The German basketball players set an example for their national coach Alex Mumbru at a press conference with the entire team at a press conference. The German Basketball Association (DBB) had previously announced that assistant coach Alan Ibrahimagic would again take on the role of chief coach at the games.
The DBB announced a media round with Mumbru and his assistant Ibrahimagic, who had already represented the sick national coach in the preliminary round. However, the entire team with Staff appeared surprisingly in the foyer of the team hotel and took up behind the coaches.
Mumbru then announced more details about his acute illness for the first time, which made a six -day hospital stay in Tampere necessary. He suffered from gallstones that had led to pancreatitis, inflammation of the pancreas. His assistant Ibrahimagic had represented the Spaniard in Tampere during the entire preliminary round. Mumbru had returned to the bench for the first time in the round of 16 against Portugal in Riga, but in the course of the game Ibrahimagic had taken command more and more on the sidelines.
Mumbru: “Not at 100 percent”
“The truth is that I am not at 100 percent”, Mumbru said at his first press conference after the hospital stay. He has full confidence in his coaching staff that Ibrahimagic could give the team the necessary strength during the games. The Spaniard said that the training, the preparation of the games, will continue to dispute together and emphasized: “I’m on with the team. I’m not going home. I’m still the head coach.”
The last sentence in particular should be important, as it turned out at the end of the media round when Maodo Lo spoke, representative of the players. “We are here to express our solidarity with the coach”, said the Berlin and referred to media reports that read in the team’s eyes so that Mumbru ceded his position as a national coach during a tournament. This representation does not correspond to the truth, said Lo: “He is not ceded. He is still there for us, as a team. He continues to give us impulses.” The insane performance must be recognized, Lo said that the national coach wanted to support the team further, despite his health situation.
“We will fight together”
The DBB had previously announced that Mumbru had decided to return the role as head coach to Ibrahimagic during the games. “In the past few days I have realized that I am not yet physically so far that I have the necessary energy to actively coach the team from the sidelines during the games“Mumbru said. But he would continue to sit on the bench and help from there.
He has great respect for Mumbrus, said his assistant coach Ibrahimagic, but also emphasized that his role was the same as in the previous tournament: “I continue to see myself as an assistance coach for the team and do the job that is necessary to win games.”
In the end, Mumbru expressly thanked the team’s support, whose joint idea was to fully compete. The national coach swore the team again on the upcoming task, in the quarter -finals against Slovenia. “We have an important game ahead of us, only that counts. The team should only focus on it. We will continue to fight together.” As a farewell, there was an encouraging tapping of the shoulder from captain Dennis Schröder.