Phoenix Brussels
Phoenix Brussels Basketball, founded as Excelsior Brussels in 1957 is a professional basketball club based in Brussels, Belgium. The team plays in the BNXT League. Home games are played at the Sports Complex Neder-Over-Heembeek. History. The club was founded in 1957. In 1999 Excelsior merged with AERA Castor and renamed itself AERA Excelsior Brussel VZW. After 7 years in the 3e Nationale, the Belgian third division, Excelsior promoted to the 2e Nationale in 2009. In the first two years, Excelsior finished 4th and 5th and was defeated in the quarterfinals. In the 2011–12 season Excelsior reached  the semifinals and in the 2012–13 season, it finished 10th while missing the Playoffs. The club moved to the professional Scooore League, the first tier in Belgium, for the 2013–14 season. Excelsior received a C-licence, which allowed them to play with a lower budget in the league. The club also got a new main sponsor in Basic-Fit, and was renamed Basic-Fit Brussels. During the 2016–17 season, Brussels participated in a European competition for the first time by entering the 2016–17 FIBA Europe Cup season. Brussels finished fourth and last in Group A, winning one out of six  games. Along with this, the club finished in the third place in the Belgian League and reached the Finals for the first time in club history by beating Antwerp Giants in the semi-finals. On 2 July 2019, the club announced it changed its name to Phoenix Brussels. From December 2020 to March 2021, Phoenix played its home games in the Palais 12. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there were no people in attendance. Since the 2021–22 season, Brussels plays in the BNXT League, in which the national leagues of Belgium and the Netherlands have been merged. Phoenix Brussels