Netherlands men's national basketball team

1946–1991: Early years in 1959 The Netherlands were one of the teams that played in the 1946, 1947, 1949 and 1951 EuroBasket tournaments. During this period, the 5th place finish in 1949 was the best performance by the national team. 1961–1991: EuroBasket success & World Cup debut The Oranje qualified for three European Basketball Championships in the 1960s (1961, 1963, 1967). After three consecutive missed tournaments, the Netherlands had another three EuroBasket appearance stretch from 1975, 1977, and 1979. During the 1977 EuroBasket, the Netherlands' star player Kees Akerboom shined during the tournament. He finished the competition as the top scorer, and earned a spot on the All-Tournament Team. At EuroBasket 1983, the Dutch had its biggest success in history under head coach Vladimir Heger. The national team achieved fourth place at the tournament. The Dutch wound up reaching the semi-finals, but eventually fell to Italy. In the third-place game they would lose again, this time to the Soviet Union. Three years after achieving success at the continental level, the Netherlands qualified to the World Cup for the first time in 1986. The national team ultimately did not make it out of the group stage though, finishing the tournament with an (2–3) record to place 14th overall. 1991–2012: Long mediocre period was the face of the team for a long time From 1991 until 2012, the Netherlands did not qualify for a EuroBasket tournament. Star player Francisco Elson, former NBA-champion, represented the team on several occasions but the team never came close to qualifying. During this period, notable Dutch players like Dan Gadzuric were not willing to play for the national team. Home games were usually played at the Topsportcentrum in Almere and usually had little to no media attention or fan support in the Netherlands. Rising from the ashes (2012–2015) coached the national team to its first EuroBasket tournament in 26 years In December 2012, it was announced that the Netherlands national team would be dissolved for 2 years, because the national federation NBB {Netherlands Basketball Bond} was not willing to invest money in to it. After a campaign by Dutch players who played in the Dutch Basketball League, the national team was eventually saved. Sports broadcaster Sport1 became the main sponsor and DBL-teams invested in the team, which started playing again. During August 2013, the Netherlands was on its way to qualification for EuroBasket 2015, but lost two games 20–0 because the team played with two players – Mohamed Kherrazi and Sean Cunningham – who were identified as foreign players by FIBA. The NBB believed that both were eligible players, and was upset that the attention came up after the Netherlands already won 2 games. "Miracle of 2014" At the start of the second 2015-qualification round, things looked bad for the Oranje. The DBL-teams didn't have any more money to invest in the team and the NBB wasn't ready to take the team back. Head coach Toon van Helfteren, who worked as a volunteer, still did prepare for the qualifying games. He invited 42 players to play for the national team, but after most (notable) players rejected the offer, he started his first training camp with 7 players. The team eventually shocked the world, by beating heavy favorite Montenegro to get the second place in their group. On 27 August 2014, the Dutch national team qualified for EuroBasket for the first time in 25 years. Return to EuroBasket (2015–present) The national team left the NBB and FEB, from 2015 the team was run by the NMT. Coach Van Helfteren then had his contract with the national team extended. In contrast to the summer of 2014, big name players from foreign leagues applied to play for the national team. In the first game at EuroBasket 2015, the Dutch beat Georgia 73–72 behind Charlon Kloof's 22 and Worthy de Jong's 16 points. The Netherlands remaining four games though were all loses, but only by single digits to power houses such as Croatia and Greece. On 22 July 2019, Italian coach Maurizio Buscaglia signed on to become head coach of the Netherlands, replacing Toon van Helfteren who stepped down. After a disappointing EuroBasket 2022, in which the Netherlands went winless, Buscaglia was sacked. On 6 October 2022, Radenko Varagić was appointed as interim head coach for the remaining World Cup qualifying campaign. On 23 May 2023, the Netherlands named Israeli coach Arik Shivek, as head coach of the national team. He previously led at national team level for five years with Israel from 2009 to 2014. Two years later, after the Netherlands failed to qualify for EuroBasket 2025, Shivek was replaced as national team head coach with Dutch coach Johan Roijakkers. ==Competitive record==