Post-Christmas unrest – Sport – SZ.de

It was only two weeks ago that the world of FC Bayern basketball players was still okay: five wins in a row, across all competitions, including a famous one in the Euroleague against defending champion Efes Istanbul – and only three days later in the top game in the Bundesliga ( BBL) the success at Meister Alba Berlin. Leader of the table in day-to-day business, internationally well on the way towards the playoffs – it was a good fit for Munich. And now? Suddenly there is unrest in the club after Christmas.

The unnecessary Euroleague home defeat against Vitoria-Gasteiz on the day before Christmas Eve was followed by a 68:77 in the BBL at the Merlins Crailsheim on Sunday evening. It was the fourth loss in the fifth game and the players looked tired, mentally and physically. So far, the Bavarians have been characterized by tireless commitment and the will to fight, but in the past few weeks the protagonists seem to have lost their unconditional will to win.

In the Bundesliga, Munich have now lost the championship lead to Bonn, which should be bearable, however. The season is long, the title won’t be awarded in playoffs for six months anyway, by then the cards will be reshuffled. And that Bayern miss the final round of the BBL should be out of the question, even if the level of the competition has increased significantly in recent years.

Exactly this scenario – a final round without Bayern – threatens in the Euroleague. Because there the FCB is only in 13th place, and he has to fight against opponents such as Tel Aviv, Fenerbahce Istanbul or Monaco for eighth place, which is at least necessary for a place in the finals. The defeat against Baskonia Vitoria, in which Wade Baldwin of all people showed his best performance of the season in the jersey of the Spaniards and put his former colleagues in their place with 30 points, was particularly painful. Because the guests were severely weakened, a Bayern victory in the home hall was firmly planned.

There is a lively discussion on the internet as to whether a coach can physically approach a player.

How great the pressure is was shown by a scene on the sidelines when Bayern coach Andrea Trinchieri punished Jason George not only verbally but also physically for a mistake. As usual in these times, the incident has been hotly discussed and commented on on social media since then. The reactions range from the demand for an immediate dismissal of the coach to the realization that such hardness does not harm the effeminate professionals. The fact that Trinchieri bumped into his player and then gave him a kick on the back from behind was clearly visible in the TV broadcast, but the impulsive coach was already noticed in Bamberg’s time with violent reactions on the sidelines.

The Munich club management sees no reason for an official statement so far, but Trinchieri was absent from the guest appearance in Crailsheim. The break had been planned, however, it was said, because the trainer’s efforts of the past weeks are visibly too. So Trinchieri was out of the line of fire on Sunday evening, for whatever reason. There are three days until the next game on Thursday evening in Villeurbanne (Euroleague) to calm the mood.

In Crailsheim, assistant coach Slaven Rimac was responsible on the sidelines, who later had to admit that Bayern were only able to achieve their potential to some extent in the second quarter. In normal form, only KC Rivers acted, who was signed up for the long-term injured top scorer Darrun Hilliard. Rivers filled the role again in an exemplary manner, as against Vitoria (16 points) he was also the best Bayern shooter in Crailsheim (23 points). Still, he felt “like being on a roller coaster,” he said, given the fluctuations in the game. The Munich game is currently lacking balance: “We didn’t find anything that worked,” Rivers admitted. His own performance means nothing to him, because: “I want to win, we want to win, and we don’t have that”.

Three hard-to-replace key players were missing from Crailsheim: Vladimir Lucic, Nick Weiler-Babb and Augustine Rubit. Nevertheless, Bayern have significantly more quality in the squad compared to their opponents. Crailsheim’s winger Fabian Bleck summed up what they are struggling with these days: “We knew that Bayern would be flat after all the Euroleague games, we made good use of that.” It’s no secret that “it’s always good to play Bayern after a Euroleague game”. And of course the Munich squad is big and good, so Bleck, but at certain moments “you can catch them again and again – we showed that today”.