Big tasks require smart ideas, which is why Gordon Herbert was very close to his plans for the German national basketball team this week. He wrote down a list of names, “I’ve got it in my pocket,” said the 62-year-old when he talked about the players with which he would like to play in the first qualifying matches for the 2023 World Cup. A lot of things are new in the national team, not just the names of the basketball players, but also the national coaches.
Herbert, born near Vancouver, is so completely unknown, but not in this country. In it, the German Basketball Association (DBB) is now presenting a coach who, as the successor to Henrik Rödl, will unite the wide world with the smaller world in the Bundesliga. His past as a trainer at the Frankfurt Skyliners, where he was champion and European Cup winner, serves as a key qualification for the new job. At the same time, the trained sports psychologist is also an expert on basketball outside of Germany.
The DBB absolutely wanted Gordon Herbert, also as a connoisseur of world basketball
“We had a certain requirement profile,” said DBB Vice President Armin Andres about the coach search. The search was on for someone “who knows his way around the German market and also internationally. And who has already worked with NBA players”. Andres was referring to Herbert’s years in Finland, France, Greece and, most recently, Russia and above all to his time as assistant coach with the Toronto Raptors (2008/09).
The Canadian will need this wealth of experience and his contacts in order to tackle two major projects: The home European championships in September 2022, for which the team is qualified as a co-host alongside Georgia, the Czech Republic and Italy. And participation in the 2023 World Cup in Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines. “It’s an exciting time for German basketball,” said Herbert, “it’s an honor to be part of it.”
But this is exactly where the crux lies: the composition of his squad is particularly exciting. Before his first appearance in the World Cup qualification against Estonia on November 25, the coach will have to consult his cheat sheet several times. Because the celebrities are once again unable to meet their deadlines: the professionals from Munich (such as Andreas Obst) and Berlin (including Andreas Thiemann, Maodo Lo) who are active in the Euroleague are just as unavailable due to missions with their clubs, as are the NBA men Dennis Schröder, Moritz Wagner, Isaac Bonga, Daniel Theis or Maxi Kleber.
Johannes Voigtmann (CSKA Moscow) and Danilo Barthel (Fenerbahce), who matured into top talent under Herbert in Frankfurt, should not be options either. After all, there are “efforts to get some Euroleague players free”, as DBB vice Andres hopes: for example Niels Giffey (Kaunas) or Maik Zirbes (Belgrade), who play with their clubs at least no game on the day of the duel with the Estonians. Herbert’s ominous list includes, according to his own statement, “nine players from Bamberg, Bayreuth, Crailsheim and Würzburg”. Actors like Chris Sengfelder and Patrick Heckmann (Bamberg), Bastian Doreth and Andreas Seiferth (Bayreuth) could make their comeback after longer breaks, while the Würzburger Center Filip Stanic could be a debutant.
Herbert’s first mission: Don’t complicate anything!
Whether the World Cup qualification will succeed with this substitute team seems at least questionable. The first guard, including all NBA and Euroleague forces, will only be able to intervene for the EM in just under a year – while the World Cup qualification is halfway through. Herbert will also be in demand as a moderator, because almost all of the nominees from the B corset will have to give way to the established ones for the major events.
For now, however, he plans the present. “We don’t have much time before the first game. So I’ll try to keep the content as simple as possible,” said Herbert, who also explicitly mentioned Hamburg’s Justus Hollatz as the “point guard of the future”. After his last engagement with the Russian club Avtodor Saratov, the new national coach had to travel around the country for a month to get an idea of the available Germans in the BBL. He had many positive conversations with players and coaches, assured Herbert, who was particularly noticeable in Frankfurt as a supporter of the youngsters.
And he plans to win Dirk Nowitzki for the DBB in the future. “If I fly to the USA and meet Maxi Kleber, I’ll try to meet Dirk in Dallas,” said Herbert, “having him around the national team would be a bonus.” At the latest at the EM, which will also take place in Cologne and Berlin, you will meet anyway, because Nowitzki acts as the tournament ambassador there. “He’s a great role model for all German players,” said Herbert. There is currently no sign of someone like Nowitzki in Germany.