By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
No Tuomas Iisalo, no T.J.Shorts but no problem for Telekom Baskets Bonn. It’s an oversimplification, however, it’s also a fact that the defending champions of the Basketball Champions League have started the Round of 16 with a 2-0 record and there’s no sign of them slowing down after last season’s triumph.
To be exact, Bonn is the only non-Spanish team at this point that has the top spot on a Round of 16 Group and this is a testament to the job being done behind the scenes by the club.
Many sports organizations have found fertile ground in the Basketball Champions League to grow within the environment of the competition and create their legacy.
Until recently, the poster child for this from Germany was MHP RIESEN Ludwigsburg. which coincidentally was defeated this week in Bonn (80-75).
Making the right decisions
Last season the spotlight was shed – and rightfully so – to Iisalo and Shorts. Still, having the team staying on the top level of the BCL despite losing them, means that something else is going on in the former West German capital.
As it happens with most German clubs, there’s a great infrastructure behind the scenes and sports directors Savo Milovic and Daniel Seffern are planning the course of the team.
Specially Slovenian former player Milovic, despite joining the club recently, in the summer of 2022, knows the international and local landscape pretty well.
He spent most of his playing days in Germany, being a league champion with RheinEnergie Cologne in 2006 under coach Sasa Obradovic, and his input to the shaping of this era in Bonn can’t be overlooked.
And that extends to coach Roel Moors, who is a well-known figure for Belgian basketball, who made the jump to Germany in the 2019-20 season with Brose Bamberg, and from 2020 to 2023 he was the head of BG Gottingen.
He proved to be the right man for Bonn, succeeding in the success story of Iisalo and keeping Bonn firmly on the course of the playoffs in the German BBL while aiming once again for the BCL top.
And this time, nobody will be surprised for a title run by the Germans.