Toni Kukoč is a Croatian former professional basketball player who serves as Special Advisor to Jerry Reinsdorf, the owner of the Chicago Bulls. After a highly successful period in European basketball, he was one of the first established European stars to play in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "The Waiter", Kukoč played for four NBA teams between 1993 and 2006, winning the NBA Sixth Man of the Year Award in 1996. He is a three-time NBA champion, having won championships with the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls in 1996, 1997 and 1998.
Hanno Aleksanteri Möttölä is a Finnish former professional basketball player. A power forward, Möttölä played for the Atlanta Hawks in the National Basketball Association (NBA), becoming the first player from Finland to play in the NBA.
Helsinki Seagulls is a professional basketball team, based in Helsinki, Finland. The club plays in the Korisliiga, the highest tier of basketball in Finland.
The Korisliiga is the top-tier professional basketball league in Finland, comprising the top 12 teams of the country. In its current format, each team plays all other teams two times in the regular season, once at home and once away, for a total of 22 regular season games. The top six teams advances continues to upper stage and the bottom six teams plays lower stage after 22 games, 5 games at home and 5 games at away versus all other teams in stage. The best two teams from lower group joins to playoffs with upper group teams. Playoffs are played best of seven format, except the quarter-finals which are played best of 5 format. Pantterit holds the record for the most league titles won, with 14. The top level Finnish league for women is the Naisten Korisliiga.
Marvin Kurk Lee is a retired American professional basketball player. He spent one season in the NBA, for the New Jersey Nets in 1990–91. He won three straight Finnish championships as a member of Torpan Pojat from 1996 to 1998 and was named the Korisliiga Foreign player of the year in 1997.
Tapiolan Honka is a basketball club based in Espoo, Finland. Their men's team plays in I division A and their women's team plays in Naisten Korisliiga.
The Finnish Women's Cup is the national women's football cup competition in Finland and was first played in 1981.
Lisa Ann Karčić is a Croatian American former professional basketball player. She was a member of the Croatian national team and competed with the team at the 2012 Summer Olympics. In 2011, she won the Icelandic championship with Keflavík.
LoKoKo Bisons Loimaa is a Finnish professional basketball club that is based in Loimaa.
Naisten Korisliiga is the highest tier of women's basketball in Finland. The competition was formerly known as Koripallon naisten SM-sarja and was renamed Naisten Korisliiga for the 2013-14 season.
Wilesia "Lele" Hardy is an American former professional basketball player. She won the Icelandic championship with Njarðvík in 2012, when she was also named Úrvalsdeild Playoffs MVP, and was named the Úrvalsdeild Foreign Player of the Year three years in a row, from 2012 to 2014. She won the Icelandic Basketball Cup with Njarðvík in 2012 and in 2014 with Haukar while also being named the Cup Finals MVP.
Naisten Ykkönen is the second highest division of women's football in Finland. It is overseen by the Suomen Palloliitto. Teams in Naisten Ykkönen can gain promotion to the top-tier Kansallinen Liiga or be relegated to the third-tier Naisten Kakkonen. At the conclusion of the 2019 season, PK-35 Vantaa gained promotion to the Kansallinen Liiga as champions of the Naisten Ykkönen and PK-35 gained promotion by winning the promotion/relegation series against IK Myran. Conversely, GBK Kokkola and Ilves/2, were relegated to the Naisten Kakkonen at the conclusion of the 2019 season.
Pantterit is a professional basketball club from Helsinki, Finland. The club was formed in 1938 and it has won the men's Finnish championship title for 14 times making it the most successful team in Finnish basketball history. Pantterit also has 5 women's Finnish championship titles.
Helsingin Kisa-Toverit (HKT) is a sports club founded in 1929 and based in Finland's capital city of Helsinki. The club have many departments and the strongest have been in basketball, track sports and field games.
Kari Hautala was a Finnish basketball player.
The 2016–17 Korisliiga season is the 77th season of the top professional basketball league in Finland. The season started on October 5, 2016, and ended on May 13, 2017. Kataja Basket won its second national title after beating Salon Vilpas in the Finals.
Ice hockey is the most popular sport in Finland in terms of television viewership and game attendance figures. It is third most popular sport in participation amongst children. As of 2020, approximately 1.3% of the Finnish population was registered with the International Ice Hockey Federation, ranking Finland second in the world for percentage of population participating in ice hockey and the highest percentage of any country outside of North America.
The 2019–20 Korisliiga season was the 80th season of the top professional basketball league in Finland. Karhu were the defending champions. On 13 March 2020, the season was ended prematurely due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Annika Alexandra Holopainen is a Finnish professional basketball player and a member of the Finnish national team. She played college basketball for the University of Portland and later Old Dominion University. Following her college career, she has played professionally in Europe.
Max Besselink is a Finnish professional basketball player for Belgian team Belfius Mons-Hainaut.
