AOn the way to the top of the sport there is a limit that many want to cross, but only very few can cross. You don’t just have to win once, you have to win again and again. You have to make the extraordinary ordinary. And with that in the basketball hall in Munich. On a Thursday in September Herbert Hainer, President of FC Bayern, was sitting in the press room of the hall and said: “We were really only one step away from making it into the Final Four of the Euroleague. Now it’s about taking the next step. “
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In April of this year his club was the first German to advance to the play-offs of the Euroleague, the most demanding basketball competition in Europe. Only eight teams manage that year after year. And when Hainer, the former Adidas CEO, now speaks of the “next step”, he means the one with which his club should cross the border. Not just getting into the play-offs once, but again and again. Make the extraordinary ordinary.
This Tuesday (6 p.m.) and Thursday (7 p.m.) Bayern will play in the main round of the new Euroleague season in Russia against Unics Kazan and Zenit St. Petersburg. And against the power of momentum. You lost on the first two match days in Tel Aviv against Maccabi (68:69) and in Munich against FC Barcelona (72:80). Four bankruptcies in four games? That can be a decisive disadvantage in a league in which 18 teams are fighting for eight play-off places. And maybe even prevent the border crossing for the time being.
“Growth is never linear”
There is a man in Munich who believes that this step will take more time anyway. “The growth of teams and players is never linear,” says Daniele Baiesi, the sports director from Italy who has been with FC Bayern since the summer of 2017. From his point of view, he explains on Thursday in September, the growth is more like this: “One step forward, two backward, three forward.”
Last season, the team in the Euroleague “overachieved”, ie exceeded expectations, made more steps forward than planned. As a result, you suddenly got a “sneak peek”, an insight into the play-off round in Europe, in which you would rather be a regular in Munich sooner than later, but: “We don’t have a season ticket yet.” And then Baiesi says With a view to the new season: “Shit happens!” It also has to do with illnesses and injuries that Bayern have already lost twice in the Euroleague and once in the Bundesliga.
In the preparation phase, several players were infected or injured with Covid-19. Four could not play yet: Andreas Obst, Leon Radosevic, Paul Zipser and above all Vladimir Lučić, who was elected to the so-called “First Team” of the Euroleague last season. That weakens Bayern a lot, even if they have signed nine foreigners for their squad again. In the press conference before the start of the season, coach Andrea Trinchieri said: “I’ll come up with something creative.”
You can actually rely on Trinchieri’s creativity. It is probably the biggest advantage that Bayern have compared to most of their competitors from the Euroleague. One that should exist for at least the next two seasons. This is how long the new contract that the association has agreed with him will apply. In Munich they know that he makes professionals better. For example, the point guard Wade Baldwin IV and center Jalen Reynolds, who moved to Vittoria and Tel Aviv in the summer, where they should earn significantly more money. “We are a team that can make stars,” says Hainer.
Creative mind: Andrea Trinchieri increases the value of Munich basketball players.
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Image: sampics / Stefan Matzke
But not yet one that can keep stars regularly. Now Trinchieri can work with promising new players again. For example with Corey Walden, Darrun Hilliard, Deshaun Thomas, Augustine Rubit and Othello Hunter. Professionals with Euroleague experience. For all of them, coaches and players, Munich has become an attractive location. As a new shareholder in the Euroleague, FC Bayern is automatically placed in the competition season after season. And next year he will also be able to play in a new arena, which Hainer calls “one of the most attractive venues in Europe and even in the world”. It should further increase sales – and be the decisive driver for the step across the border.
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