60 years of the Basketball Bundesliga / The League of Winners / Eight national players back / MVP candidate Andi Obst & shooting star Jack Kayil / Sensational newcomer Trier / Visitor record in Cologne / TOP FOUR in Munich
“60 years” anniversary for the “League of Winners”
The first half of the 2025/26 season of the easyCredit Basketball Bundesliga has been completed – and of course there are two events in particular in focus this season: the “60 Years of Basketball Bundesliga” anniversary and the European Championship triumph of the DBB selection last summer. German men’s basketball is the reigning world and European champion and the league likes to refer to the BBL roots of the gold medal winners from 2023 and 2025. The following applies to the easyCredit BBL: “The league of winners – champions made in Germany”! And the fact that the NBA’s first regular season game in Germany recently took place in Berlin with national players Moritz and Franz Wagner and Tristan da Silva illustrates what a huge momentum basketball is currently having in Germany. Time to take a look at what the first half of the season brought BBL fans from a sporting perspective.
Returnees: Eight national players with 284 international matches
It’s the season of returns. Since the summer, eight national players with 284 DBB international games have returned to the easyCredit BBL. Already European champions before the start of the season LeonKratzer (Munich, 31 international matches), Christian Sengfelder (Ulm, 37, EM-Bronze 2022), Mike Zirbes (Trier, 75), Joshua Obiesie (Braunschweig, 9), Bennet Hundt (Berlin, 11) and Robin Christians (Jena, 3) and mid-October Gavin Schilling (Chemnitz, now Ludwigsburg, 9 international matches). And at the beginning of December, this big trend of the season came even more to the fore with the two-time Euroleague champion Tibor Pleiss (109 international matches, Vechta) the biggest name on this list came back. Some well-known foreign players are back: Tommy Kuhse (2023/24 MVP candidate for Vechta), Kaza Kajami-Keane (Won the FIBA Europe Cup with Chemnitz in 2024 and was finals MVP), Stefan Jovic (2018 and 2019 champions with Munich) and Ryan Mikesell (2024/25 MVP candidate for Heidelberg) are even back at their former clubs.
National players Andi Obst and Jack Kayil impressed
World and European champions Andreas Obst (94 international matches) is having the best season of his career. The 29-year-old shooting guard from FC Bayern Basketball scored an average of 14.8 points in 14 BBL games, hitting 49.6 percent of his field throws and is Munich’s top scorer in both the national league and the Euroleague, making him one of the hot candidates for the award as the most valuable BBL player of the season (MVP) in his final year of contract.
Jack Kyle ALBA BERLIN, on the other hand, is the favorite to win the award as the best German young player (U22). While most of the German U19 runners-up are at a US college this season, Kayil returned to his hometown to play for his hometown club – and the national player, who has just turned 20 (four international matches), is doing exceptionally well so far. The combo guard has so far averaged 13.1 points, 3.7 assists and 2.8 rebounds in 18 games in just over 20 minutes and has already proven himself several times as a man for crunch time – such as with his three-pointer and his assist in the home win against reigning champions Munich.
The sensational newcomer from Trier
Die VET-CONCEPT Gladiators Trier are sensationally in third place with 11:6 wins. The newcomer scores the most points in the league (90.4 on average) and Trier’s fast game ensured successes in Berlin and against runner-up Ulm, among other things. Jacques Schneiderat 33 years old the youngest BBL head coach this season, is one of the early favorites for the Coach of the Year award. There is correspondingly great euphoria for the cup winners in 1998 and 2001; an average of 5,307 spectators flocked to the Trier SWT Arena (5,400 seats) for the nine home games. The last club to make it into the playoffs as a promoted team was Vechta in 2024, sixth in the main round.
Lots of crime stories, lots of extensions
In the arenas of the 18 easyCredit BBL clubs, things are more exciting than they have been for a long time! Never in the league’s almost 60-year history have there been such a percentage of games that were only decided in overtime. And since the turn of the millennium, there have only been two more close games in percentage terms that ended with a difference of a maximum of five points.
The Overtime Party:
– 2025/26: 8.0 percent (12/150)
Previous season bests in the 60 seasons:
– 2018/19: 6.5 percent (20/306)
– 2023/24: 6.2 percent (19/306)
Close game results:
– 2025/26: 32.9 percent
Previous season bests since 2000:
– 2005/06: 34.2 percent
– 2003/04: 33.9 percent
All games of the easyCredit BBL and the BBL Cup will be here at Dyn broadcast, in addition there is a top game every Sunday from 4.30 p.m. on WELT TV, which can be viewed freely on linear television (here also as a live stream).
Note: Statistics and figures are from January 29, 2026
After 25 years: visitor record broken in Cologne
The excitement in the BBL arenas is also reflected in the number of spectators: with an average of 4,955 visitors per game over the first 150 games, the easyCredit BBL is on course for a record. Since 1966, the average number of fans in the arenas has never been higher. The previous record comes from last season with 4,676 fans; before that, there were 4,494 visitors in the 2013/14 season a good ten years ago (more information).
- 2025/26: 4,955 spectators per game
- 2024/25: 4,676 spectators per game
- 2013/14: 4,494 spectators per game
ALBA BERLIN has the highest average (9,053 visitors), the EWE Baskets Oldenburg has the highest occupancy, as all nine home games this season and a total of 54 BBL games in a row were sold out in the large EWE Arena. The average occupancy rate in the 18 arenas is currently 90 percent. In addition, six of the eight event games planned for the main round have already taken place in multifunctional arenas in Hamburg (Barclays Arena), Leipzig (QUARTERBACK Immobilien ARENA), Mannheim (SAP Arena), Munich (SAP Garden) and Cologne (LANXESS arena).
At the game in Cologne on December 21, 2025 between Telekom Baskets Bonn and FC Bayern Basketball, the league’s attendance record of 25 years was broken with 18,713 spectators, which was also set in Cologne by the Telekom Baskets at the time.
The five best-attended games in league history:
18.713 2025/26 Telekom Baskets Bonn – FC Bayern Basketball
18.506 1999/00 Telekom Baskets Bonn – ALBA BERLIN
15,033 2001/02 RheinEnergy Cologne – Telekom Baskets Bonn
14,917 2005/06 RheinEnergie Cologne – ALBA BERLIN
14.800 2008/09 ALBA BERLIN – Artland Dragons
TOP FOUR 2026 in Munich is coming up
The German Cup winner will soon be determined for the 60th time – and the fans will have their chance on the 21st/22nd. A magnificent TOP FOUR awaits us in February in the SAP Garden, Europe’s most modern arena, where the cup weekend will also be celebrated in the next two years.
With the FC Bayern Basketballthe BMA365 Bamberg Baskets, ALBA BERLIN and the EWE Baskets Oldenburg Four clubs are fighting for the first title of the season, having won 23 of the 59 cup victories so far, including 16 in a row from 2009 to 2024. In the last eleven years, all four clubs have faced each other in at least one cup final. Bamberg versus Munich is the classic story of David and Goliath (Bayern have the highest planned player budget, Bamberg the lowest). Berlin’s head coach Pedro Calles meets Oldenburg, where he was head coach in 2024/25. For Bamberg Anton Gavel it’s against his former coach Svetislav Pesic and Bayern, where he was last a player (2014-2018) and won the double in 2018.
Here at Dyn, basketball fans experience the fight for the first title of the season live and on demand at any time. The TOP FOUR is produced in a transmission quality that is unique for German basketball. Dyn uses a total of 18 cameras that provide unique emotions and closeness. This celebration of German basketball is rounded off by extensive reporting and a top-class on-air team.
easyCredit Basketball Bundesliga
The easyCredit Basketball Bundesliga is the umbrella organization for all teams in the highest German basketball league and organizes the German championship and the BBL Cup. The operational business is managed by Basketball Bundesliga GmbH. She is responsible for the organizational management of the competitions and the game scheduling. BBL GmbH also regulates licensing and player transfers. The easyCredit BBL also creates the strategic framework for the clubs’ sporting and economic development and is responsible for the central marketing of, among other things, naming rights and media rights.
