Balkan

In the 2018–19 season Balkan reached the Round of 16 of the FIBA Europe Cup, a milestone for Bulgarian basketball. The club's previous league title had come in 1989, the last of three in a row. In 2019 the Greens won the national league again.

The gap followed a strong stretch. Balkan took their first championship in 1974, after winning the Bulgarian Cup in 1970. In 1987 and 1988 they won the league and cup in the same season, and the title in 1989 completed a hat-trick. Since 2019 they have won the league in 2022, 2023 and 2026, which makes the 2019 title look like the start of a second run.

In 2014 they moved into Arena Botevgrad, which replaced the Gymnasium "Georgi Hristov". The hall holds 3,200 for sport. The main fixture is against Levski Sofia. Matches between the two are called the "derby of the round".

Two of the club's players went on to the NBA after playing in Botevgrad: Cedric Simmons and Priest Lauderdale, both American-born and both Bulgarian citizens. Georgi Gluchkov, who played for the Phoenix Suns, is another name attached to the club.

All of this belongs to a team founded in 1947 in Botevgrad, in green and white. It has never left the town.