Europe Cup
Chemnitz basketball party on the Bosphorus
The Niners Chemnitz players celebrate with the trophy they won after the game. photo
© Matthias Stickel/dpa
From Istanbul to Ludwigsburg: After the triumph in Europe, a party marathon begins for the Niners Chemnitz basketball players. A ceremony is planned at home for the weekend.
Dennis Schröder congratulated them Niners Chemnitz as one of the first. The world champion captain had eagerly watched the glorious end of the crazy basketball journey from second division team to European Cup winner via stream on his laptop.
“Germany is winning another international trophy,” Schröder wrote on Instagram after the thrilling Fiba Europe Cup final, which marked Germany’s third triumph within a year after Bonn’s Champions League victory and the World Cup title in Manila. The NBA professional sent personal congratulations to his friend Kevin Yebo: “Congratulations brother, that was huge!”
Long night in Istanbul
Meanwhile, the professionals around Yebo and final hero Kaza Kajami-Keane (29 points) started a long night of partying on the Bosporus. First, the Saxons celebrated their coup extensively on the floor of the Ülker Sports Arena, where the 95:105 defeat after extra time was only one point after the clear win in the first leg. After dinner and a toast together in the team hotel, the professionals then headed off to Istanbul’s nightlife. “We’re going to do something nice,” managing director Steffen Herhold happily announced.
The final seconds in Istanbul were downright dramatic. When Axel Bouteille from opponent Bahcesehir College tried a three-pointer to win with two seconds left, coach Rodrigo Pastore froze. “At the last throw in extra time, the last nine years in Chemnitz went through my head,” said Pastore, who took over the position in 2015.
“Great for the league”
At the final moment of the basketball thriller, Herhold even believed in help from the top. “I’m grateful that I was able to experience that. That was one of the hardest basketball games. Rodrigo’s mom, my dad, DeAndre’s mom – there were so many there who fended the ball out of the sky,” said the official on MDR -Interview.
Coach Pastore, general manager Herhold and professional DeAndre Lansdowne had each lost a parent in recent years. “I’m super proud. The emotions are indescribable. That was so intense,” added Herhold about the significance of the triumph.
Chemnitz is now in good company. After Alba Berlin (1993), the Syntainics MBC from Weißenfels (2004), the BG Göttingen (2010), the Fraport Skyliners from Frankfurt (2016) and Bonn the previous year, the Saxons are only the sixth German team to win a European Cup.
“It’s great for the league that we have a European Cup winner for the second year in a row. It shows the increased importance. It fits in with the picture of previous years. That’s good, that fits,” said Bundesliga managing director Stefan Holz to the German press -Agency.
Onward journey into everyday life in the Bundesliga
Unlike in 2020, when the promotion party was canceled due to corona, this time it can be celebrated appropriately. The team from Chemnitz will be welcomed in the town hall on Sunday afternoon. Then the team, coaches and supervisors will present the trophy to their fans on the market square from the town hall balcony, it was said. “Congratulations boys, you have made history in the sports region of Saxony,” congratulated Saxony’s Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer (CDU) via X (formerly Twitter).
But even for European Cup winners, there are hardly any breaks in everyday basketball life. Instead of flying home, Yebo and Co. took a plane to Stuttgart on Thursday and from there took a bus to Ludwigsburg. The Niners’ next Bundesliga game will take place there on Saturday (6.30 p.m.). The Bayern basketball players have been warned about the upcoming playoffs and wrote to Chemnitz on Wednesday evening: “We and all of Basketball Germany are proud of you.”