FC Bayern Munich is one of the best-known sports clubs in the world. Its basketball team's roots go back to 1946 and the club was powerful in those early years with national championships in 1954 and 1955 and a German Cup in 1968. The team even made its European debut in the early rounds of the 1968-69 Cup Winners' Cup, but slipped over the next few years and was relegated to the German second division in 1974. After that, Bayern all but disappeared and spent just three seasons in the top German League over the next three-and-a-half decades. In 2008, following the success of the club’s junior team, Bayern purchased the license of the Dusseldorf Magics to return to the German second division. With national team stalwarts Steffen Hamann and Demond Greene signing up and head coach Dirk Bauermann leading the charge, Bayern dominated the second division and clinched its promotion to the German elite in 2011. Bayern received a wild card to play the 2011-12 EuroCup and reached the German League playoffs that season, too. Coach Svetislav Pesic stepped in before the start of the 2012-13 season as the guard tandem of Tyrese Rice and Yotam Halperin helped Bayern finish the regular season in fourth place and reach the German League semifinals. Everything clicked in the 2013-14 season when Bayern made the most out of its EuroLeague debut by reaching the Top 16. It ranked first at the end of the German League regular season and took out MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg, EWE Baskets Oldenburg and ALBA Berlin to win its first domestic crown since 1955. Coach Pesic and German League MVP Malcolm Delaney were the club's most visible faces all season. Bayern was eliminated at the end of the EuroLeague regular season in each of the next two years, but moved on to finish first in its EuroCup Last 32 groups before losing against Valencia Basket in the eighthfinals in 2015 and falling to Galatasaray Odeabank Istanbul in 2016. Bayern returned to the German League finals in 2015, but Brose Bamberg triumphed there and did the same in the 2016 semifinals. The club also reached the German Cup final a year later before capturing silverware in 2018 by taking the German title with a thrilling 3-2 finals victory over ALBA. Bayern advanced to the EuroCup Semifinals that season, too. Bayern was one win away from the EuroLeague Playoffs in the 2018-19 season and successfully defended its German crown. Things were a bit different in the 2019-10 campaign, as Bayern was away from the playoff zone in the EuroLeague. Bayern will try to bounce back in its third consecutive EuroLeague season.
Trophy Case
| German National League: 1953-54, 1954-55, 2013-14, 2017-18, 2018-19 |
| German National Cup: 1968, 2018, 2021 |