Telekom Baskets Bonn won the Champions League and won their first title in the club’s history. Man of the day was TJ Shorts again.
TJ Shorts lay on the floor and cried uncontrollably, and the Telekom Baskets fans who had traveled with us also shed tears in the stands on the biggest day in the club’s history. After eight lost finals, Bonn broke the spell and won its first ever title in the Champions League. In the final of the Final Four in Malaga, the team of successful coach Tuomas Iisalo celebrated a 77:70 (37:28) against Hapoel Jerusalem from Israel, thereby achieving another premiere: a German basketball team has never won this competition before.
The decisive man in the “eternal second” from Bonn, five-time runners-up and three-time loser of the cup final, was once again US-Guard Shorts. The most valuable player (MVP) in the Bundesliga and the Champions League scored 29 points as the best thrower of the evening.
“It doesn’t feel real. You work for it from the first moment. I don’t know what to say. I’m just grateful,” said Shorts: “Every basketball player lives for it. The atmosphere is incredible.”
Telekom Baskets defeated host Unicaja Malaga in the semi-finals on Friday evening (69:67), while Jerusalem in defending champion Lenovo Tenerife also beat a Spanish team by a narrow margin (69:68). And so the outsiders faced each other in the Palacio de Deportes Jose Maria Martin Carpena.
“It’s only one game left. Find a way to win,” said the Finn Iisalo in the dressing room before the final of the FIBA competition, which is significantly weaker than the premier class EuroLeague, which is independent of the world association. But Bonn started nervously, as did Jerusalem, after five minutes the Bundesliga side were leading 4:3.
The Telekom Baskets found their rhythm at the end of the first quarter, Shorts took over the game more and more, and the defense worked excellently. Tyson Ward provided the first double-digit lead with a dunk (20:10/12th minute). Even without the injured captain Karsten Tadda, Bonn had the game under control, but Jerusalem were able to improve and remained dangerous.
Baskets Bonn hardly has time to celebrate
“The energy is gigantic,” said Iisalo during the break, but then the start in the second half went wrong. Hapoel quickly came within two points of the Bundesliga’s main round winner (39:41/24th).
It remained tight, Bonn led 57:55 before the last ten minutes. Now Shorts showed why he is winning the awards this year. The nimble 25-year-old put his teammates in the limelight, scored a high percentage himself – and made the decision 23 seconds before the end of the free-throw line.
Bonn won the fifth German European Cup title. Previously, Alba Berlin won the Korac Cup (1995), Mitteldeutsche BC the FIBA EuroCup Challenge (2004), BG Göttingen the EuroChallenge (2010) and the Fraport Skyliners won the FIBA Europe Cup (2016).
After the high point of a dream season so far, Bonn has no time to celebrate. On Monday the plane goes back home, on Tuesday the short preparation for the start of the Bundesliga playoffs is on the program, on Wednesday it continues. The newly crowned European Cup winner welcomes the Niners Chemnitz to the first quarter-final game.
Telekom Baskets Bonn – Hapoel Jerusalem 77:70 (37:28). – Best pitchers: Shorts II (29 points), Hawkins (13), Herrera (11) for Bonn – Randolph (27), Mejeris (12), Carrington (9) for Jerusalem.