The early years of basketball in the Netherlands took place exclusively in Amsterdam with urban competition from 1938 onwards. It was the korfball players who played it as a second sport. Witnesses described pre-war basketball as a mixture of handball and netball.
The 1946 European Basketball Championship was held in Geneva, the first post-war edition. The Netherlands was also invited even though there was no national assembly. Breaking fast, Dick Shumul put together a team as a technical leader who traveled to Switzerland a month later. Shumoul said: “What kind of plow?” “I don’t know, ten korfball players or something, but we are gone.”
In that European tournament, the Dutch basketball team played its first official match against England. He noted that “people did not have much confidence in the art of the Dutch players in Geneva.” Elgin Handelsblad running. “They have never heard anything about Dutch basketball players internationally.” So the surprise was big when the Netherlands won 48-27. The team was still technically weak, the referee was, but understanding of the game compensated a lot, and so did her willpower. The Orange team finished sixth in this European tournament, out of ten participants.
The Netherlands was also invited to the European Championship in 1947. Algmen Handelsblad said the basketball players played “with enthusiasm, not badly, but they lost the match against most countries.” This time it reached eleventh place out of fourteen.
On July 15, 1947, the Dutch Basketball Association was already established, which would celebrate its seventy-fifth anniversary next year. The Netherlands will add sparkle to that memory by participating in the 2022 European Championship. Italian coach Maurizio Buscaglia’s team qualified today, Saturday, by beating Croatia 65-57 in Istanbul. The European Championship is held in four countries: the Czech Republic, Georgia, Germany and Italy.
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Dutch basketball men qualify for the European Championship
Dutch basketball players qualified for the European Championship next year. Italian coach Maurizio Buscaglia’s side defeated Croatia, which is already in Istanbul, with a score of 65-57.
