The mission had been practically hopeless for medi Bayreuth for a long time, but relegation from the Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) still hurts.
“I came here late, in February, but I feel the pain,” said Otis Livingston after his outstanding performance in 96:102 (39:49) against the MLP Academics Heidelberg on “MagentaSport”. The American’s 38 points were not enough, the Upper Franconians have to go to the ProA.
Three games before the end of the main round, the end of the table bottom is sealed. Bayreuth would have had to win all the remaining games to even have a chance of staying up – they only have six wins. Even the change in the coaching position from Lars Masell to Mladen Drijencic at the beginning of February did not bring the hoped-for turnaround.
“I have a bad feeling, in my stomach, in my head. I’m sorry for the fans that we couldn’t get the job done,” said Livingston. It’s the end of a turbulent season, even if it’s not quite over yet.
At the end of January, longtime patron Carl Steiner announced his retirement, and 18 new partners have now taken over. It was not until Tuesday that they decided that Friedrich Hartung would become managing director as the successor to the outgoing Johannes Feuerpfeil.
In 2010 the club was promoted to the Bundesliga, 13 years later it’s going down again. “I think that a traditional location like Bayreuth shouldn’t die and everyone involved has to give everything for that,” said the disappointed national player Bastian Doreth “BR24Sport”. You now have to “analyze everything that went wrong not only this year but also in the years before” and possibly “develop a new identity”.