World champion Herbert with vision
New Bayern coach plans rise to unprecedented heights
02.09.2024, 16:39
World champion coach Gordon Herbert wants to lead Bayern Munich to new heights, just like he did with the German national team. He will meet many of his World Cup heroes at the basketball champions – and has special plans in place because of “pigs” and “racehorses”.
Gordon Herbert only lasted three days in his little house in Finland. To combat his Olympic frustration, the world champion coach immediately threw himself into his new job at Bayern Munich. “It was actually good to start again. Because it was pretty disappointing,” said the Canadian, who is known to always want more. That’s why he had quite an ambitious vision with him when he arrived on the Isar.
“The vision I set was to defend the German championship and the Final Four of the EuroLeague,” he said at his presentation. Such tones are familiar from Herbert; right at the start of his position as national coach, he announced his goal of three medals in three years in 2021 – and was laughed at. And yet he proved all critics wrong, won European Championship bronze, made a name for himself with World Championship gold and just missed out on Olympic medals three weeks ago.
They can really use someone like that in Munich. Bayern have been aiming for the top of Europe for years, and in 2021 and 2022 they were the only German team to reach the EuroLeague playoffs. In the past two seasons, however, the Munich team clearly failed, finishing 15th in the main round. That is set to change under Herbert.
Of pigs and racehorses
His drive to achieve something special with Bayern was already apparent on Monday. In any case, in mid-August, just eight days after losing the bronze medal match in Paris, he had asked for his first training session in Munich; he wanted to set an example that the players could follow. This type of “commitment” is particularly familiar to the professionals from the large Germany bloc, which Herbert is fully relying on.
In Munich, the 65-year-old, who has a contract until 2026, will not only meet Niels Giffey and Andreas Obst – Bayern also brought in Oscar da Silva and Johannes Voigtmann in the summer, who Herbert also knows very well from the national team. Only Isaac Bonga moved to EuroLeague rivals Partizan Belgrade. “It makes the transition much easier,” reported Herbert: “When they joined last week, things got rolling more quickly. I think that’s a big advantage.”
Even though Herbert stressed that working with the club was “a little different” than working with a national team, he is relying on the role allocation that is so typical for him in Munich. Keyword: Pigs and Racehorses. “It is so important in team sports that the pigs, the role players, don’t want to be superstars,” he explained: “But it is even more important that the racehorses, your best players, do pig work.”
Herbert was unable to say who fits into which role in this squad, which is extremely well staffed by Bundesliga standards. After all, he still has three weeks left before things really get serious. Herbert will make his debut on September 20th in the league opener against the Niners Chemnitz. On October 3rd, Bayern will inaugurate the brand new SAP Garden for the start of the EuroLeague against the star ensemble of Real Madrid.