Phoenix Hagen

Hagen is back where it wants to be. Phoenix Hagen finished the 2025-26 season by beating the Kirchheim Knights 2-1 in the Pro A final, taking the decisive game 93-82 on 7 June 2026, and with it the promotion back to the Basketball Bundesliga (BBL). It is the club's first Pro A title, and it caps three straight trips to the Final Four under head coach Chris Harris, in charge since November 2018.

Brandt Hagen, the city's top-flight side, went bankrupt in December 2003, and professional basketball in Hagen survived through the second-division BG Hagen franchise, which took the name Phoenix the following May. The club plays in yellow, white and blue, and the promotion secured this year sends a Bundesliga side back to Hagen for the first time since the 2009/10 campaign, when the Ischelandhalle proved too small for top-flight requirements and Phoenix had to play its home games at the Phoenix-Halle instead.

Ingo Freyer took the club up to the BBL in 2009 and to its first playoff appearance in 2013. Matthias Grothe, whose number is retired, was part of that story as a player before returning as coach in 2017, only to die of cancer shortly into the job. The rivalry with VfL SparkassenStars Bochum, contested as the Ruhrderby, will carry into the top flight again this season.