From 2010 to 2017, Brose Bamberg won seven of eight championships in German men’s basketball. After the Franconians, as a small location, gave up the race for the national top with the big city clubs from Munich and Berlin, many factors spoke in favor of long-term dominance of the two Euroleague participants. FC Bayern won the title in 2018 and 2019, Alba Berlin triumphed in 2020, 2021 and 2022. Even before last season, only these two clubs were classified as ready for the championship. But in the end things turned out completely differently.
The Telekom Baskets Bonn dominated the main round and marched to the final in the play-offs. There they didn’t meet Berlin or Munich, but rather the surprise team from Ratiopharm Ulm, who had previously knocked the favorites out of the race. In the end, the Swabians also prevailed against the Rhinelanders and secured their first championship. This Sunday (6:15 p.m., Dyn) last year’s finalists will meet again on the sixth match day. Based on the impressions so far, they could also be the biggest challengers for Munich and Berlin this season.
New beginning in Bonn
In Bonn there was a completely new beginning after the most successful season in the club’s history, which brought them not only second place but also victory in the Champions League. The successful Finnish coach Tuomas Iisalo moved to Paris and took half the team around TJ Shorts, the most valuable player in the Bundesliga, with him. The new head coach Roel Moors brought two players from Göttingen, the Norwegian Harald Frey and Till Pape, and also signed national player Christian Sengfelder, with whom he had already worked in Bamberg.
All other players are Bundesliga newcomers. After the team lost at the last second in the final of the Intercontinental Cup to South American champion Sesi Franca from Brazil, the players were hopeful about the season. However, the start went wrong with two defeats against the promoted team. The Bonn team appeared desolate, especially in the home game against Tübingen.
But the team is now functioning better and has won five of the last six games in all competitions. The ball is moved well, the players are patient and consistent in their actions, the energy and commitment in defense is high. The team is relatively large, which gives Moors a lot of options in the low post. In addition, every position at a good Bundesliga level is filled twice, so that there is no loss of quality due to the substitutions.
In Ulm the upheaval was not quite as big. Those responsible around sports director Thorsten Leibenath were able to keep all of Germany’s top talent, with Karim Jallow shining as the top scorer so far. However, the 26-year-old could be banned for missing doping tests. However, there was the feared bloodletting in the foreign positions. The loss of the Brazilians Yago dos Santos and Bruno Caboclo was particularly painful. Only the highly talented Spaniard Juan Nunez remained. The 19-year-old played a great World Cup as a starter and could move to the NBA after this season.
Since the left-hander was not Ulm’s only World Cup participant, head coach Anton Gavel feared a similarly bumpy start to the season as in the championship year, when the team lost seven of the first eight competitive games. But it went much better than expected. Ulm won seven of the first eight competitive games and only lost in the Eurocup to defending champion Gran Canaria. Then came last weekend and a difficult-to-explain 70:99 home defeat against Ludwigsburg. Despite this defeat, the Ulm team are still at the top of the table.
Stefanie Sippel Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 4 Jürgen Kalwa, New York Published/Updated: Recommendations: 3 Jürgen Kalwa, New York Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 4
Similar to the Bonn team, they also have interesting new players in their ranks. LJ Figueroa is an outstanding athlete, shooter Dakota Mathias already has NBA experience, and Georginho de Paula continues the tradition of outstanding Brazilians in Ulm. What has been particularly noticeable so far has been Trevion Williams, who has outstanding game intelligence as a center. After the defeat against Ludwigsburg, the champions want to rehabilitate themselves. The same applies to Bonn, who lost to Holon in the Champions League on Wednesday. This duel is just right for both sides.
The author is a two-time Coach of the Year.
