ON HELSINKI SEAGULLS AND BASKETBALL

ON THE YEAR 2013

Helsinki Seagulls – or Gulls, as they’re called among friends – was founded in 2013 and has played in Finland’s men’s basketball league Korisliiga since 2014. The team gained its first league championship in 2022-23 which was very special since the championship was gained by a Helsinki based team the last time in 1998.

The team has also placed second on 2023-2024 and third in the championships four times in 2016-2017, 2017-2018,  2020-2021 and 2021-2022. Seagulls have also won the Finnish Cup title four times: 2019-2020,  2020-2021, 2021-2022 and 2023-2024. The team also advanced to the Cup finals on 2022-2023 where they were rewarded with silver medals.  The team plays its home games at the Töölö Sports Hall, to sold out crowds every time. 

KORISLIIGA AND THE HISTORY OF THE LEAGUE

The men’s championship league has been called Korisliiga since the 2005–2006 season. For the 2004–2005 it went by the name Sparliiga, after grocery chain that sponsored it. From 1999 to 2004 it was called SM-koris (short for Suomen mestaruus, Finnish championship) and before that it was referred to as miesten koripallon SM-sarja, or Men’s Basketball Finnish Championship League. Teams have played for the Finnish championship of Finland since 1939 and the first season was won by Ylioppilaskoripalloilijat from Helsinki. The most championships have been won by Pantterit – a total of 14. For more information about basketball in Finland, check out https://www.basket.fi/basketball-finland/.

FINNISH BASKETBALL INTERNATIONALLY

Internationally, Finland is represented by the national team, now known as Susijengi, which translates as the wolf gang. Teams from Korisliiga also participate in the European club series almost every season. At the moment the main competitions are Euroleague Basketball and EuroCup, as well as FIBA’s Basketball Champions League, under which the FIBA Europe Cup is played, too. Participation in these series by Finnish teams requires surviving a challenging set of elimination rounds.

The biggest international basketball star from Finland is Lauri Markkanen, who currently plays as a part of the Utah Jazz in the NBA, the best and most famous basketball league in the world. The NBA is a dream for many basketball players all over the world.