Den_Bosch_Basketball
Heroes Den Bosch
Basketball team in 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands
Heroes Den Bosch is a Dutch professional basketball club based in 's-Hertogenbosch.[1] The club plays in the BNXT League since 2021 and in the top basketball division in the Netherlands since 1972. Founded as EBBC in 1951, the club had several sponsored names the following decades.
| Heroes Den Bosch | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 | |||
| Leagues | BNXT League | ||
| Founded | 18 October 1952; 71 years ago (1952-10-18) | ||
| Arena | Maaspoort | ||
| Capacity | 2,700 | ||
| Location | 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands | ||
| Team colors | Red, White, Blue | ||
| President | Bob van Oosterhout | ||
| General manager | Stefan Wessels | ||
| Head coach | Erik Braal | ||
| Ownership | Bob van Oosterhout | ||
| 2021–22 position | BNXT League, 5th of 21 | ||
| Championships | 17 Dutch Championships 8 Dutch Cups 3 Dutch Supercups 1 Ricoh Cup 1 Haarlem Basketball Week | ||
| Retired numbers | 4 (5, 9, 12, 12) | ||
| Website | heroesdenbosch | ||
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Den Bosch has won a record seventeen Dutch championships, a record eight Dutch Cups and two Dutch Supercup titles. The team has also been a regular at European competitions, most recently the FIBA Europe Cup. Heroes plays their home games at the Maaspoort, which has a capacity of approximately 2,700 people.[2]
On 18 October 1952, Eerste Bossche Basketball Club (EBBC) was founded by Cees Vossen, Tom van der Leur, Hans van Oorschot and Frans van de Wiel. In 1962, Den Bosch played in the top division Eredivisie for the first time, but not very successful. Subsequently, the team was relegated again. In 1979, EBBC won its first title. In 1980, the team became Nashua Den Bosch after its new main sponsor. Its increased budget led to six consecutive Dutch titles between 1982 and 1987.
Nashua Den Bosch in the 1980s
In December 1979, Nashua signed as the club's new main sponsor.[3] In the next 10 years, Nashua won 9 national championships and was close to the European top clubs. Star players such as Tom Barker, Dan Cramer, Mitchell Plaat, David Lawrence, Henk Pieterse, Paul Thompson and Mike Reddick played for Nashua in this decade.
Den Bosch changed its home arena to the newly built Maaspoort, increasing its home capacity from 1,200 to 3,500. Nashua played in the 1979 FIBA Intercontinental Cup.
EiffelTowers (2005–2013)
Decades later, in June 2005, Den Bosch merged with EiffelTowers Nijmegen to form EiffelTowers Den Bosch. Following the merger the club had one of the largest budgets in the Netherlands, and with that they were able to attract high-quality players. In their first season they had immediate success by winning the Dutch League title. The year after that (2006–07) EiffelTowers The Bosch would win the title again after a clean sweep against the Matrixx Magixx, after losing only four games in the regular season. The two following years, Den Bosch reached the finals, but lost twice to Amsterdam.
In 2012, EiffelTowers won its fifteenth Dutch championship, after beating ZZ Leiden 1–4 in a best-of-seven-series.
SPM Shoeters (2013–2016)
After 13 years playing as the EiffelTowers, in 2013, the club changed its name to SPM Shoeters as a reference to its new main sponsor SPM Shoes and Boots, a shoe producer based in Waalwijk.[4] Along with the name change the club changed the team colors to black, after playing in red since 2000.
In the 2014–15 season, Shoeters won its sixteenth DBL championship after Donar was beaten 4–1 in the Finals. The team also performed excellently in the EuroChallenge that season, reaching the Top 16. Star of the season for Den Bosch was Brandyn Curry, who was named DBL Playoffs MVP.
After the 2015–16 season, it was revealed that Shoeters was dealing with serious financial problems which had the team on the edge of bankruptcy.[5]
New Heroes (2016–2019)
In October 2016, the team was bought by Triple Double BV, a sports marketing enterprise. Owner of the company Bob van Oosterhout took over the club which was no longer in danger of dissolution. On 6 November 2016, Den Bosch found a new main sponsor and subsequently was named New Heroes Basketball after signing a three-year deal with the local online training platform New Heroes.[6] In its first season as New Heroes, the club finished fourth in the DBL and was swept by Donar in the semi-finals.
In the 2017–18 season, Croatian coach Silvano Poropat signed a two-year contract.[7] Under Poropat, Heroes finished fourth once again but was eliminated in the quarterfinals by Rotterdam Basketbal. Following the disappointing season, Poropat and Heroes parted ways.
On 31 May 2018, Kees Akerboom Jr. announced his retirement at age 34.[8] Akerboom, who played 11 seasons for the club, had his jersey number 12 retired.[9]
For the 2018–19 season, Ivica Skelin was appointed as head coach. This season, New Heroes played in the FIBA Europe Cup after a European absence of 3 years. In Group D, Heroes had a 3–3 record and finished in third place. In the DBL playoffs, Den Bosch was once again eliminated in the semifinals, this time by Landstede.
Heroes Den Bosch (2019–present)
On 21 August 2019, the club announced it was changing its name to Heroes Den Bosch and it is not planning to change the club name anymore.[10] In June, Heroes signed Jean-Marc Jaumin as its new head coach.[11]
On 15 June 2021, Heroes signed three-time DBL champion Erik Braal as head coach.[12] In the 2021–22 season, the DBL merged with the PBL into the BNXT League, in which the national leagues of Belgium and the Netherlands are combined. On 29 May 2022, Heroes ended a 7-year drought when it won its seventeenth national championship, beating ZZ Leiden in the finals series 3–2.
After many successful seasons by Nashua Den Bosch in the 1980s, a true basketball hall was built with the Maaspoort. The arena was opened on 3 September 1982 with a game against the NBA All-Stars.[13]
- De Vinkenkamp
- Maaspoort: 1982–present
Domestic
Dutch National Champions (record)[14]
- Winners (17): 1978–79, 1979–80, 1980–81, 1982–83, 1983–84, 1984–85, 1985–86, 1986–87, 1987–88, 1992–93, 1995–96, 1996–97, 2005–06, 2006–07, 2011–12, 2014–15, 2021–22
Ricoh Cup[16]
- Winners (1): 2000
European
- Runner-up (1): 1978–79
Worldwide
- Runners-up (1): 1982
Friendly
- Winners (1): 2006
- Most Dutch Basketball League champions (17 championships)
- Most games played: Kees Akerboom, Jr. (671 games)[17]
Retired numbers
| Heroes Den Bosch retired numbers | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No | Player | Position | Tenure | Retirement date | |
| 5 | Jan Dekker | G | 1976–1983 | ||
| 9 | Jos Kuipers | PF/C | 1981–1984, 1986–1999 | 9 December 2021[18] | |
| 12 | Kees Akerboom Sr. | G | 1975–1986 | ||
| 12 | Kees Akerboom Jr. | SG | 2001–2004, 2006–2018 | 23 September 2018[9] | |
Current roster
| Heroes Den Bosch roster | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | Coaches | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Updated: 22 September 2022 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Depth chart
Notable players
Note: Flags indicate national team eligibility at FIBA-sanctioned events. Players may hold other non-FIBA nationality not displayed.
| Criteria |
|---|
|
To appear in this section a player must have either:
|
Kees Akerboom, Sr.- Kees Akerboom, Jr.
Tai Wesley- Arvin Slagter
Brandyn Curry- Ali Farokhmanesh
- DeJuan Wright
- David Gonzalvez
- Andre Young
- Frank Turner
- Sherron Dorsey-Walker
- Leon Rodgers
- Matt Bauscher
- Damone Brown
- Julien Mills
- Florian Rijkers
- Leon Williams
- Jeroen van der List
- Sam Jones
- Dean Oliver
- Travis Reed
Gert Kullamäe- Peter van Paassen
- Stefan Wessels
- Rogier Jansen
- Maarten Bouwknecht
Andrew Sullivan
Kikas Gomes- Dan Cramer
| Season | Tier | League | Pos. | Dutch Cup | European competitions | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996–97 | 1 | DBL | 1st | 2 Saporta Cup | RS | |
| 1997–98 | 1 | DBL | 4th | 2 Saporta Cup | RS | |
| 1998–99 | 1 | DBL | 4th | |||
| 1999–00 | 1 | DBL | 5th | Winner | ||
| 2000–01 | 1 | DBL | 3rd | |||
| 2001–02 | 1 | DBL | 6th | Winner | ||
| 2002–03 | 1 | DBL | 5th | |||
| 2003–04 | 1 | DBL | 2nd | |||
| 2004–05 | 1 | DBL | 5th | |||
| EiffelTowers Den Bosch | ||||||
| 2005–06 | 1 | DBL | 1st | Eighthfinalist | 4 EuroCup Challenge | T16 |
| 2006–07 | 1 | DBL | 1st | Eighthfinalist | 2 ULEB Cup | RS |
| 2007–08 | 1 | DBL | 2nd | Winner | 2 ULEB Cup | RS |
| 2008–09 | 1 | DBL | 2nd | Winner | 3 EuroChallenge | T16 |
| 2009–10 | 1 | DBL | 5th | Quarterfinalist | 3 EuroChallenge | RS |
| 2010–11 | 1 | DBL | 3rd | Semifinalist | ||
| 2011–12 | 1 | DBL | 1st | Quarterfinalist | ||
| 2012–13 | 1 | DBL | 3rd | Winner | ||
| SPM Shoeters | ||||||
| 2013–14 | 1 | DBL | 2nd | Semifinalist | 3 EuroChallenge | RS |
| 2014–15 | 1 | DBL | 1st | Runners-up | 3 EuroChallenge | T16 |
| 2015–16 | 1 | DBL | 4th | Champions | ||
| Heroes Den Bosch | ||||||
| 2016–17 | 1 | DBL | 4th | Eighthfinalist | ||
| 2017–18 | 1 | DBL | 5th | Semifinalist | ||
| 2018–19 | 1 | DBL | 4th | Quarterfinalist | 4 FIBA Europe Cup | RS |
| 2019–20 | 1 | DBL | 3rd[lower-alpha 1] | Fourth round | ||
| 2020–21 | 1 | DBL | 2nd | Quarterfinalist | 4 FIBA Europe Cup | R16 |
| 2021–22 | 1 | BNXT League (National) |
5th 1st |
Runners-up | 4 FIBA Europe Cup | RS |
- The 2019–20 season was cancelled prematurely in March 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. No playoffs were played and no champions were named.
| Season | Competition | Round | Club | Home[A] | Away[A] | Agg[A] | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013–14 | EuroChallenge | Regular season |  Antwerp Giants |
83–76 | 72–77 | 3rd in Group A |  |
 JDA Dijon |
66–70 | 64–83 | |||||
 Rakvere Tarvas |
78–71 | 70–57 | |||||
| 2014–15 | EuroChallenge | Regular season |  Brindisi |
71–69 | 62–76 | 2nd in Group |  |
 Ulm |
87–76 | 82–91 | |||||
 Södertälje Kings |
115–108 (OT) | 72–88 | |||||
| Second round |  Avtodor |
107–108 (OT) | 85–89 | 4th in Group K | | ||
| Skyliners Frankfurt |
92–94 (OT) | 70–75 | |||||
| Tartu University |
78–77 | 64–71 | |||||
| 2018–19 | FIBA Europe Cup | Second qualifying round |  Balkan |
76–86 | 68–66 | 144–152[B] | |
| Regular season | Avtodor |
93–97 | 79–89 | 3rd place in Group | | ||
 Ironi Nes Ziona |
102–87 | 85–91 | |||||
 JIP Pardubice |
91–58 | 68–64 | |||||
| 2020–21 | FIBA Europe Cup | Regular season | Parma |
63–85 (N) | 2nd place in Group F | | |
 Donar |
99–98 (OT, N) | ||||||
 Borisfen |
DNP | ||||||
| Round of 16 |  Stal Ostrów Wielkopolski |
83–92 (N) | | ||||
| 2021–22 | FIBA Europe Cup | Regular season |  Benfica |
76–78 | 78–73 | 3rd in Group C | |
| Opava |
87–82 | 88–72 | |||||
| Parma |
75–92 | 52–67 | |||||
- Notes
 |
| Coach | Nationality | Tenure | Honours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bill Sheridan |  United States | 1976–1977 | |
| Ton Boot | Netherlands | 1978–1980 | 2× Dutch Basketball League |
| Bill Sheridan | United States | 1980–1982 | 1× Dutch Basketball League |
| Ton Boot | Netherlands | 1982–1985 | 2× Dutch Basketball League |
| Charis Saideris | Netherlands |
1989 | |
| Toon van Helfteren | Netherlands | 1997–1998 | |
| Toon van Helfteren | Netherlands | 2001–2005 | |
| Randy Wiel | Netherlands | 2005–2009 | 2× Dutch Basketball League, 2× NBB Cup |
| Don Beck | United States | 2009–2010 | |
| Maarten van Gent (interim) | Netherlands | 1 April 2010 – 1 July 2010 | |
| Raoul Korner |  Austria | 2010–2013 | 1× Dutch Basketball League, 1× NBB Cup |
| Sam Jones | Netherlands | 2013–2016 | 1× Dutch Basketball League, 1× NBB Cup, 1× Supercup |
| Sander van der Holst | Netherlands | 2016–2017 | |
| Silvano Poropat |  Croatia | 2017 – August 2018 | |
| Ivica Skelin | Croatia | 3 September 2018 – 22 June 2019 | |
| Jean-Marc Jaumin | Belgium | 23 June 2019 – 31 May 2021 | |
| Erik Braal | Netherlands | 15 June 2021 – present | 1× Dutch champion, 1× Dutch Cup |
- "Dukes Unlimited Den Bosch basketball, News, Roster, Rumors, Stats, Awards, Transactions, Details". Eurobasket.com. Retrieved 12 September 2016.
- Zaal en ruimtes Archived 31 August 2015 at the Wayback Machine msedb.nl
- "Nashua Den Bosch in the 80's – Heroes Den Bosch – Basketball". Heroes Den Bosch. Retrieved 30 June 2022.
- Martens, Jan (24 October 2015). "SPM stopt als sponsor bij Shoeters". Brabants Dagblad (in Dutch). Retrieved 7 November 2023.
- "New Heroes is nieuwe naam en sponsor basketbalclub Shooters in Den Bosch". Omroep Brabant. Retrieved 21 August 2019.
- "Kees Akerboom stopt met basketbal". BD.nl. 31 May 2018. Retrieved 31 May 2018.
- "Den Bosch zwaait Akerboom uit". Eredivisie basketbal Nederland, basketballleague.nl (in Dutch). 23 September 2018. Retrieved 24 September 2018.
- "Na 15 clubnamen heten Bossche basketballers voortaan Heroes Den Bosch, geen sponsor meer in de naam". Omroep Brabant. Retrieved 21 August 2019.
- "New Heroes – Jean-Marc Jaumin naar Den Bosch". newheroesbasketball.com. Retrieved 28 June 2019.
- "Heroes Den Bosch verwelkomt head coach Erik Braal – Heroes Den Bosch – Basketball". Heroes Den Bosch. Retrieved 15 June 2021.
- "Nashua Den Bosch in the 80's – Heroes Den Bosch – Basketball". Heroes Den Bosch. Retrieved 19 June 2022.
- "Landskampioenen, bekerwinnaars en competitiewinnaars" (in Dutch). J-dus.com. Retrieved 16 March 2018.
- "Super Cup" (in Dutch). J-dus.com. Retrieved 16 March 2018.
- Erelijst Archived 4 June 2016 at the Wayback Machine spmshoeters.nl
- "Heroes Den Bosch eert de eeuwige nummer 9 Jos Kuipers, die 'zijn tijd ver vooruit was'". Brabants Dagblad. 10 December 2021. Retrieved 20 March 2022.