In the middle of the second half, Serge Ibaka passed the ball to Niels Giffey, who had evaded his opponent and then just had to put the ball in the basket, as it is called in basketball language. The passport? Was normal. The layup? Was normal. But one thing was not normal: the way in which Ibaka and Giffey, the NBA champion (2019) and the world champion (2023), who have been playing side by side for FC Bayern Munich since this season, were beyond what was actually normal event in the 25th minute of the game.
In moments like these, you could tell that the first title of the season was at stake in the basketball hall in Munich this Sunday – the Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) Cup. And how seriously the FC Bayern players took this was evident not only in the 25th minute of the game, but also in the final result of the final: they won 81:65 (35:28) against Ratiopharm Ulm.
Anyone who looked at this final in Munich was also looking at a conflict in the current constellation of German club basketball. On the one hand there was FC Bayern, the club that, in addition to the BBL and the BBL Cup, also plays in the Euroleague, the most demanding European competition, and which – if you only consider the money that it spends on its team standards – actually should almost always become German champions and cup winners.
Aggressive defense
On the other side was Ratiopharm Ulm, the club that does not play in the Euroleague (but in the Eurocup) and yet became German champions last season. On the one hand, you can interpret this Ulm success as meaning that the Euroleague, with its 34 main round games, costs the teams from Munich and Berlin, the two German participants, the energy that they then lack in the final games of the Bundesliga.
On the other hand, you can also interpret it to mean that the team from Ulm is representative of the progress in the Bundesliga, that they have become so good that, if the circumstances are right, they can even win against Munich.
That’s what it looked like in the first quarter of the final on Sunday in Munich. The Ulm team then led 18:9 because they defended aggressively – and because their American-Dominican winger LJ Figueroa sank three three-point shots. But where were Bayern’s best? Where was Sylvain Francisco? Where was Vladimir Lučić? Where was Serge Ibaka?
It was Ibaka, the 2.13 meter man, who had dominated with his power on the first day of the Final Four tournament. Anyone who watched on Saturday how Ibaka constantly snatched the ball from under the basket of the players from Bamberg, Bayern’s semi-final opponents, thought of the great book by the American author Jonathan Abrams, who wrote down the history of the American generation of players who came after the High school didn’t go to college, but went straight to the NBA (which was then banned again).
The book title: Boys Among Men. But in this first semi-final, in which Munich won 81:62, Ibaka was the one Man Among Boys, the man among boys. His stats: 15 points and nine rebounds in less than 17 minutes of play. And yet Ibaka didn’t become Saturday’s player. That was Trevion Williams, the American center from Ulm, who collected 25 points and twelve rebounds in 24 minutes in the exciting duel with Berlin. The Ulm team eliminated a German Euroleague participant. The final score: 87:79.
The best are here
Ibaka against Williams, big man against big man – that should actually have been a decisive duel on Sunday. But it was suddenly Elias Harris, Bayern’s third center, who brought his team back with four quick points in the second quarter. That was one, perhaps even the difference: Ulm were able to substitute Nicolas Bretzel, Bayern were able to substitute Devin Booker, who took part for the first time since an injury (but only for three minutes), and Harris.
In less than three minutes, Munich turned a 9:18 deficit into a 20:18 lead. And then the best were there again: Francisco (eight points at halftime), Lučić (five points at halftime) and Ibaka (seven points at halftime) ensured that Bayern led 35:28 after twenty minutes. A lead that they shouldn’t waste anymore.
Michael Reinsch Published/Updated: Recommendations: 8 Michael Reinsch, Berlin Published/Updated: Recommendations: 3 Published/Updated:
In the second half, Andreas Obst, the best German thrower, prevented the Ulm team from getting close again. He converted two three-point throws to make it 49:42 and 52:43, which broke the resistance. And when Bayern, led by Francisco, the French playmaker who scored 17 points and was later voted Most Valuable Player and MVP of the Cup, secured victory, it was clear for all to see: if Bayern play like this, they are in Germany hard to defeat.