Credit: Mārtiņš Zaļūksnis
The 2023 European North Basketball League Final Four will take place on April 11-12, at the Arena Ostrów 2023 in Ostrów Wielkopolski, Poland.
The Arena Ostrów was opened on November 11, 2020, honoring Independence Day of Poland, and has a capacity of 3000.
Arena is the home for a basketball club BM Slam Stal Ostrów Wielkopolski and a handball club Arged KPR Ostrovia Ostrów Wielkopolski.
The arena was built by a local company Bud-Rem.
Location: Ostrów Wielkopolski is located in the southern part of a Greater Poland region, almost in the middle of a triangle Poznan-Lodz-Wroclaw, 230 kilometers west of Warsaw and 350 kilometers east of Berlin.
BM Slam Stal Ostrów Wielkopolski
The club was founded in 1947.
BM Stal made its first appearance at the Poland`s top flight in 1998 and played there until 2009.
The club returned to the first division in 2015 and is one of the Energa Basket league contenders since 2016.
Ostrów Wielkopolski has earned four trophies in recent years, including a Polish championship in 2021, a Polish Cup in 2019 and 2022, and a Polish SuperCup in September 2022.
BM Stal finished second in the PLK in 2018 and third in 2002 and 2017.
Ostrów Wielkopolski reached the final of the 2021 FIBA Europe Cup at Menora Mivtachim arena in Tel Aviv and played against Ironi Ness Ziona to earn a silver medal.
The next year BM Stal entered the Basketball Champions league to face the teams like Manresa from ACB league, Pinar Karsiyaka from Turkey and Hapoel Jerusalem from Israel.
Igor Miličič became the new head coach of the Polish National team on October 1, 2021 and signed a two year contract with the Polish Basketball federation.
Andrzej Urban (born 1991) is the new head coach of BM Stal, assisted by Konrad Kaźmierczyk.
Team recently extended Urban until summer of 2025.
The squad features a 2021 Polish champion Jakub Garbacz and a 2014 champion Damian Kulig.
Captain Kulig is one of the most known players in Poland.
He is a 2017 finalist of the Basketball Champions league and a 2017 Turkish Cup winner with Banvit Bandirma.
Kulig`s trophy case includes two Polish SuperCups (2014, 2022), three silver (2013, 2015, 2019) and one bronze medal (2010) in the Polish championship.
He was named as the best Polish player in the PLK (2015) and received the MVP award too (2015).
Ostrów Wielkopolski foreign players include a Latvian duo Aigars Šķēle – a brother of a 2003 Polish champion Armands Šķēle – and the 2014 FIBA EuroChallenge champion Ojārs Siliņš.
Montenegro forward Nemanja Djurišič attended the University of Georgia (2011-2015) and is a two time Polish champion with Zielona Gora (2016, 2017).
Guard/forward Adonis Thomas (Memphis 2011-2013) has six NBA games under his belt – four with Orlando Magic and two with Philadelphia 76ers.
Final Four teams: BM Slam Stal Ostrów Wielkopolski, King Wilki Morskie Szczecin, Polski Cukier Start Lublin, BC Wolves Alytus.
SCHEDULE (local time only)
Tuesday, April 11
16:00 King Szczecin – BC Wolves
19:00 BM Stal Ostrow – Polski Cukier Start Lublin
Wednesday, April 12
16:00 Bronze medal game
19:00 Final
21:00 Award ceremony