When Nihad Djedović plays basketball in Berlin, you can count on top performances. He has demonstrated this again and again since he moved from the capital to FC Bayern in the summer of 2013. In June 2015 he collected 30 points in the decisive fifth semi-final game there. He won finals there in June 2018 and 2019. Now he is playing with his Bayern team again against Alba Berlin, the big rival and defending champion, for the championship. But this time Djedović ruled out one thing: top performances.
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On Monday morning, two days before the first final game in Berlin, Djedović, 31 years old, is sitting in the press pavilion in front of the hall in Munich and says: “I assume that the final series won’t show that much in terms of quality.”
It doesn’t mean anything good if Djedović, the Bayern captain, doesn’t believe in top performances before the duel between the best in the Bundesliga. He thinks that the level of play in the first play-off rounds was sometimes “really bad”. Not even Berlin and Munich could change that, the industry leaders of German basketball who played so wonderfully in the Euroleague a few weeks and months ago. “The final will be a little different,” says Djedović. “The focus will be on the strength and endurance of the players.” Better: their lack.
85 games for Munich, 79 for Berlin
Since the start of the season in October, the Berliners have 79 games behind them, the Munich even 85. In the final series, as always in the best-of-five mode, it will be even tougher. You have to master up to five games in just seven days. The first two in Berlin and numbers three and four in Munich will be played on consecutive days, Wednesday and Thursday, Saturday and – if one team does not win three games straight away – Sunday; the possible fifth game is planned for Tuesday in Berlin, day seven. And when you see this schedule and remember the statements of Nihad Djedović, the question remains: How can the BBL allow its protagonists not even to believe in the chance of being able to be at the climax at the climax?
A call to Stefan Holz, the managing director of the BBL. He thinks this discussion is “a bit lousy” because: “We played through the season with our mode. That’s great. ”Sure, the burden is great, he doesn’t want to downplay that at all. He then tries to explain why the league, together with the clubs, decided on this plan.
After the main round, which started late due to the pandemic, she first had to take her time to play possible catch-up games – and now gain time because on June 18 the national team with their preparatory games for the Olympic qualification tournament in Split (29 June to July 4th). “We fought for every single day,” says Holz. But what will the consequences be for the final?
Not even training is possible
“Maybe I’m the only one who believes in it,” says Himar Ojeda with a bitter laugh: “We’ll play nice. That’s our style. ”The sports director of Alba Berlin can’t promise more than his players can deliver. Virtually an entire first five is missing injured. But to play fast, to pass a lot, that is the game with which coach Aito Reneses first shaped Spanish and now German basketball.
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This season his team chased through the Bundesliga and Euroleague to catch lost games. It had to be quarantined in December when seven players and the coach became infected with the corona virus. “We know three games in a week,” says Ojeda, “we even had to get used to games every two days. But day by day games are new. We have no experience of dealing with it. “
Not even training is currently possible; In addition to relaxation and recovery, the focus is on video analyzes and discussions. Is the game system fair? “Would it be fair if we would shorten the series to a maximum of three games?” Replies Ojeda. “Or play the championship like the cup in a Final Four?” After the semi-finals, the Berlin team captain Niels Giffey spoke of the “fight for survival of the fittest”.
1000 fans in the halls in Berlin and Munich
This is exactly what Ojeda does not want to see the dreaded shoving and jostling of players who cling like boxers in the twelfth round, who stagger exhausted like marathon runners who have to add a few kilometers to their run. He accuses the referees of balancing the fouls. If one team was punished frequently, the referees whistled more for the other too. “That’s a disadvantage for us,” says Ojeda. “It is no coincidence that we are the team with the fewest fouls in the Bundesliga. We purposely do not foul. And now everyone is talking about physicality. “
Some players’ bodies will not be ready for the final series. The Munich team is missing Nick Weiler-Babb, maybe Leon Radosevic and Paul Zipser too. The Berliners hope for the recovery of Luke Sikma and Johannes Thiemann; Louis Olinde, Jonas Mattisseck and Lorenz Brennecke are no longer available for the final series due to injuries. If they are missing, others will have to play more. And so, despite all the explanations, you have to ask again: Can tight deadlines justify the extreme overuse of the players? Is that a reason to expose the twenty or so professionals to such a high risk of injury?
In the press pavilion in Munich, Nihad Djedović, who has just recovered from a serious knee injury, says that he is looking forward to the final series despite everything. Later that day, the message was distributed that 1000 fans were allowed to come into the hall for the first time not only in Berlin, but also in Munich. Even before that, Djedović said: “The motivation will be there.” What more could he promise under these circumstances?
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