Bayer Giants Leverkusen

History

The club was founded as TuS Bayer 04 Leverkusen in 1961 and reached the first-division Basketball Bundesliga in 1968. Under coach Günter Hagedorn, TuS 04 won the double in 1970, the club's first major success. Between 1970 and 1977 the team appeared in five Cup finals, winning four titles. The 1990s saw the club become a powerhouse, winning seven consecutive championships from 1990 to 1996 under coach Dirk Bauermann and regularly competing in the FIBA Euroleague. After three key players—Michael Koch, Chris Welp and Henning Harnisch—left on free transfers in summer 1996, Alba Berlin ended Bayer's dominance. The club's last top finish was second place in the league in 2000, and its final appearance in Europe's top competition came in the 2000–01 Suproleague as German runners-up. In 2008 the Bayer company drastically cut sponsorship to focus on football and amateur athletics, forcing the basketball team to transfer its Bundesliga license to the newly formed Giants Düsseldorf and drop to the fourth-division Regionalliga. Thousands of supporters protested the decision. The Giants won the Regionalliga and promotion to the ProB in their first season. The club moved up to the ProA in 2013 but was relegated to the ProB two years later. Bayer returned to the ProA in 2019 but was relegated again in 2023. In the 2024/25 season, the Giants lost only one of 34 games, won the ProB championship against the SBB Baskets, and subsequently earned promotion back to the ProA.