Wednesday 05 May 2021
Basketball player in Aus very proud
FC Bayern is perfect, but imperfect
A lucky three was missing and the final tournament in Cologne would have been very close. The basketball players of FC Bayern are playing the most successful European season in their history – and in the end they stand there with bowed heads. But there is not much time left for quarreling.
When the Bayern basketball team started their journey home, their heads weren’t quite as low as they were at the end of a completely crazy Euroleague evening in Milan. And they didn’t have to. Coach Andrea Trinchieri gave his team special emotional praise, the club bosses were very proud. Therefore, the outsider can feel like a winner despite being eliminated from the premier class after one of the craziest final phases in the history of the European Cup. “This team was perfect in its imperfections,” said coach Trinchieri. “This team is very special.”
After a season with a lot of catching up, the Bundesliga club in Italy almost made the comeback of the year, which would have meant the ticket for the Final Four tournament in Cologne at the end of May. But because a desperate triple by Paul Zipser with the final siren did not find its way into the basket, the 89:92 (40:50) against Olimpia Milan sealed the end of the fairytale trip to Bavaria in Europe.
“Hats off to the team”, enthused managing director Marko Pesic after the end of the best-of-five quarter-finals at MagentaSport and proudly emphasized: “We have stood our ground.” For club president Herbert Hainer “all expectations were really exceeded. This exciting Euroleague trip was a milestone for our club”.
In fact, Munich, who had been classified as one of the weakest of the 18 Euroleague teams in the summer, stunned all of basketball Europe. Pesic was grateful to “experience these feelings”. Reaching the playoffs was already a coup – as an encore, the Trinchieri troupe then forced the Milanese, who were souped up with a lot of money and stars, into a final fifth game.
The next title chance is already waiting
“Do or die” is the name given to such games in English playoff jargon, “do it or die”. Against the sometimes famous Italians around the ex-Frankfurt Shavon Shields (34 points), who could hardly be stopped, it looked like a clear defeat shortly before the end. “But we didn’t die when we should,” reported Trinchieri.
Neither the Bayern coach nor his more experienced colleague Ettore Messina had ever seen what happened in the last 66 seconds in front of the Milanese bank. At 79:91, Bavaria looks like the sure loser. Then the events overturned: three-point Vladimir Lucic (82:91), loss of the ball Milan, dunking Jalen Reynolds (84:91), missed three-point Milan, three-point Reynolds (87:91), loss of the ball Milan, lay-up Wade Baldwin (89:91) , Foul Milan, ball possession Munich, block Milan against Baldwin, jump ball, foul Bayern, Milan only converts a free throw, Bayern’s last attack, Zipser missed with a wild three-way attempt, 89:92, end.
“I can do better because I was too hasty,” admitted the national player afterwards. At that moment Lucic was also free, who disappointed for over 40 minutes, but is always a man for the very special moments. He was overlooked. “We lacked a little bit of experience,” said coach Trinchieri.
The emotional trainer showed the disappointment in his hometown as well as the pride in what he had achieved. “We played an incredible season in the Euroleague. We raised the bar in every way.” Just because his squad is not as illustrious as that of Olimpia, for example, cohesion and an identity have developed. Milan coach Messina paid tribute to an “excellent and well-composed team” from Bayern. “You could have won the series.”
After the Euroleague adventure without a very big happy ending, Bayern still want to cheer twice. In one and a half weeks they will be the hosts of the cup tournament, which has been postponed due to Corona. Then the master playoffs are on. “We’ll have to get out of this soon and see what’s ahead of us,” said Reynolds. Then the heads should be at the top again.
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