# Rockets (basketball club)

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 2. Regional League under the name BiG Rockets Gotha.

## 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 2. Regional League under the name of BiG (Basketball in Gotha) Rockets Gotha.

## Honours

* ProB
    Winners: 2011–12

## Players
### Notable players

Note: Flags indicate national team eligibility at FIBA-sanctioned events. Players may hold other non-FIBA nationalities not displayed.
* Criteria
* To appear in this section a player must have either:
* Set a club record or won an individual award while at the club
* Played at least one official international match for their national team at any time
* Played at least one official NBA match at any time.
* 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

| Season | Tier | League | Pos. |
| 2010–11 | 3 | ProB | 9th |
| 2011–12 | 3 | ProB | 1st |
| 2012–13 | 2 | ProA | 14th |
| 2013–14 | 2 | ProA | 7th |
| 2014–15 | 2 | ProA | 4th |
| 2015–16 | 2 | ProA | 3rd |
| 2016–17 | 2 | ProA | 2nd |
| 2017–18 | 1 | BBL | 17th |
| 2018-19 | 5 | 2. Regional League | 7th |
| 2019-20 | 5 | 2. Regional League | 8th |
Source: Eurobasket.com

## Sponsorship names

Due to sponsorship reasons, the team has been known as:
* Oettinger Rockets (2006–2017)