The last season of the Basketball Bundesliga ended disappointingly for FC Bayern: Alba Berlin was the champion for the third time in a row and in Munich as well. In the end, the Munich team was the runner-up of the BBL and once again entered the playoffs in the EuroLeague, but there was no title to celebrate. Also in the BBL Cup there was only one disappointment with the early finish against Chemnitz.
Gold instead of money
In the new season, which will start on Wednesday, September 28, with the first game between the champions Alba Berlin and Hamburg, Bayern wants to celebrate the title again. They start on Saturday, October 1, at home against Ulm.
At the end of the season in the spring, Bayern ran out of steam and the team got smaller and smaller due to illness and injuries. It should be better this year, so the basketball players of Munich have upgraded their team.
NBA players for a championship mission
Coach Andrea Trinchieri wanted “healthy players and fresh players” and he got them: with Isaac Bonga, Bayern is bringing back the German national player from the NBA. This transfer of maximum money is only possible because Bonga injured himself before the European Championship (tear of syndesmosis ligament in his right ankle) and first completed his rehabilitation.
Ambitious players for ambitious clubs
Bonga is 22 years old, from Rhineland, spent four years in NBA with LA Lakers, Washington Wizards and most recently with Toronto Raptors. The decision to play for Bayern was easy for him: “FC Bayern is a very ambitious club that always wants to win and that’s the same for me. That’s what appeals to me, it’s only FC Bayern for me to choose.”
Bonga – the octopus
Bonga had to complete rehabilitation first, but the national player recovered and is one of the strongest defenders in Europe according to his coach. Because he always has his fingers in between.
Trinchieri described him as “Kraken, that’s the word.” The octopus, Bonga, has his own great ambitions and a clear plan for the new season: “Our goal is to win the EuroLeague Playoffs Final Four, the championship and the cup – as I said, everything is very ambitious.” No theme seems out of place this year.