– David Hein
The 2018-19 easyCredit BBL season is just around the corner and here is a look at all 18 teams and what they did in the off-season and their expectations for this year.
In this section, we break out our English language skills and inform you about the latest news from the German easyCredit Basketball Bundesliga. If you’re short on time but still want your fill of Germany’s top basketball league then you are in the right place. Every week David Hein (www.heinnews.com) brings you up-to-date in German basketball – the easyCredit BBL short and sweet:
EuroLeague-bound champs Bayern reinforce German contingent, add Koponen
FC Bayern Munich enter the 2018-19 easyCredit BBL season as the reigning champions and the EuroLeague-bound team did a good job replacing and reinforcing their contingent of Germans while adding a strong veteran wing and playmaker. Bayern bid farewell to the retiring Anton Gavel and also lost Maik Zirbes and Reggie Redding. Entering the fray for the returning head coach Dejan Radonjic are the German trio of Maodo Lo, Robin Amaize and Leon Radosevic as well as Petteri Koponen and Nemanja Dangubic. Bayern will once again be without Milan Macvan, who got injured early in the pre-season and is out an extended period. Radonjic will not be able to afford too many injuries as Bayern will not only face every BBL team’s best effort but also the extremely demanding EuroLeague schedule. Anything but a repeat of the German league title will be a disappointment for Bayern, who would also love back-to-back doubles while going as far as possible in the EuroLeague.
Sikma back, Thiemann arrives as Alba starts year two of Aito era
ALBA BERLIN brought back most of the roster that reached the easyCredit BBL Finals in the first year under veteran head coach Aito Garcia Reneses and added a couple of intriguing pieces as they look to grab their ninth league crown and first since 2008. Losing Marius Grigonis and Spencer Butterfield will hurt a bit but they have back the league MVP Luke Sikma as well as Dennis Clifford. Aito brought in German international big man Johannes Thiemann, who is a step up from the departed Bogdan Radosavljevic, while German Kenneth Ogbe will be making his professional debut after playing collegiately in the United States. Rokas Giedraitis will help Alba’s Lithuanian fans forget about Grigonis who hope the new man can have a breakout year in his first campaign outside of his homeland. And the Mercedes-Benz Arena might get a taste of the famous Iceland Hu chant with the addition of Iceland international Martin Hermansson. ALBA BERLIN fans have a good reason to be excited about this season.
Can Patrick form entirely rebuilt Ludwigsburg team into winner?
MHP RIESEN Ludwigsburg fans more or less should forget about last year’s roster as head coach John Patrick goes into this season with an almost entirely new team. The only two returning players for Ludwigsburg are Germans David McCray and Adam Waleskowski. Ludwigsburg fans will recognize some of the new players as Owen Klassen, Malcolm Hill, Lamont Jones, Konstantin Klein, Bogdan Radosavljevic and Karim Jallow all played in the easyCredit BBL last season. And Christian von Fintel was with ProA team Hanau last year. There was also the last-minute addition of playmaker Jordon Crawford. But if Patrick hopes to get his team back to either the German semi-finals (or further) or the Basketball Champions League Final Four, he will need to get strong production from professional rookies Kelan Martin and Thomas Wilder while 30-year-old Jeff Ledbetter will be playing in Europe for the first time. Ludwigsburg could face some growing pains early on if the team doesn’t find itself right away.
Bamberg tip off Champions League era under new boss Bagatskis
Brose Bamberg are taking a new course this season as they hope to return to the top of the easyCredit BBL while also making their debut in the Basketball Champions League - in the first year of a five-year commitment. All this with a new head coach as Latvian Ainars Bagatskis comes to Bamberg after serving last season first as Darussafaka Bogus Istanbul assistant coach and then Maccabi Tel Aviv’s lead man. The former champs have gone through a major overhaul with the departures of Leon Radosevic, Maodo Lo, Lucca Staiger, Daniel Hackett, Dorell Wright, Luka Mitrovic, Aleksej Nikolic and Dejan Musli. Bagatskis knows he will get great efforts from returnees Nikos Zisis and Augustine Rubit while Ricky Hickmann was hit and miss at times last season. Elias Harris and Bryce Taylor will both be out to forget last season, which were nearly a complete washout with long-term injuries, while top talent Louis Olinde is a year older, wiser and stronger. The biggest addition is former EuroLeague champion and Finals MVP Tyrese Rice while Cliff Alexander will be out to prove himself in his first full season in Europe and Stevan Jelovac could challenge as one of the best bigs in the league. And Bamberg also return four former players as Maurice Stuckey, Leon Kratzer, Arnoldas Kulboka and Daniel Schmidt all come back to the club. This promises to be an intriguing season for Bamberg and their Freak City fans.
Mayo expected to lead new-look Bonn
Telekom Baskets Bonn kept most of their core of German players from last season but will have a new group of leaders to rely upon and follow returning point guard Josh Mayo’s lead. The 31-year-old Mayo is back in the mix for head coach Predrag Krunic, who lost Konstantin Klein but was able to keep his solid German group of TJ DiLeo, Yorman Polas Bartolo and Martin Breunig. Add German-American Jarelle Reischel, who will be making the jump from ProA to the easyCredit BBL after starring last season with PS Karlsruhe Lions. But much of Bonn’s success will depend on how their Americans play. Ra’Shad James is working his way up the European ladder after playing last year with Yesilgiresun Belediye in Turkey; while James Webb III will be making his European debut; Shane Gibson comes to Bonn from Cyprus; and Charles Jackson arrives after two years in Turkey. And it must be said that forward Bojan Subotic is a winner as he won four straight championships in his native Montenegro and then won the Estonian league crown last season with BC Kalev/Cramo Tallinn. Now, can Subotic help Mayo and Krunic come close to that feat in Germany?
Can David Stockton keep Bayreuth on steady improvement?
medi bayreuth have been steadily improving over the last couple of years and head coach Raoul Korner will be relying heavily this season on the addition of David Stockton and the returning German veterans. Bayreuth ended up losing quite a bit from last year’s team, including Gabe York, James Robinson, Assem Marei, Nate Linhart and Robin Amaize. Back for Korner are the German trio of Bastian Doreth, Andi Seiferth and Steve Wachalski. But this might be one of Korner’s most challenging seasons as far as forming his new team. Stockton, the son of NBA Hall of Famer John Stockton and brother of BG Göttingen’s Michael Stockton, has only had a brief taste of the European game, having played a couple of months with Cedevita Zagreb in 2016-17. Hassan Martin’s only professional season came last year in Japan while 32-year-old German-American Nik Raivio played the last three seasons in Italy’s second division, Kassius Robertson is making his professional debut, and Slovenian international Gregor Hrovat will be getting his first taste of basketball outside of his home country. It’s not all question marks though for Bayreuth as Slovenian Ziga Dimec gives Korner a big man who has won the EuroBasket title while Adonis Thomas is slowly becoming the player many thought he could - as he helped the United States to the gold medal at the FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup 2010. And German Lukas Meisner choose Bayreuth as the place to start his professional career after a building up his name in college in the United States. This season will not be an easy one for the team though as Bayreuth have built up a name themselves and expectations are getting higher each year.
???? Danke @mediBayreuth, it was a pleasure! Here are your ????5⃣ Plays of your first #BasketballCL campaign!
— Basketball Champions League (@BasketballCL) April 10, 2018
Best of luck for the rest of the season! pic.twitter.com/CDQhGV5eDI
Oldenburg avoid major changes, hope consistency key to success
The old saying goes, “Never change a winning team”, and while WE Baskets Oldenburg were bounced in the quarter-finals of last season’s playoffs and the Round of 16 of the Basketball Champions League, the club’s leaders wanted to keep together their team from 2017-18. And head coach Mladen Drijencic hope consistency will lead his team to success this season - especially as many other teams undergo massive overhauls of their teams. Oldenburg did lose Isaiah Philmore, Brad Loesing, Maxime de Zeeuw, Mickey McConnell and Armani Moore. But eight players are back from Oldenburg’s team last season including four - Rickey Paulding, Philipp Schwethelm, Frantz Massenat and Marko Bacak - who reached the easyCredit BBL Finals in 2017. Other key players returning are big man Rasid Mahalbasic and Karsten Tadda while Drijencic would love to see 21-year-old Haris Hujic and Marcel Keßen both take the next step. Oldenburg will get a major boost at point guard as Will Cummings helped Darussafaka Dogus Istanbul to the EuroCup title last season. Another addition is the 30-year-old Macedonian swingman Vojdan Stojanovski, who has EuroCup experience and also played in Germany and Spain among other countries. And the other new player is Nathan Boothe, who shot 45 percent from three-point range in his rookie season in Turkey last year from the power forward spot. Oldenburg will also have the advantage of not playing internationally so they can concentrate fully on the easyCredit BBL season.
New-look Skyliners continue Canadian connection to help ‘Tez’
Icon Quantez Robertson and head coach Gordon Herbert are still on board but FRAPORT SKYLINERS lost another major face of their franchise as they return to international play with a new-look team and a continued Canadian connection. ‘Tez’ is back for his 10th season with Frankfurt while Herbert returns for his 10th season as well - though the coach’s tenure stretches back to 2001 with breaks in between. Frankfurt’s only German league crown came under Herbert back in 2004 and Robertson would love to at least get back to the team’s first Finals since 2010. The club lost a lot of production from last season, including Mike Morrison, who was Robertson’s running mate in the post for four years. Philip Scrubb had been with the team since January 2016 while Tai Webster headed to Turkey after an impressive professional rookie season. Frankfurt also lost über-talent Isaac Bonga to the NBA. Also returning to the club are Shawn Huff and the German grouping of Jonas Wohlfarth-Bottermann, Marco Völler, Richard Freudenberg, Garai Zeeb and Niklas Kiel. Frankfurt wouldn’t be Frankfurt without a Canadian or two - given that Herbert is Canadian and even served as the senior national team head coach for the February 2018 window. This season’s team has Canadian internationals Brady Heslip and Trae Bell-Haynes, the latter who will be making his professional debut. Herbert also added former NBA big man and Finnish international Erik Murphy as well as guard Jason Clark, who spent most of his career in Belgium, and German veteran guard Akeem Vargas, who will be looking for new life after five seasons at ALBA BERLIN. And what would Frankfurt be without adding a young talent as they signed 20-year-old Swedish scoring ace Elijah Clarence. This season also marks the club’s return to international play as Frankfurt will play in the EuroCup after taking last season off.
Würzburg hoping Wucherer-era begins with return to playoffs
Denis Wucherer worked magic at GIESSEN 46ers, just missing out on the playoffs two seasons in a row. Now the former German national team star takes over the bench at s.Oliver Würzburg and the fans have reason to believe in their first playoffs berth since 2016. Wucherer cleaned house with his arrival, keeping only 35-year-old Croatian-German Kresimir Koncar for his final season and Felix Hoffmann. But Wucherer has put together an exciting roster, including a trio of players who played for him in Giessen in Cameron Wells, Skyler Bowlin and Gabe Olaseni. Wucherer also added one of the best shooters in Germany over the past two years in Jordan Hulls, who was the second-best three-point shooter both of the last two seasons with Eisbären Bremerhaven and led the league in free throw percentage with 94.5 percent and 97.7 percent. German-American Brad Loesing knows the league after playing the last two years with MHP RIESEN Ludwigsburg and helping them to the Basketball Champions League Final Four last year. Another addition is former NCAA finalist Perry Ellis, who played with Kansas and got his first taste of Europe last season with Italian club Cantu. Wucherer also added an interesting rookie in Australian Xavier Cooks, who can block shots from the wing. And the coach also looked after adding some Germans in bringing in Johannes Richter and Florian Koch for the current team and Badu Buck and Flynn Fischer for down the road. It should not be a surprise if s.Oliver Würzburg is battling for the playoffs come spring time.
Ulm look to forget about 2017-18 and get back to post-season
ratiopharm ulm fans hope the 2017-18 season was a blip on the German basketball landscape and that their beloved team can return to the easyCredit BBL playoffs and make another run for their first-ever title. Ulm team leaders figured last season would be tough after losing so much of the team that won the 2016-17 regular season before bowing out in the semi-finals. Ulm ended up finishing 10th and missing the playoff for the first time since 2011. Out from last year’s team are Da’Sean Butler, Luke Harangody, Jerrelle Benimon, Tim Ohlbrecht and Joschka Ferner. But head coach Thorsten Leibenath has a major group back with Germans Per Günther, Ismet Akpinar, David Krämer and Till Pape as well as Ryan Thompson, Isaac Fotu and Katin Reinhardt. In-coming forward Dwayne Evans knows the league after playing the last three years with GIESSEN 46ers and MHP RIESEN Ludwigsburg. American playmaker Patrick Miller has EuroCup experience from playing in Serbia and Turkey and could finally be the man to force Günther to the bench as the starting point guard. Javonte Green is a bit of a wild card after playing the last three seasons in the second divisions in Spain and Italy while 23-year-old German forward Maxi Ugrai hopes to take the next step and German-American Gavin Schilling will make his professional debut after spending the past five seasons at Michigan State University. All in all, Ulm fans should feel confident this team can grab a top-eight spot and return to the playoffs.
With Bryant back (not yet as German), Giessen add oldies to try for playoffs
GIESSEN 46ers managed to keep captain and two-time former MVP John Bryant on board and now head coach Ingo Freyer has pulled a Science City Jena-like move in bringing in veteran veterans to try and get the club into the post-season for the first time since 2005. The five-time German league champs, whose last crown came in 1978, re-signed Bryant for two seasons and the hope is that the big man can receive a German passport, on which he has been working for months now. Freyer did lose Dee Davis, Jamar Abrams and Austin Hollins from last year’s team, but he brought in two former German league All-Stars - albeit from 2014. The 31-year-old Larry Gordon and 34-year-old Brandon Thomas both were easyCredit BBL All-Stars in 2014 and have been called upon by Freyer to provide the young Giessen team some leadership, along with 37-year-old addition David Bell, for whom Thomas was brought in on a short-term injury replacement deal. If Bryant could get his German passport, that could mean Thomas will stay in Giessen. Also staying in Giessen is the German big-man duo of Benjamin Lischka and Mahir Agva while Freyer can look forward to a full season with Max Landis as point guard and to see if Jeril Taylor can take the next step after making the jump from Giessen’s ProB team to the top flight and excelling. Giessen did not just add older players. Siyani Chambers was a three-time Ivy League champion with Harvard in college and then finished fifth in Austria in assists last season in his rookie season. And German-American Max Montana - not Hoetzel - will be making his professional debut after playing collegiately in the United States. Giessen fans can be excited about their team and their chances of finally making the playoffs again.
Geschäftsführer Heiko Schelberg im großen Sommerinterview https://t.co/9noWgRyIvL pic.twitter.com/DRCGlzM9Jb
— GIESSEN 46ers (@GIESSEN46ers) August 17, 2018
Returnees give Braunschweig hope for playoffs
If you look at Basketball Löwen Braunschweig’s roster and squint just right you could actually see a world where Frank Menz’s team ends the regular season in the playoffs. Braunschweig were able to keep their top four scorers, including All-Star Scott Eatherton and DeAndre Lansdowne, who combined to average 32.0 points, 13.6 rebounds, 5.0 assists and 2.5 steals per game. Austrian international point guard Thomas Klepeisz is back as is Bazou Kone, who shined at times last season with four games of 15 points or more. Braunschweig did lose Zygimantas Janavicius and Anythong Morse, but they did keep young Germans Lars Lagerpusch and Luis Figge. And they bring in a strong group of additions, topped off by Joe Rahon, who in his professional rookie season out of St. Mary’s led the Belgian league in assists. Travis Taylor won two league titles and cup crown in Austria while rookie Brayon Blake nearly averaged a double-double his final season at Idaho from the wing position. Braunschweig also added 21-year-old big man Dejan Kovacevic, who has a chance for a breakout with playing time after not getting on the floor for FC Bayern Munich and s.Oliver Würzburg. And Braunschweig also won out in the battle for German 23-year-old big man Christian Sengfelder, who spent the past four seasons averaging at least 10.3 points and 5.1 rebounds in college in the United States. Sure, a lot has to break right, but it really shouldn’t surprise people if Basketball Löwen Braunschweig are closer to the playoffs at the end of the season than the relegation fight.
Joyce joins Jena’s oldies crew
Science City Jena just cannot seem to help themselves as head coach Björn Harmsen added yet another ageing veteran as the club hopes their group of oldies can keep them in the top flight another year. Dru Joyce is the biggest addition in the off-season and gives Harmsen the opportunity to have a full line-up of players 33 years or older. There are 33-year-old Joyce and Martynas Mazeika, 37-year-old Julius Jenkins and 38-year-olds Immanuel McElroy and Derrick Allen. Jena did lose Skyler Bowlin, Kyle Weaver, Maxi Ugrai and Oliver Clay, but Harmsen did add some big-time athleticism in German All-Star Dunk Contest winner Jamar Abrams while Sid-Marlon Theis took a step forward as a reserve big last season in Tübingen. And don’t sleep on 23-year-old guard Ike Iroegbu, who will be making his European debut this season and led the FIBA AfroBasket 2017 in assists as Nigeria took home the silver medal. One could imagine that Science City Jena’s first goal would be to avoid relegation. That seems feasible if their group of veterans stay healthy all year - once again. But if they start to finally get hit by injuries, things could look troublesome for this group.
Possession of the year: Science City Jena pic.twitter.com/c46fvijtca
— Chris Schmidt (@ChrisSchmidt27) April 26, 2018
Göttingen out to stay top flight for fifth straight season
Younger BG Göttingen fans might not remember but the club had a three-year stretch of making the playoffs not that long ago. And the team is slowly working back towards that run - as they try to build on consistency. John Patrick led Göttingen to a second-place regular season finish in 2009 and third in 2010, the same year they won the EuroChallenge title and then took seventh in the league in 2011. Göttingen can make it five straight seasons in the easyCredit BBL - but only if they replace the likes of Brion Rush, Leon Williams and Jordan Loveridge. Head coach Johannes Roijakkers was able to keep the duo of Michael Stockton and Darius Carter as well as the German core of Dominic Lockhart, Stephan Haukohl, Dennis Kramer and Joanic Grüttner. Roijakkers convinced German wing Mathis Mönninghoff to return to Göttingen and then added Serbian Mihaljo Andric, who will be leaving Partizan for the first time in his career. Göttingen also added guard Pendarvis Williams, who played three of the last four seasons in Italy, as well as Tre Coggins, who spent his professional rookie campaign in Spain’s second division last season. And the other addition is Derek Willis, who will get his first taste of Europe after playing in the G-League last season following a four-year career of battling against the biggest and brightest of talents at Kentucky. Are BG Göttingen ready to return to the playoffs? Probably not, but they are well-equipped to battle off relegation.
MBC rebuild under new coach Scepanovic, look to avoid relegation
Mitteldeutscher BC go into the 2018-19 season with the main goal being a top 16 spot and avoid relegation to ProA. New head coach Aleksandar Scepanovic rebuilt the MBC team, retaining only Sergio Kerusch and 21-year-old Benedikt Turudic. Unlike many other teams in the league, MBC did not really look to a lot of players who had been playing in the easyCredit BBL last season. David Brembly gives MBC a good German wing after playing the last two years with Eisbären Bremerhaven - both seasons fighting off injuries; while swingman Alex Ruoff does know the easyCredit BBL from playing BG Göttingen and MHP RIESEN Ludwigsburg, the latter for which Canadian international Adika Peter-McNeilly debuted as a rookie last season. But Scepanovic, who was MBC’s assistant coach last year, brought in Serbian big man Aleksandar Marelja as well as three Americans. Power forward James Farr comes to Weissenfels after seasons in Hungary and France while playmaker Trevor Releford played the last three years in Greece and guard Lee Moore was in Italy the past two years. Italy is the home country of 26-year-old Kenneth Viglianisi, who holds a German passport as well. MBC hope to see 20-year-old German Ferdinand Zylka really blossom with a chance to play while Hans-George Brase was at US colleges for six seasons and will make his professional debut. Time will tell if that is enough for MBC to avoid the drop to ProA.
Bremerhaven adds two NCAA champs, still major relegation candidate
Eisbären Bremerhaven may have added two past champions of the US collegiate NCAA system but Arne Woltmann’s team is still one of the top candidates for relegation this season. The head coach gave a complete facelift to the team, keeping only German 25-year-olds Fabian Bleck and Adrian Breitlauch. Two of the bigger names added to Bremerhaven are 2008 NCAA champ with Kansas Darnell Jackson, who played last season in Greece with PAOK; and 2016 NCAA winner with Villanova Kris Jenkins, who will be getting his first taste of Europe this season. Actually, there is a third US collegiate champion joining the team in Jordan Brangers, who helped South Plains to the National Junior College title this past spring and he went undrafted after his sophomore year. Woltmann was able to add two more Germans. Anthony Canty arrives after three years with Hamburg Towers, having last played in the BBL in 2014-15 with TBB Trier. And 22-year-old Jan Niklas Wimberg hopes to finally take off after being a formerly highly touted prospect. Also key to Bremerhaven’s season will be Elston Turner, who played the past five years in Italy, while Keith Benson is a 6-11 big man who can block shots and Paulius Sorokas is a Lithuania who was in Italy’s second division the past four seasons. Bremerhaven have played the last 13 seasons in the easyCredit BBL. They hope a good showing this season will make it 15 in a row.
Vechta out to party more than just one season in BBL
RASTA Vechta will be out to party for more than just one season as the team that calls itself “The most awesome club in the world” is back. Vechta spent their first season in the easyCredit BBL in 2016-17 and did not have much success with just three wins - which actually turned out to be a 2-30 record after Phoenix Hagen was forced to early relegation and their results stroke from the record. Vechta went back down to ProA and lost just three times in the regular season and ended up winning the ProA title last season. Now the club wants to avoid relegation. The first step was taken in keeping their top four scorers from last year in Seth Hinrichs, Chris Carter, Robin Christen and Josh Young as well as top talents Philipp Herkenhoff and Luc Van Slooten. Vechta’s losses of Dirk Mädrich, David Gonzalez and Christopher Razis seem to have been compensated for with former assistant Pedro Calles taking over as head coach. New on the team is Austin Hollins, who played last season in the BBL with GIESSEN 46ers. Swiss-German Michael Kessens had six games in double figure scoring last season for Eisbären Bremerhaven and will help Calles’ team for sure. As will Max DiLeo, who had three years in the ProA while TJ Bray spent last season in Greek’s top flight. And Australian forward Venkatesha Jois played in Estonia, Croatia and Japan the last two years. Vechta will be in a fight all season to stay in the league. One thing is certain: they will make it a party.
Aus gegebenen Anlass auch hier noch mal ein riesengroßes Danke-schön an Doug Spradley! ???????????? Die ganze RASTA-Familie wünscht dir alles Gu-te für deine sportliche und persönliche Zukunft! Du hast diese Saison (fast) alle Wünsche unserer Fans erfüllt! Aber seht selbst. ???? pic.twitter.com/aAnSLUcP35
— RASTA VECHTA (@scrastavechta) May 9, 2018
Crailsheim out to establish selves in top flight
HAKRO Merlins Crailsheim are tired of bouncing back and forth between the ProA and easyCredit BBL. The promoted team is ready to establish themselves in Germany’s top flight, and they have put together a strong side to avoid the relegation. Finnish head coach Tuomas Ilsalo kept five of the top six scorers from last year’s team, which reached the ProA Finals, where they lost to RASTA Vechta. Sherman Gay, Frank Turner, Michael Cuffee and Konrad Wysocki all averaged in double figure scoring while Wysocki, Gay and Cuffee were top-four in rebounds along with fellow returnee Philipp Neumann. Ilsalo also brings back 20-year-old Chilean-German Sebastian Herrera. The only real loss to the Merlins team was the departure of Chase Griffin. But Crailsheim have done excellent in bringing in players with real leadership. Brion Rush has EuroLeague and EuroCup experience and was a star of the BBL last season with BG Göttingen. Ben Madgen was one of the top stars of the Australian league before finally coming to Europe and played the last two seasons with Lithuanian EuroCup teams. Joe Lawson for his part reached the ProA semi-finals in 2016 and 2017 and will be hungry for his first taste of Germany’s top flight. Joschka Ferner is a 22-year-old wing who has never been able to turn into more than a role player and maybe a change of scenery from ratiopharm ulm to Crailsheim is just what he needs to live up to his one-time prospect status. And there is plenty of experience from which Ferner can learn. While Science City Jena get all the publicity for having an oldie lineup with five players 33 years or over, Crailsheim have six 30+ players - 30-year-old Turner, 33-year-olds Rush and Madgen, 35-year-old Cuffee and 36-year-olds Wysocki and Gay. With that kind of experience, it’s hard to imagine HAKRO Merlins Crailsheim losing in the fight against relegation.
#Crailsheim, das war magisch ???????????? #THEBEASTISBACK pic.twitter.com/wXKVK8t6aF
— HAKRO Merlins Crailsheim (@cr_merlins) May 8, 2018
Sport1 will continue to show easyCredit BBL games, deal until 2022-23 season
easyCredit BBL will remain on free TV in Germany as the Sport1 station agreed to a five-year deal with the league until the 2022-23 season. Sport1, which has broadcast German top flight games since 2009, will regularly show games Sunday at 3pm. Sport1 will also broadcast the season opener on Friday September 28 at 7pm when ratiopharm ulm host reigning champions FC Bayern Munich. Here is a link to all the details (in German)
Germany qualify for 2019 World Cup - with 8-0 record
Germany have qualified for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019, making their first appearance in the World Cup in the post-Dirk Nowitzki era. Germany improved to a perfect 8-0 record with some heroics at home against Israel - booking their ticket to China 2019 with four games to go. Henrik Rödl’s team came back from 23 points down only to lose a 7-point lead in the closing minutes and needed a miraculous layup by Maxi Kleber in the final 0.4 seconds of relegation before winning 112-98 in overtime over Israel. There are still two more windows as Germany hope to win Group L, which would have an impact on their seeding for the World Cup next summer.
Obst named Best German U22 Youth Player for 2017-18 season
With the 2018-19 season just around the corner, there was one award left from last season and that was the Best German U22 Youth Player and the winner was Andreas Obst from Rockets. Obst averaged 10.9 points in nearly 28 minutes a game last season while hitting 77 of 202 three-pointers. Obst, who played for the German national team during the in-season FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 European Qualifiers window, has since signed with Spanish club Obradoiro CAB and he is already doing what made him stand out: shooting from long range.
