| Brussels Basketball | |
| Leagues: | BNXT League |
| History: | Excelsior Brussels (1999–2013) Brussels Basketball (2013–present) |
| Arena: | Sports Complex Neder-Over-Heembeek |
| Capacity: | 1,200 |
| Location: | Brussels, Belgium |
| Colors: | Red, Black |
| Sponsor: | Circus |
| President: | André De Kandelaer |
| Coach: | Serge Crevecoeur |
| Colour1: | white |
| Colour2: | red |
| Colour3: | black |
Brussels Basketball 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.
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.[1] 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.[2] 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.[3]
In July 2019, the club announced it changed its name to Phoenix Brussels.[4] 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.[5]
Since the 2021–22 season, Brussels plays in the BNXT League, in which the national leagues of Belgium and the Netherlands have been merged.[6] On 17 June 2022 the club signed a sponsor agreement with Circus, leading to a name change; the club colours were also changed to red.[7] The team also signed Belgian national team player Kevin Tumba.[8]
In march 2023 Brussels announced that head coach Jaumin would be replaced by Serge Crevecoeur for the 2023-2024 season.[9]
In early 2023, Belgium adopted a new law prohibiting the promotion of gambling. Consequently, the club had to remove their sponsor "Circus" from their name during the summer of the same year.[10]
Upon the club's establishment in 1957, the team played outdoors on the field of the King Baudouin Stadium (then the Heysel Stadium). The current home arena of Brussels is the Sports complex Neder-Over-Heembeek.
Since 2017 the team regularly plays gala matches in Palais/Paleis 12. In the 2020–2021 season, the team made a temporary move to the venue for all games from December 2020 to April 2021.[11]
Runners-up (1): 2016–17
Due to sponsorships and other reasons, the name of the club has frequently changed:
| Season | Tier | League | Belgian Cup | European competitions | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008–09 | 3 | 3e Nationale | 2nd | |||||||
| 2009–10 | 2 | 2e Nationale | 5th | |||||||
| 2010–11 | 2 | 2e Nationale | 5th | |||||||
| 2011–12 | 2 | 2e Nationale | 4th | |||||||
| 2012–13 | 2 | 2e Nationale | 10th | |||||||
| 2013–14 | 1 | Division I | 8th | 8–28 | Round of 16 | |||||
| 2014–15 | 1 | Division I | 10th | 10–18 | Round of 16 | |||||
| 2015–16 | 1 | Division I | 4th | 21–16 | Round of 16 | |||||
| 2016–17 | 1 | Division I | bgcolor=silver align=center | 2nd | 28–19 | Semifinalist | 1–5 | |||
| 2017–18 | 1 | Division I | 8th | 12–26 | Quarterfinalist | 0–2 | ||||
| 2–4 | ||||||||||
| 2018–19 | 1 | PBL | 3rd | 23–17 | Semifinalist | |||||
| 2019–20 | 1 | PBL | 6–11 | Quarterfinalist | 2–4 | |||||
| 2020–21 | 1 | PBL | 10th | 4–22 | Play-in Round | |||||
| 2021–22 | 1 | BNXT | 9th | 16th | Quarterfinalist | |||||
| 2022–23 | 1 | BNXT | 10th | 16th | Quarterfinalist | |||||
| 2023–24 | 1 | BNXT | 6th | 14th | Quarterfinalist | |||||
Serge Crevecoeur: 2008–2017, 2018–2020, 2023–present Laurent Monier: 2017–2018, 2020
Ian Hanavan: 2020–2021 Jean-Marc Jaumin: 2021–2023