LED glass floor in BMW Park impresses at FC Bayern’s BBL opening victory against Chemnitz.

The FC Bayern basketball team made a fitting start to their Bundesliga (BBL) campaign and underlined their high ambitions with a 73:59 win against the Niners Chemnitz. The fact that the Munich team only managed a solid performance and did without world champion Johannes Voigtmann, who was rested after returning from an ankle injury, should cause concern among their competitors.

The star of the game was the floor. The brand new glass floor in the BMW Park brought the most glamour to the hall. You have to imagine it as a giant flat screen on which the professionals will do their work from now on. During the half-time break, the amazed spectators were shown what is possible with it: flickering lightning, racing points of light or opening chasms – the technology sets no limits to the imagination.

What else happened on the pitch was less spectacular – not without reason, given the short preparation phases, the coaches had spoken of a process in which they were still in at the start of the season. Nevertheless, the Saxons were ideally suited to assessing the situation: Last year, the team of coach Rodrigo Pastore, who was voted the best coach of the season, had not only secured their place in the Champions League with a narrow semi-final defeat against Berlin. They also earned the distinction of being one of the teams that are expected to do well this season. The Argentinian was accordingly disappointed after the match, saying that Bayern deserved a win and had performed better. He was disappointed with his team’s performance: “We never got into the game.”

At times, the Munich team shows what the competition can do when it gets going

This was mainly due to the opposing defense. FCB coach Gordon Herbert had ordered his players to be physical in defense, which he saw as the key to success. He was less satisfied with the offense, but that didn’t bother the Canadian: “We didn’t shoot well, but we found a way to win the game.” That was a rather euphemistic statement; the Munich team’s three-point percentage was in the negative range in the first half, with only one ball going through the hoop – out of 15 attempts. Nevertheless, it was enough for the hosts to take a double-digit lead (36:26).

After the break, Bayern showed at times what the competition can expect when they get going: lightning-fast ball relays, alley-oop passes, thunderous dunks and a vicious defense with ball wins. Chemnitz simply could not keep up. This was primarily due to two big men in the Munich team: Oskar da Silva contributed 19 points, center Devin Booker 16, and eternal captain Vladimir Lucic, who began his eighth season in the Munich team, scored twelve points in the victory.

Top scorer da Silva was particularly pleased with “his best game so far”, as coach Herbert praised. The Munich native, who returned to his hometown from Barcelona, ​​was modest: “You can build on that. It’s obviously nice to come home and play in a team like that.” However, he was not satisfied: “As a team, we still need to work on our chemistry, communicate better. The most important thing is that we have a physical defense, then things will work out well up front.” He also sees room for improvement in himself: “There are still some finer details missing”, and the running routes in particular need to be optimized: “So that I’m always where I’m supposed to be.”