“There’s the whole evening free stuff!” the hall announcer shouts again. “We want yours energy Feel it, Berlin!” The spectators raise their arms in the air, cheerleaders throw T-shirts into the audience, the Orlando Magic’s magic dragon mascot cuddles with children, a fan wins $5,000 in a little game. Shortly before, everyone listened reverently to the US national anthem, no one whistled, here it still works, the German-American friendship.
Die National Basketball Association (NBA) is visiting Berlin this Thursday evening, the US professional league has a good mood and glitter in its luggage. The whole thing is really free stuff Of course not, the almost 13,738 spectators in the Uber Arena, which was sold out months ago, paid a lot of money for the show. In return, they get a professionally choreographed spectacle – and a game that was initially tough and then exciting, which in the end the Orlando Magic won against the Memphis Grizzlies 118:111.
Most spectators came to see Franz and Moritz Wagner, Berlin’s most famous basketball sons – it’s a home game for the brothers, almost 8,000 kilometers from Orlando. When Franz Wagner sprints onto the freshly laid parquet floor with the huge television tower print during the presentation of the teams, it becomes deafeningly loud for the first time. Wagner is given a microphone and shouts: “I have one request for you: let it rip today.”
A European league based on the US model
The audience is definitely willing to do this, but at first they don’t really want to get excited; the team from Florida in particular seems unfocused and tired. This may be due to the PR marathon the Magic ran surrounding the game. The NBA is on the move in terms of self-promotion; it wants to create a European league based on the US model as quickly as possible.
This is also why the Wagner brothers in particular have been on duty almost around the clock since they arrived on Monday morning Berlin had landed: photo ops, press conferences, autograph sessions. The two of them had repeatedly emphasized how surreal it felt that a circle was closing for them that evening when they returned from their adopted home to their hometown.
A lot is also demanded of them in terms of sport, after all, both of them have only just gotten fit in time: Moritz tore the cruciate ligament in his left knee more than a year ago and only made his NBA comeback last Sunday after 386 days. Franz was injured at the beginning of December; a sprained left ankle put him out of action for almost six weeks.
Whether it’s the tiredness, the emotional chaos in the face of it homecoming games or the damaged ankle: Franz Wagner takes a long time to find his way into the game, but in the end he fights his way to 18 points and decides the game in the final phase, his older brother Moritz scores seven points.
“Golden era” of German basketball
But what’s almost more important this evening is what’s happening around the field: the spectators cheer on the German basketball legends Detlef Schrempf and Dirk Nowitzki and many international NBA alumni, sing “Country Roads” together, and are happy about former national soccer players and semi-famous rappers who are shown on the huge video cube.
“All the attention we got here – I don’t even know if it’s healthy,” said Moritz Wagner after the game. “I’m a fan myself and only later realized that I was now part of the thing.”
The NBA is making “a sports entertainment product,” league boss Adam Silver said before the game. Since Germany became world and European champions and is sending more and more young professionals to the NBA, this package seems to be selling even better. Silver speaks of a “golden era” of German basketball.
He doesn’t have to add that he would like to silver it for his employer. Before heading home, many fans stop at one of the NBA shops in the arena.
