Basketball | Bavaria's basketball players win a championship with a bad aftertaste

For 39 minutes and 40 seconds, Karim Jallow was the top rebounder in the decisive game for the German basketball championship. The 28-year-old winger from Ratiopharm Ulm had already collected twelve missed shots for Bayern Munich with 20 seconds left in the game, twice as many as the opponent's top rebounders. But the most important rebound of the game slipped through the hands of the Munich native.

With the score at 80-77, Bayern's Shabazz Napier's nerves frayed at the free-throw line. The American's second attempt bounced off the basket. Instead of a four-point lead, Ulm would have had the chance to tie it with a three-pointer—or they would have if Jallow had also grabbed that one rebound. But Bayern captain Vladimir Lučić interfered with the Ulm player's jump. Jallow couldn't hold onto the ball, and Bayern regained possession. Ulm was forced to foul to stop the game clock, and Lučić scored from the free-throw line to make it 81-77 and secure Munich's seventh championship title.

The problem with the NBA Draft

"Bayern deserved to win. It's very bitter to lose like that, but I'm incredibly proud of the team, also because of the things that happened with Ben and Noa," Jallow said after the game on the streaming service Dyn, directly addressing the discussion that hung over the entire championship final like storm clouds. Because Ulm talents Noa Essengue and Ben Saraf plan to move to the NBA this summer, the 2023 champions unsuccessfully requested that the final series of the Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) be held before the NBA Draft, in which US teams secure the rights to young players in a random order.

The first round of talent selection took place on Wednesday in New York. Both 18-year-old Essengue and 19-year-old Saraf were invited to the USA for the event. Ultimately, only Essengue decided to travel. The young Frenchman was drafted twelfth overall by the Chicago Bulls. But Israeli Ben Saraf also stayed up until the early hours of Thursday morning to witness the Brooklyn Nets sign him at 26th overall. "We're losing two players. Ben, who of course was watching his draft today at five in the morning and couldn't be at the shootaround. Noa, who's going over there to pursue his dream. We support that 100 percent as a team, but you lose two players in the final. That's absolutely unacceptable," Jallow fumed.

Scheduling conflict due to new playoff format

Essengue had already missed the fourth game of the playoff series on Tuesday due to his draft trip, when Ulm was unable to take advantage of the opportunity to secure the decisive third win in front of their home crowd. Instead, Bayern were able to equalize the best-of-five series at 2:2 and also benefited in the all-important fifth game from point guard Saraf being used significantly less. The scheduling conflict with the NBA Draft occurred because the BBL has swapped home advantage for every playoff game since this season. Previously, the higher-seeded team had the first two home games, followed by the lower-seeded team, before a decisive fifth game was played again at the higher-seeded team's arena. The new format meant more travel days had to be planned, which extended the playoffs to 41 days.

"It's so mentally and physically draining for the players, and you could see it in terms of quality. At times, it wasn't great basketball from either side," Karim Jallow criticized the new schedule. And it wasn't just the losers who seemed extremely drained on Thursday. "We're all completely worn out. It was simply a matter of willpower today. We played good basketball in the first half, and in the second half, we simply pushed through," Bayern Munich international Johannes Voigtmann explained to Dyn.

The 2.11 meter tall 2023 world champion saved Bayern's successful title defense in the final phase. After the Munich team had already led by 17 points in the second quarter, everything initially looked as if the final series, which had been characterized by a fight for long stretches, would not have a particularly exciting ending. But Ulm worked their way back into the game with many offensive rebounds and even led 75:73 with two minutes to go. Then Voigtmann's big moment came. The 32-year-old, who joined Bayern from Olimpia Milan before the season, hit two crucial three-pointers and brought his team back ahead 79:75. A short time later, Lučić won the momentous rebound duel against Jallow.

Bayern avoids a titleless season

Voigtmann thus also prevented a title-less first season for his former national coach, Gordon Herbert . The Canadian world champion coach was supposed to take Bayern to the next level in his first season. But the Munich team failed in the cup in February against the eventual surprise winners, the MBC from Weissenfels. In mid-April, after a decisive play-in defeat to Real Madrid, Bayern also failed to achieve their major goal of qualifying for the Euroleague playoffs. After that, it seemed for a while as if Bayern were finding it difficult to motivate themselves for the final phase of the Bundesliga. With the championship title, at least the minimum goal has been achieved.

Bayern and Ulm are now facing a period of upheaval. While the Baden-Württemberg team must replace its two top talents, Munich will lose at least two pillars of the team. National player Nick Weiler-Babb will leave the champions, as will their US top scorer Carson Edwards, who has been out for two months with a back injury. US center Devin Booker is also on the horizon. Munich has a lot of work ahead of them to defend their dominance in German basketball. The schedule should hopefully no longer be an issue next year. The BBL has since announced that it will avoid the scheduling conflict with the NBA Draft in the future.