The Netherlands men's national basketball team () represents the Netherlands in international basketball matches. The national team is governed by Basketball Nederland.
The Dutch have reached the European Basketball Championship on 16 occasions. Their best results at the event came in 1983, where they finished in fourth place. They have also qualified for the FIBA World Cup once, in 1986. However, in recent years the national team has struggled to maintain consistency to reach major international tournaments.
The team represents itself as the Orange Lions.
History 1946–1991: Early years
The Netherlands were one of the teams that played in the 1946, 1947, 1949 and 1951 EuroBasket tournaments. During this period, the 5th place finish in 1949 was the best performance by the national team.
1961–1991: EuroBasket success & World Cup debut The Oranje qualified for three European Basketball Championships in the 1960s (1961, 1963, 1967). After three consecutive missed tournaments, the Netherlands had another three EuroBasket appearance stretch from 1975, 1977, and 1979. During the 1977 EuroBasket, the Netherlands' star player Kees Akerboom shined during the tournament. He finished the competition as the top scorer, and earned a spot on the All-Tournament Team.
At EuroBasket 1983, the Dutch had its biggest success in history under head coach Vladimir Heger. The national team achieved fourth place at the tournament. The Dutch wound up reaching the semi-finals, but eventually fell to Italy. In the third-place game they would lose again, this time to the Soviet Union.
Three years after achieving success at the continental level, the Netherlands qualified to the World Cup for the first time in 1986. The national team ultimately did not make it out of the group stage though, finishing the tournament with an (2–3) record to place 14th overall.
1991–2012: Long mediocre period
From 1991 until 2012, the Netherlands did not qualify for a EuroBasket tournament. Star player Francisco Elson, former NBA-champion, represented the team on several occasions but the team never came close to qualifying. During this period, notable Dutch players like Dan Gadzuric were not willing to play for the national team. Home games were usually played at the Topsportcentrum in Almere and usually had little to no media attention or fan support in the Netherlands.
Rising from the ashes (2012–2015)
In December 2012, it was announced that the Netherlands national team would be dissolved for 2 years, because the national federation NBB {Netherlands Basketball Bond} was not willing to invest money in to it. After a campaign by Dutch players who played in the Dutch Basketball League, the national team was eventually saved. Sports broadcaster Sport1 became the main sponsor and DBL-teams invested in the team, which started playing again.
During August 2013, the Netherlands was on its way to qualification for EuroBasket 2015, but lost two games 20–0 because the team played with two players – Mohamed Kherrazi and Sean Cunningham – who were identified as foreign players by FIBA. The NBB believed that both were eligible players, and was upset that the attention came up after the Netherlands already won 2 games.
"Miracle of 2014"
At the start of the second 2015-qualification round, things looked bad for the Oranje. The DBL-teams didn't have any more money to invest in the team and the NBB wasn't ready to take the team back. Head coach Toon van Helfteren, who worked as a volunteer, still did prepare for the qualifying games. He invited 42 players to play for the national team, but after most (notable) players rejected the offer, he started his first training camp with 7 players. The team eventually shocked the world, by beating heavy favorite Montenegro to get the second place in their group. On 27 August 2014, the Dutch national team qualified for EuroBasket for the first time in 25 years.
Return to EuroBasket (2015–present) The national team left the NBB and FEB, from 2015 the team was run by the NMT. Coach Van Helfteren then had his contract with the national team extended. In contrast to the summer of 2014, big name players from foreign leagues applied to play for the national team.
In the first game at EuroBasket 2015, the Dutch beat Georgia 73–72 behind Charlon Kloof's 22 and Worthy de Jong's 16 points. The Netherlands remaining four games though were all loses, but only by single digits to power houses such as Croatia and Greece.
On 22 July 2019, Italian coach Maurizio Buscaglia signed on to become head coach of the Netherlands, replacing Toon van Helfteren who stepped down. After a disappointing EuroBasket 2022, in which the Netherlands went winless, Buscaglia was sacked. On 6 October 2022, Radenko Varagić was appointed as interim head coach for the remaining World Cup qualifying campaign.
On 23 May 2023, the Netherlands named Israeli coach Arik Shivek, as head coach of the national team. He previously led at national team level for five years with Israel from 2009 to 2014. Two years later, after the Netherlands failed to qualify for EuroBasket 2025, Shivek was replaced as national team head coach with Dutch coach Johan Roijakkers.
Competitive record
FIBA World Cup World CupQualificationYearPosition 1950Did not qualify514 1954Did not enterDid not enter 1959 1963Did not qualifyEuroBasket servedas qualifiers 1967 1970 1974 1978 1982 198614th523642 1990Did not qualifyEuroBasket servedas qualifiers 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 201916610 202310010 2027To be determinedIn progress 2031To be determinedTotal1/195 2 3 37 11 26
Olympic Games Olympic GamesQualifyingYearPosition 1936No national representative 1948Did not enter 1952 1956 1960Did not qualify752 1964826 1968817 1972954 1976945 1980312 1984312 1988422 1992523 1996Did not qualify 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020 2024312 2028To be determinedTo be determinedTotal0/20 59 24 35
EuroBasket EuroBasketQualificationYearPosition 1935No national representative 1937 1939 19466th312 194711th624 19495th624 195110th963 1953Did not enter 1955 1957 1959 196115th633 196316th918110 1965Did not qualify312 196716th909330 1969Did not qualify422 1971303 1973642 197510th725972 19777th734871 197910th734Directly qualified 1981Did not qualify844 19834th734990 198512th716Directly qualified 198710th725963 19898th5051073 1991Did not qualify624 1993624 1995532 19971578 19991367 20011376 200310010 200512210 2007Division B853 2009Division B853 2011Division B642 2013Did not qualify826 201521st514954 2017Did not qualify642 202222nd505633 2025Did not qualify615 2029To be determinedTo be determinedTotal16/39105 30 75 210 109 101
Results and fixtures
2025
2026
2027
Team Current roster Roster for the 2027 FIBA World Cup Qualifiers matches on 27 and 30 August 2026 against Germany and Croatia.
Depth chart
List of head coaches
No. Name Nationality From To Games coached Wins Losses Winningpercentage Notes 1 31 March 1946 1 May 1951 39 15 24 2 1 March 1952 1 April 1952 3 1 2 3 1 November 1952 1 April 1953 3 1 2 4 1 September 1953 1 September 1955 3 0 3 5 1 March 1955 31 January 1957 3 0 3 6 27 October 1956 27 October 1956 1 0 1 Interim replacement.7 1 November 1957 1 November 1957 1 0 1 Interim replacement. 8 1 March 1959 1 May 1959 10 2 8 9 5 March 1960 2 October 1965 5 1 4 10 1 April 1960 1 November 1965 11 1 September 1966 1 July 1970 54 18 36 Steuer was the first ever foreign coach. 12 1 October 1970 1 May 1971 10 4 6 13 1 May 1971 1 May 1973 31 17 14 14 1 May 1974 1 May 1974 1 1 0 15 1 October 1974 1 July 1976 56 33 23 16 1 January 1977 1 September 1977 17 1 May 1978 1 June 1979 30 20 10 18 1 April 1980 1 May 1980 11 3 8 19 1 February 1981 1 May 1981 10 5 5 20 1 July 1982 1 August 1982 21 1 April 1982 1 June 1986 82 44 38 22 1 June 1986 30 June 1991 23 1 June 1991 1 June 1993 26 9 17 24 1 September 1993 1 June 1997 44 24 20 25 1 June 1997 1 May 1999 26 7 19 26 1 September 1999 1 February 2000 5 1 4 27 4 August 2000 1 January 2003 21 5 16 28 1 January 2004 14 April 2006 26 5 21 29 24 May 2006 4 February 2008 13 8 5 30 13 May 2008 20 April 2012 43 25 18 31 25 June 2012 2013 15 6 9 32 6 March 2013 25 February 2019 87 28 59 Coached at EuroBasket 2015. 33 22 July 2019 10 September 2022 25 3 22 Coached at EuroBasket 2022. 34 6 October 2022 26 February 2023 4 0 4 Interim replacement. 35 23 May 2023 24 February 2025 17 6 11 36 10 June 2025 present 18 6 12
Past rosters 1946 EuroBasket: finished 6th among 10 teams
3 Chris van Laar, 4 Joop Koper, 5 Henk Mik, 6 Wim van Someren, 7 Freek Brandt, 8 Jan Aldenberg, 9 Henk Koper, 13 Chris Kugelein, 14 Wim Kunnen, 15 Ben Gerritsma (Coach: Dick Schmüll)
1947 EuroBasket: finished 11th among 14 teams
3 Joop Koper, 4 Chris van Laar, 5 Freek Brandt, 6 Jaap van Veen, 7 Wim van Someren, 8 B Winkel, 9 Tan Eng Hau, 10 Henk Koper, 20 Visser (Coach: Dick Schmüll)
1949 EuroBasket: finished 5th among 7 teams
3 Jaap van Veen, 4 Jaap van Veen, 5 Tom Losekoot, 6 Tan Eng Hau, 7 Henk Koper, 8 Joop Koper, 9 Wim van Someren, 10 Henk van de Broek, 11 Jan Hille, 20 Freek Brandt (Coach: Dick Schmüll)
1951 EuroBasket: finished 10th among 17 teams
3 Tim de Jong, 4 Johan de Hoop, 5 Bob van der Valk, 6 Ab Gootjes, 7 Jaap van Veen, 8 Henk van de Broek, 9 Vok Alberda, 10 Kees van der Schuijt, 11 Jan Hille, 12 Piet Ouderland, 13 Ton Koemans, 14 Rinus van Eijkeren (Coach: Dick Schmüll)
1961 EuroBasket: finished 15th among 19 teams
4 Henny Braun, 5 Antonie Boot, 6 Jan Bruin, 7 Jan Driehuis, 8 Dolf Pouw, 9 Wim Franke, 10 Maarten Sleeswijk, 11 Gerrit Kok, 12 Peter de Jong, 13 Gunter van de Berg, 14 Franciscus de Haan, 15 Hans Perrier (Coach: Jan Janbroers)
1963 EuroBasket: finished 16th among 16 teams
4 Jos Pelk, 5 Antonie Boot, 6 Jan Bruin, 7 Jan Driehuis, 8 Simon Schagen, 9 Bob Grosmann, 10 Wim Franke, 11 Gerrit Kok, 12 Roelof Tuinstra, 13 Jan Schappert, 14 Franciscus de Haan, 15 Frederik Witte (Coach: Jan Janbroers)
1967 EuroBasket: finished 16th among 16 teams
4 Petrus Rijsewik, 5 Antonie Boot, 6 Jan Bruin, 7 Frank Kales, 8 Antonius van der Kroon, 9 Karel Pastor, 10 Karel Vrolijk, 11 Erik Jager, 12 Roelof Tuinstra, 13 Erik van Woerkom, 14 Franciscus de Haan, 15 Frederik Witte (Coach: Egon Steuer)
1975 EuroBasket: finished 10th among 12 teams
4 Jan Dekker, 5 Antonie Boot, 6 Jan Sikking, 7 Hugo Harrewijn, 8 Herman Pluim, 9 Walter Ombre, 10 John van Vliet, 11 Kees Akerboom, 12 Dan Cramer, 13 Toon van Helfteren, 14 Pieter van Tuyll, 15 Harry Kip (Coach: Bill Sheridan)
1977 EuroBasket: finished 7th among 12 teams
4 Al Faber, 5 Jan Dekker, 6 Jimmy Woudstra, 7 Cees Limmen, 8 Emill Hagens, 9 Bert Kragtwijk, 10 Cock van de Lagemaat, 11 Dan Cramer, 12 Kees Akerboom, 13 Jan Loorbach, 14 Renso Zwiers, 15 Harry Kip (Coach: Jan Janbroers)
1979 EuroBasket: finished 10th among 12 teams
4 Bert Kragtwijk, 5 Jan Dekker, 6 Dan Cramer, 7 Mitchell Plaat, 8 Emill Hagens, 9 Al Faber, 10 Sid Bruinsma, 11 Jimmy Woudstra, 12 Kees Akerboom, 13 Toon van Helfteren, 14 Pieter van Tuyll, 15 Harry Kip (Coach: Tom Quinn)
1983 EuroBasket: finished 4th among 12 teams
4 René Ridderhof, 5 Ronald Schilp, 6 Randy Wiel, 7 Mitchell Plaat, 8 Jelle Esveldt, 9 Al Faber, 10 Jos Kuipers, 11 Dan Cramer, 12 Cock van de Lagemaat, 13 Henk Pieterse, 14 Roland van den Bergh, 15 Rob van Essen (Coach: Vladimír Heger)
1985 EuroBasket: finished 12th among 12 teams
4 Martin Esajas, 5 Ronald Schilp, 6 Martin de Vries, 7 Marco de Waard, 8 Jelle Esveldt, 9 Ron van der Schaaf, 10 John Franken, 11 Cock van de Lagemaat, 12 Jos Kuipers, 13 Peter van Noord, 14 Hans Heijdeman, 15 Rob van Essen (Coach: Vladimír Heger)
1986 FIBA World Cup: finished 14th among 24 teams
4 Rik Smits, 5 Jelle Esveldt, 6 Ronald Schilp, 7 Cock van de Lagemaat, 8 Raymond Bottse, 9 Rene Ebeltjes, 10 Chris van Dinten, 11 Hans Heijdeman, 12 Erik Griekspoor, 13 Emill Hagens, 14 Marco de Waard, 15 Peter van Noord (Coach: Ruud Harrewijn)
1987 EuroBasket: finished 10th among 12 teams