Darüşşafaka Basketbol

Darüşşafaka Basketbol (Darüşşafaka Basketball), commonly also known as Daçka Basketbol or simply Daçka, also known as Darüşşafaka Lassa for sponsorship reasons, is a professional basketball club that is based in Istanbul, Turkey. Darüşşafaka's basketball section, which was founded in 1914, is a part of Darüşşafaka Spor Kulübü (Darüşşafaka Sports Club) multi-sport club, which was founded in 1914. The club's basketball department is their most successful section. The club plays in the Türkiye Basketbol Ligi. Its home arena for national domestic games is the Darüşşafaka Ayhan Şahenk Sports Hall, with a seating capacity of 3,500, while its home arena for European-wide games is the Volkswagen Arena Istanbul, with a seating capacity of 5,240.

Darüşşafaka Lassa
Nickname	Daçka Basketbol Daçka
Leagues	Türkiye Basketbol Ligi
Founded	1914; 111 years ago (1914)
History	List Darüşşafaka Basketbol (1914–2008) Darüşşafaka Cooper Tires Basketbol (2008–2010) Darüşşafaka Basketbol (2010–2013) Darüşşafaka Doğuş Basketbol (2013–2017) Darüşşafaka Basketbol (2017–2018) Darüşşafaka Tekfen Basketbol (2018–2021) Darüşşafaka Basketbol (2021–2023) Darüşşafaka Lassa (2023–present)
Arena	Darüşşafaka Ayhan Şahenk (BSL) Volkswagen Arena (Basketball Champions League)
Capacity	Darüşşafaka Ayhan Şahenk - 3,500 Volkswagen Arena - 5,240
Location	Istanbul, Turkey
Team colours	Green, black
President	Abdurrahman Saruhan
Team manager	Ahmet Eran
Head coach	Erdi Özten (interim)
Team captain	Berkay Taşkıran
Championships	1 EuroCup 2 Turkish Championships 1 Turkish Second Division
Website	darussafakabasketbol.com
Home Away Third

Daçka have won two Turkish Basketball Championships (in 1961 and 1962) over the course of their history. In European-wide competitions they have won the second tier level EuroCup, in the 2017–18 season, by defeating the Russian club Lokomotiv Kuban in the finals.

History

From 1993 until 2010, Darüşşafaka was a stable TBL (now called BSL) competitor. In the 2000–01 and 2001–02 seasons, the team took the third place in the regular season. In the 2009–10 season, the club ended up in 16th place in the TBL, and was relegated.^[1] The team was then a middle-tier team in the TB2L, from 2010 until 2013.

In 2013, Doğuş Holding became the main sponsor of the team, which instantly turned Darüşşafaka into a wealthy and ambitious club. In the 2013–14 season, they won the TB2L title, and were promoted to the TBL (now called BSL).

In the 2014–15 season, Darüşşafaka took the third place in the regular season, after some big names like Renaldas Seibutis and Jamon Gordon were signed for the season. Despite the huge expectations, the team lost in the quarterfinals of the league playoffs to Trabzonspor.^[2]

The team received a wild card for the 2015–16 EuroLeague season.^[3] Darüşşafaka started playing its EuroLeague home games at the Volkswagen Arena Istanbul, starting from November 2015. In September 2018, the club announced a new multi-year sponsorship deal with Tekfen, which changed the team's name sponsorship name to Darüşşafaka Tekfen.^[4]

After a challenging season, the team finished 15th in the 2024–25 Basketbol Süper Ligi and was relegated to the Türkiye Basketbol Ligi, ending an 11-year run in the top division.^[5]

Sponsorship naming

Due to sponsorship deals, Darüşşafaka have been also known as:

• Darüşşafaka (1992–2008)
• Darüşşafaka Cooper Tires (2008–2010)
• Darüşşafaka (2010–2013)
• Darüşşafaka Doğuş (2013–2017)
• Darüşşafaka (2017–2018)
• Darüşşafaka Tekfen (2018–2021) ^[6]
• Darüşşafaka (2021–2023)
• Darüşşafaka Lassa (2023–present)^[7]

Arenas

Darüşşafaka plays its national domestic Turkish Basketball Super League home games at the 3,500 seat Darüşşafaka Ayhan Şahenk Sports Hall.^[8] In November 2015, the 5,240 seat Volkswagen Arena Istanbul was officially inaugurated as the home arena of Darüşşafaka for EuroLeague home games.^[9][10]

Season by season

Markel Brown playing for the team in 2018.

Season	Tier	League	Pos.	Turkish Cup	European competitions
2000–01	1	TBL	3rd		3 Korać Cup	EF
2001–02	1	TBL	3rd	Runner-up	2 Saporta Cup	RS
2002–03	1	TBL	9th		2 ULEB Cup	RS
2003–04	1	TBL	6th
2004–05	1	TBL	10th		2 ULEB Cup	RS
2005–06	1	TBL	9th
2006–07	1	TBL	8th
2007–08	1	TBL	14th
2008–09	1	TBL	8th
2009–10	1	TBL	16th
2010–11	2	TB2L	8th
2011–12	2	TB2L	11th
2012–13	2	TB2L	7th
2013–14	2	TB2L	1st
2014–15	1	TBL	5th	Semifinalist
2015–16	1	BSL	4th	Runner-up	1 Euroleague	T16
2016–17	1	BSL	4th	Quarterfinalist	1 EuroLeague	QF
2017–18	1	BSL	6th	Semifinals	2 EuroCup	C
2018–19	1	BSL	10th		1 EuroLeague	RS
2019–20	1	BSL	6th1		2 EuroCup	–1
2020–21	1	BSL	7th		2 Champions League	RS
2021–22	1	BSL	4th	Semifinalist	2 Champions League	R16
2022–23	1	BSL	6th		2 Champions League	R16
2023–24	1	BSL	14th		2 Champions League	PI
2024–25	1	BSL	15th

Source: Eurobasket.com

^1 Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe.

Honours

European competitions

• EuroCup

Winners (1): 2017–18

Domestic competitions

• Turkish Basketball Championship

Winners (2): 1961, 1962

Runners-up (1): 1960

• Turkish Cup

Runners-up (3): 2002, 2016, 2020

• Turkish Basketball Second Division

Winners (1): 2014

• Istanbul Basketball League (defunct)

Winners (1): 1960

Third place (3): 1961, 1962, 1963

Other competitions

• Sibenik, Croatia Invitational Game

Winners (1): 2015

• Antalya, Turkey Invitational Game

Winners (1): 2016

• Heimspiel Kranz Parkhotel Cup

Winners (1): 2016

• Zadar Dogus Basketball Tournament

Winners (1): 2016

• Casale Monferrat, Italy Invitational Game

Winners (1): 2018

• Lumezzane, Italy Invitational Game

Winners (1): 2018

Players

Current roster

Note: Flags indicate national team eligibility at FIBA-sanctioned events. Players may hold other non-FIBA nationalities not displayed.

Darüşşafaka Lassa roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. No. Nat. Name Ht. Wt. Age G 1 Kay, Tolga 1.96 m (6 ft 5 in) 21 – (2004-04-01)1 April 2004 G 2 Sibande, Nike 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in) 84 kg (185 lb) 26 – (1999-06-06)6 June 1999 PG 3 Appleby, Tyree 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) 79 kg (174 lb) 26 – (1998-09-30)30 September 1998 G/F 8 Mustafa, Muhaymin 2.01 m (6 ft 7 in) 91 kg (201 lb) 25 – (1999-10-10)10 October 1999 PF 16 Demir, Ege 2.07 m (6 ft 9 in) 20 – (2004-08-15)15 August 2004 F 20 Akçay, Ege 19 – (2006-06-12)12 June 2006 G 35 Bozveli, Doğan 20 – (2005-03-24)24 March 2005 G 55 Smith, Terquavion 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in) 73 kg (161 lb) 22 – (2002-12-31)31 December 2002	Head coach Vacant Strength & conditioning coach(es) Ertan Bedir Team manager Orkun Demir Legend (C) Team captain Injured Roster Updated: July 31, 2025

Depth chart

Pos.	Starting 5	Bench 1	Bench 2
C	Ege Demir	Tarık Sezgün
PF		Marko Pecarski
SF		Muhaymin Mustafa	Ege Akçay
SG			Doğan Bozveli
PG	Tyree Appleby	Terquavion Smith	Tolga Kay

Notable players

Note: Flags indicate national team eligibility at FIBA-sanctioned events. Players may hold other non-FIBA nationalities not displayed.

Criteria
To appear in this section a player must have either: Set a club record or won an individual award while at the club Played at least one official international match for their national team at any time Played at least one official NBA match at any time.

• Cüneyt Erden
• Semih Erden
• Tufan Ersöz
• Sinan Güler
• Hakan Köseoğlu
• Cevher Özer
• Erdem Türetken
• / Zaza Enden
• / Erwin Dudley
• / Scottie Wilbekin
• Michael Ansley
• Marques Bragg
• Will Clyburn
• Bonzie Colson
• Jermareo Davidson
• Toney Douglas
• Acie Earl
• / Jordan Farmar
• Richie Frahm
• Kelvin Gibbs
• Sean Green
• Cliff Hammonds
• JaJuan Johnson
• Maarty Leunen
• Steve Rogers
• Lamont Strothers
• Brad Wanamaker
• / Michael Meeks
• Ante Žižić
• Adrien Moerman
• Yll Kaçaniku
• Dairis Bertāns
• Renaldas Seibutis
• Vitaly Nosov

Head coaches

Head Coach	Years
Yalçın Granit	1957–1960
Erman Kunter	1994–1996
Ahmet Çakı	2004–2006, 2018
Orhun Ene	2013–2014
Oktay Mahmuti	2014–2016
David Blatt	2016–2018
Selçuk Ernak	2018–2023
Yakup Sekizkök	2023–2024
Rüçhan Tamsöz	2024
Josh King	2024
Carles Durán	2024–2025
Erdi Özten (interim)	2025–present