The fight for relegation in the basketball Bundesliga is coming to a head. A trio around the Skyliners Frankfurt fears for the first class. A change in the statutes of the league could also save the Hessians.
The defeat in Hamburg hurts the Skyliners Frankfurt – no question. With the 70:84, the Hanseatic League has overtaken the Hessians in the table. As penultimate in the table, Frankfurt must leave at least one team behind in order not to be relegated in terms of sport. But the circle of candidates who can still be overtaken has shrunk considerably over the weekend.
Strictly speaking, there is only one realistic option left: the Skyliners still have to intercept the Braunschweigers placed directly in front of them. The lions have only one win left and lost the first leg against Frankfurt. If the Skyliners also win the second leg in Braunschweig on April 25th, they will also win the valuable direct comparison.
Bayreuth not written off yet
At the same time, the Hessians have to look backwards: Bayreuth, bottom of the league, managed a surprise win against the top team from Oldenburg and only has two wins less than the Skyliners. On April 23 – just two days before the decisive game in Braunschweig – the Bayreuth team will be present in Frankfurt.
The relegation battle has shrunk to a three-way battle. Skyliners managing director Yannick Binas even has hope that the Crailsheim Merlins are not completely off the hook, he said in an interview with hr-sport.
It has not yet been finally clarified that two of these teams will actually be relegated. Maybe only the bottom of the table bites the dust. The Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) secretly, quietly and quietly changed the wild card rule in the summer. So far it has been said that anyone who has bought a wildcard may not do so again for the next five years. In the new license statute of the BBL, however, there is no longer any mention of this.
wild card? Skyliners deposit interest
The Skyliners, who acquired a similar wildcard last summer in order to continue playing first-class, could possibly repeat the game this summer. At least one second division team that has qualified for promotion would have to give up their starting place. If only one wild card is available, the second-bottom player has priority over the -bottom.
The whole mind game is currently still very theoretical in nature. On April 15 (or April 17, because the 15th is a Saturday) there could be a little more clarity. By then, not only must all license applications for the new season have been received by the league, but also the interest in a possible wildcard must be submitted informally. The Skyliners will do just that, even if they don’t really want to think about the possibility just yet. “We are currently only thinking about keeping up the sporting class,” Binas makes clear about the focus of the Hessians.
