When Serge Ibaka, the 1071 game man from the NBA, presented himself to the public for the first time in Munich on Thursday, he of course had to endure a bit of city folklore. What was it like at the Oktoberfest? And the beer, did it taste good? Ibaka, a 2.08 meter tall center and power forward, then admitted with disarming honesty that he had “never heard of Oktoberfest before in my life.” But he liked the beer, it was “very strong” and the mug was “very heavy”.
Ibaka, 34, was also dressed in lederhosen on Tuesday when his new team visited the Oktoberfest, and on the Friday before he had watched FC Bayern’s top football game against Leverkusen. The man from Brazzaville, Congo, is almost a professional when it comes to the club’s rituals. But that’s not what FC Bayern is primarily concerned with: Ibaka, 2019 NBA champion with Toronto, should also raise her game internationally to a level that meets her requirements. At the same time, he should make the league shine more – he should be able to do that just by his presence, then alongside the three world champions in Bayern’s service, Andreas Obst, Isaac Bonga and Niels Giffey.
“I’m a winner,” said Ibaka, and that’s exactly why he came here, “because I want to win.” Speaking of winning: Ibaka didn’t expect that the Germans recently won the World Cup title. “Should I be honest? I expected the USA and Canada in the final, they were so strong on paper. But this is about teamwork and it’s nice to see the Germans win.”
The new Bayern coach Pablo Laso recently steered Ibaka to Munich, and two weeks ago Laso and Munich’s sports director Daniele Baiesi signaled to managing director Marko Pesic and the club’s management that the change could actually come about. Bayern were looking for an experienced, highly decorated man in the center position, and Ibaka “fell from heaven a bit,” as Pesic puts it: “He spoke to Pablo, that was it. Without Pablo, no Ibaka.”
Ibaka’s connection to Laso dates back to 2011, when Ibaka played twelve games for Real Madrid under Laso during a strike in the NBA due to stalled collective bargaining. And apparently the coach made a lasting impression on the player. The two stayed in touch until the end. Ibaka, steeled in 14 NBA years with the Oklahoma City Thunder, Orlando Magic, Toronto Raptors, Los Angeles Clippers and the Milwaukee Bucks, even calls Laso “one of the best coaches in the world.”
“My story is hard,” says Ibaka, “I could write a whole book about it.”
The fact that Ibaka was allowed to pursue this career, in which he landed in Munich in late autumn – and that he was apparently “really fit, he looks like a 23-year-old,” as Pesic said – was not really foreseeable in his youth. A few years ago, the basketball magazine Five told Ibaka’s tragic life story: how he grew up as the third youngest of 18 children in the turmoil of the Congo War; how he lost his mother when he was eight years old; how he was raised by his grandmother in a house without electricity or running water; the father, a dock worker, was temporarily in prison. “My story is hard,” said Ibaka on Thursday in the FC Bayern basketball hall, “I could write a whole book about it. I have learned from my past. But I don’t want to live there anymore. It’s a blessing that I I’m standing where I am now.”
This is also why Ibaka moved to Spain at the age of 17, took on citizenship there alongside that of Congo, became European champion with Spain in 2011 and came second at the Olympics in London in 2012: because he finally wanted to set off for a better life.
2023-09-21 15:31:23
#Serge #Ibaka #Bayern #Basketball #Escaping #Sport
