Basketball: Alba’s basketball players stack deep

Building – This word was mentioned again and again at Alba Berlin’s season opening last Tuesday. No matter whether Alba President Axel Schweitzer, who emphasizes that the club is building on continuity this season, sports director Himar Ojeda, who wants to continue building on his own values, or Alba managing director Marco Baldi, who always goes to the limit for success He wants to go to the limit of what is possible, but not beyond it, “so that the house doesn’t collapse but can continue to be built.”

Alba’s construction managers have two basic rules: the work on the basketball runner-up should be sustainable and economically sound. It is the architecturally sophisticated description with which the sporting leadership wants to get the Alba fans in the mood for a season that could not be easy again. Because – as all Berliners know only too well – there are always unforeseen problems on a construction site.

There is the squad. With world champion Johannes Thiemann and ex-NBA professional Sterling Brown, two absolute pillars have left the Alba house. Brown was Berlin’s top scorer last season. Thiemann was captain, crowd favorite, third best point collector and, with his experience, always a calming force in the Alba game, especially in tight situations. After six years in Berlin, the 30-year-old moved to Japan this summer.

The Australian development player Will McDowell-White and Trevion Williams, the best rebounder in the Basketball Bundesliga (BBL), came as replacements. While McDowell-White is considered a versatile old-school playmaker, the 23-year-old Williams also put up a strong 14.8 points in addition to his 8.9 rebounds for Ulm last season. The American is planned as Thiemann’s successor. The 2.06 meter tall center is currently being retrained as a power forward, like Thiemann after his move to Alba in 2018.

In addition, Alba sports director Ojeda focuses primarily on internal development: “I’m very excited about the players who are with us in their second and third years. We know that it can take a while to get used to our style of play. The young German core of the team around Jonas Mattisseck, Malte Delow, Louis Olinde and Tim Schneider should also take the next step. »Tim, Jonas, Malte and Louis, they are now at an age where they are more mature and ready to be the next generation of leaders.«

It is the much-vaunted Alba path, which President Axel Schneider summarized at the season opening: “We as Alba Berlin will not sacrifice our future on the altar of short-term success.” Instead of buying expensive stars, the Berliners want to continue with continuity their cadre and invest in broad-based youth work. In return, the club leadership also accepts that the gap between champions Bayern Munich and the top European clubs will widen further for the time being.

According to managing director Marco Baldi, the Munich team, who have strengthened themselves for the new season with former national coach Gordon Herbert and world champion center Johannes Voigtmann, have a budget that is approximately twice as large. In the Euroleague, in which Alba will be there again next season with a wild card, they are also solidly at the bottom in terms of budget. »In Europe it is generally the case that clubs can live with losing 15 to 20 million euros a year, i.e. more than our total budget. We can’t do that and we won’t,” explains Baldi.

After coming last in the premier class of European basketball last season with just five wins from 34 games, the Alba management wants a better result this season despite fewer resources. »Both the BBL and the Euroleague will be big challenges. But we will continue to build on success,” promises sports director Ojeda.

In the Bundesliga this year, that will primarily mean defending the place behind the top favorite Bayern against up-and-coming teams like the Niners Chemnitz. The build-up phase before the first game of the season this Sunday in Hamburg was anything but smooth. “Our preparation wasn’t as it should be, with a lot of physical problems,” complained head coach Israel González last week.

This is due to legacy problems from last season, in which Alba fought her way to the BBL final after a bumpy start despite many injuries. After the final defeat against Bayern in June and a total of 83 games this season, the summer break was not enough for many Alba players to recover. As a result, González has hardly been able to train with his entire team. Two wins in five preparation games show that there is still a lot of work ahead of the runner-up.

It should at least be a small relief that there are two fewer Bundesliga games this season. Since second division champion Karlsruhe was unable to meet the requirements for the BBL license, there is only one promoted team, the Skylines from Frankfurt, and therefore only 17 instead of the previous 18 BBL teams.

With a little less bad luck with injuries than last season, Marco Baldi is sure that a lot could be possible again. Even if he says: “I actually like the fact that we are not rated quite as highly as in recent years.« So no clear objective. Head coach González also wanted to emphasize the common process before the start on Sunday: “We want to get better, even though we lost two very good players.”

Before the start of the season, there is great agreement in the Alba House about the construction plan for the coming season. It remains to be seen whether the implementation will go smoothly.

»We will not sacrifice our future on the altar of short-term success.«

Axel SchweitzerAlba President