FC Bayern Munich had a strong start in the Turkish Airlines Euroleague regular season with wins in two of its first three games. That helped the team reach the final games of the stage with a 4-4 record. Bayern faced two do-or-die games in which one win would have been enough for the German powerhouse to advance, but Real Madrid stood in its way in Munich and Bayern could not overcome Crvena Zvezda Telekom in Belgrade. Those results left Bayern fifth with a 4-6 record. Bayern joined the Eurocup in the Last 32 and it had a brilliant start, getting valuable road wins against Banvit Bandirma and Dominion Bilbao Basket to go up to 3-0. Bayern was first in its group and defeated archrival ALBA Berlin in the eighthfinals. After taking a 10-point lead in Game 1 of its two-way quarterfinals series against Galatasaray Odeabank Istanbul, Bayern faltered late. It held the aggregate lead with 45 seconds left in Game 2, but Galatasaray prevailed and eventually went all the way to conquer its first Eurocup title.

Euroleague

Eurocup

History

Simply put, FC Bayern Munich is one of the best-known sports club in the world. The 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 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 return to the German elite in 2011. Bayern got 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, as Bayern made the most out of its Euroleague debut by reaching the Top 16. Bayern was 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 the last two years and moved up to finish first its Eurocup Last 32 groups, losing against Valencia Basket in the eighthfinals in 2015 and falling against Galatasaray Odeabank Istanbul in the quarterfinals last season. Bayern returned to the German League finals in 2015, but Brose Baskets Bamberg stopped them and did the same in the 2015-16 semifinals. The club also reached the German Cup final last season, where it lost to ALBA. Bayern hopes to make the most of its valuable experience to be competitive on all fronts this season.