FC Bayern Basketball to Olympiakos Piraeus: The end of illusions

Gordon Herbert came to the question and answer session in the rather cool BMW Park on Wednesday afternoon in shorts. It was about the Euroleague game at Olympiakos Piraeus two days later, about all the injured players, about his mood. And Herbert, the 65-year-old Canadian, showed himself to be a man who has already been through a lot in his career. His right knee is marked by scars, the consequences of the operations he endured as a player; in the mid-1990s he ended his career on the field because of the knee injuries. As a coach, he struggled with depression, as he describes in a book.

Now the coach of the Bayern basketball players was sitting there in the hall, his players were training behind him, and he gave a little insight into his rather wintry state of mind – although the sports psychologist Herbert also likes to flirt with it. “Sleep and work, that’s what I do,” said Herbert: “I have no life. My son tells me that I need one.” He also smiled because of course he knows that he has a well-paid job in Munich, at the best address in German basketball, and because he has chosen this life and it has lived like this for many years.

But Herbert also seemed thoughtful about the content on that Wednesday: “I spoke to a few players, there are some whose performance I am not happy with,” he said, for example. Herbert also made it clear when looking at the Euroleague, the competition in which the Munich team definitely wants to get closer to the top: “It is very important that we get back on track in the Euroleague.”

But two days later it seemed as if Bayern had completely lost their compass in the highest European club competition, including a 180-degree turnaround. At league leaders and title candidates Piraeus they experienced a black night in front of 13,000 spectators; the 69:112 (37:51) defeat ultimately resulted in a debacle. Piraeus top player Aleksandar Vezenkov almost single-handedly beat Bayern with 45 points. Bayern’s world champion Johannes Voigtmann then spoke of a “lesson”. Is that what FC Bayern want? Hardly.

Bayern showed character in Heidelberg on Sunday and won 87:59

Before the game, Herbert was almost a little defiant about the history, which gave little hope: “I was told that Bayern had never won in Greece. But there is always a first time.” Afterwards, he had to realize with disillusionment: “With 22 turnovers and 17 offensive rebounds, you won’t be successful here.” Monaco, Panathinaikos Athens, Real Madrid, now Olympiacos Piraeus: Four of the youngest five Euroleague teams Games were lost, Bayern’s away record there is bad anyway, and they recently suffered their first home game defeat. After their furious start, the Munich team are well on the way to squandering their good starting position. They are only tenth, which is just enough for the play-ins. And they are no longer high flyers in the Bundesliga either, as the defeat at Alba Berlin a week ago made clear.

In Piraeus, Herbert again had to do without his all-important defender Nick Weiler-Babb (thumb injury) and Vladimir Lucic (retraining after a calf injury), and Oscar da Silva (ankle) was also out. Ivan Kharchenkov, who fell ill during the week, was back in the squad and he was the first Munich player to score points in Piraeus – albeit 1:9. Ivan Volf, like Kharchenkov, made his debut from the second team. This shows how tense the situation in the squad is. But the same thing happens to other clubs that play internationally. At the same time, Bayern’s bench is not particularly deep when compared to Europe’s top clubs. And players like Andreas Obst seem a little worn out after the strenuous Olympic summer, and major fluctuations in form determine their game.

What’s also noticeable is that they conceded 80 points or more in the vast majority of games, which can certainly be viewed as a imbalance between offense and defense, especially when their own hit rate fluctuates like it has recently. Even Carsen Edwards, with his many points this season, can’t always be the savior.

Herbert made it clear on Wednesday that his focus will shift in the near future – away from the Bundesliga, at least until the end of the Euroleague season. Because he now sees that it is impossible to survive game after game in both competitions with the same energy (the Cup Final Four is also on February 15th/16th). “Of course it would be nice to come first in the BBL, but it’s not bad if you come second, third or fourth. If we want to get into the Euroleague playoffs, these are the big games for us,” said Herbert.

On Sunday, just 46 hours after the defeat in Piraeus, the Munich team completed a compulsory task again – although the label “BBL top game” was certainly justified against the surprise runners-up Heidelberg. The North Baden team had moved to the SAP Garden in Mannheim especially for this game. Bayern world champion Andreas Obst said before the game: “Heidelberg is a good opportunity to show that we have character.” And Bayern then showed it in front of more than 14,000 spectators Character. After experiencing their own debacle against Piraeus, they duped Heidelberg with an 87:59 (49:24) win. This result was good for the head, especially before the Euroleague home games on Wednesday and Friday against Monaco and Bologna.