An extraordinary season ends for Berlin’s basketball player with the greatest triumph in twelve years. The double also succeeds thanks to the tricks of the old trainer Aito Garcia Reneses.
At the end of the final tournament for the German basketball championship, it was no longer about the title, it was only about honor. Already on Friday evening it was almost certain that Alba Berlin would not be able to take the title again after the first final game, which they had won with a lead that could not be made up by the MHP giants Ludwigsburg in the second leg: 88:65. But the Berliners also wanted to win their tenth and last tournament game, and the Ludwigsburg-based company wanted to crown the best season in their club history so far with a victory over the new champions. So both teams gave themselves nothing and actually fought to the last second. And after it had expired, there was a 75:74 (42:35) success for Berlin on the scoreboard of the Munich Audi Cathedral.
“It feels good to go out here with a win,” said Alba captain Niels Giffey into the TV station’s microphone Magenta sport. His Ludwigsburg colleague Jonas Wohlfarth-Bottermann was “nevertheless very proud”, as he said: “We have shown that we can not get down to the last minute.” While the citizens of Ludwigsburg were happy to have reached the final for the first time, Alba Berlin secured the first championship title in twelve years and the first double since 2003. The team of coach Alejandro “Aito” Garcia Reneses, who had been in office since 2017, had the trophy in February won. It was the first success after five lost finals in the Aito era.
Shortly afterwards, the corona pandemic had caused the end of the main round; At the beginning of May, the league managers decided to end the season in tournament form. The officials opposed the skepticism that the title awarded would be inferior due to the unusual mode and had an asterisk (“under corona conditions”). Well reasoned: Except for the table nights in Würzburg, the best clubs had participated. The strongest teams in the tournament deservedly reached the final; by far the best team of this season prevailed there.
The giants had already accepted this before the first final game on Friday evening. “For me, Alba is the measure of all things this season,” Wohlfahrth-Bottermann admitted. The fact that he and his team had defeated Alba at the start of the main round in November (81:77) was no contradiction for him: the Berliners lacked their playmaker Peyton Siva at the time, and they were also in parallel in the still unfamiliar Euroleague operation and straight from Away game flown into Athens, “that’s why we were able to beat them,” said welfare bottermann.
The champions of the basketball Bundesliga
1997 – 2003: Alba Berlin
2004: Skyliners Frankfurt
2005: GHP Bamberg
2006: Rheinenergie Cologne
2007: Brose Bamberg
2008: Alba Berlin
2009: EWE Oldenburg
2010 – 2013: Brose Bamberg
2014: FC Bayern Munich
2015 – 2017: Brose Bamberg
2018 – 2019: FC Bayern Munich
2020: Alba Berlin With the ninth title, Alba Berlin catches up with Bamberg. Since the Bundesliga was introduced in the 1966/67 season, only Bayer Leverkusen has won more championship titles. At a glance: 14: Bayer Leverkusen (1970-1972, 1976, 1979, 1985, 1986, 1990-1996)
9: Brose Bamberg (2005, 2007, 2010-13, 2015-17) and Alba Berlin (1997-2003, 2008, 2020)
4: MTV Gießen (1967, 1968, 1975, 1978) and BSC Saturn Cologne (1981, 1982, 1987, 1988)
3: ASC 46 Göttingen (1980, 1983, 1984) and FC Bayern Munich (2014, 2018, 2019)
In the further course of the season, the shape curve of the Berlin had steadily increased, in contrast to that of the defending champion Bayern Munich, who was eliminated in the quarterfinals of Ludwigsburg. Against him, the Berliners had lost the playoff final in the past two years, a success in the final against the rival from the south at his home would have been the cherry on the title cake. But you can’t have everything.
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