It would have been clear as early as the summer of 2022 that Alba Berlin was serious about women’s basketball. At that time the club sent one out High-gloss team brochure to interested parties and journalists. To be seen in one half: portraits and interviews of the men around national players such as Johannes Thiemann and Maodo Lo, who would become world champions a year later. And in the other, almost in reverse, the women. The crucial information was found in the middle of the yearbook, combined with a shared photo of all the professionals: “One club, one path, twice in the first league.”
Although profit-making is such a thing. Lena Gohlisch, for example, captain of the women’s team, works part-time as a general practitioner in a Berlin practice – in order to be able to live from a job in the future, but also to have a “balance” from the grind of sport, as she says. “I train less than our full professionals. During the week I usually have a normal working day before I go to training at 3 p.m.” She skips the individual training, but when the team gets together, she is there. Previously, she treated patients, most of whom did not know that they were now dealing with a German master.
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So this story of the Berlin women is not just about a lightning success, but also about the challenges of niche women’s sport. Gohlisch, 30, is what is commonly referred to as a Berlin original. She doesn’t live in Berlin, but her CV does: born and grew up in Prenzlauer Berg, joined the Minis club as a child, attended men’s performances as a young fan for years, back then in the Max-Schmeling-Halle, where she later played with the Alba -Women played. And then last week this triumph.
The development of basketball has taken a steep curve – just not in the women’s Bundesliga
Alba fought five duels, some of which were thrilling, in the finals of the women’sBasketball Bundesliga (DBBL) with the Rutronik Stars Keltern. In the all-important fifth game, the score was 68:53 in front of 2,400 spectators in the Sömmeringhalle in Charlottenburg, where the Berliners now play their home games. Everyone had made a pilgrimage deep into the West, almost the entire men’s team, Alba officials, celebrities like Nora Tschirner, friends, family, then after the final whistle the beer splashed across the parquet.
Gohlisch still hasn’t fully realized this little Berlin miracle; like the rest of the group, she had never won a title, “except for a streetball tournament,” as she says. Then the time came. “I remember looking at the score shortly before the end and thinking: It’s indescribable what’s happening here.”
Open detailed view Actress Nora Tschirner was also there when Alba became champions in Charlottenburg. (Photo: Tilo WiedenSoler/Imago)
Two years ago they were only promoted from the second division after the club decided in 2019 to give a boost to women’s basketball. The development of basketball in Germany has taken a steep curve; the men’s team won the World Cup in 2023 and the women’s national team has now made it to the Olympics for the first time. But their own league actually seemed as gruesome as players who fled abroad like Leonie Fiebich (soon to be in the WNBA in New York) or national team captain Svenja Brunckhorst (also manager in the Alba women’s area) described it.
“There are currently no top players playing in Germany, the national team has not been at the top level for a long time,” Brunckhorst recently criticized the situation in an interview with RBB. “Because we don’t have the substructure. We play in school halls where you can see 15 lines on the court in the live stream. You can’t sell this product.” In addition to all the efforts of the clubs, that’s what it’s all about: How do you convey the sport in an attractive way? How do you create professional structures and recognition among the audience? What does it mean if the league leaders Rheinland Lions suddenly stop playing in the middle of the season in 2023 after opening insolvency proceedings? Or the long-standing master Wasserburg suddenly crashes (and is now back)?
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With Alba they found quite obvious answers. Initiated by the Spaniard Himar Ojeda, Alba’s sports director since 2016, the women have been integrated more and more closely into the men’s professional environment over the years – synergy is the key word. This process extends from the media presentation described at the beginning to the game philosophy: Alba Basketball is committed to sustainability, the focus is on developing talent instead of big names, and women and men sometimes even try to be successful with the same tactical systems. This works better for women than for men, who can’t always keep up at the top level in the Euroleague recently suffered a massive defeat against FC Bayern in the BBL.
But it’s about the bigger picture – and that’s where the investments bear fruit. Alba’s teams share existing infrastructure such as training halls, weight rooms and medical departments. For active people like Lena Gohlisch, there were concrete improvements: “I noticed progress in athletic training, there was a lot of input from the men’s area, so that I suddenly had fitter legs on match days.” The new beginning for women’s basketball is not only based on the goodwill of the club’s management, but also on Ojeda’s origins. Last but not least, as Gohlisch has observed, he approaches things from a Spanish perspective. There, “women’s sport generally has a different status.”
The fact that all these efforts in the big city grow on particularly fertile ground also helps. There are sponsors as well as a certain amount of media attention, and men’s basketball is traditionally deeply rooted here. Those involved are aware of these benefits. “Of course not all locations have the opportunities that we have at Alba,” says Gohlisch, “but we may still have a pioneering role here.” Getting serious about women’s basketball – FC Bayern could also learn that, where the requirements would be similar. The Munich women are still playing in the Southeast Regional League.
2024-05-07 10:32:24
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