: Eurobasket.com
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