National coach Alex Mumbru was unable to play a visible role in the German national basketball team’s European Championship triumph. The Spaniard suffered a serious illness and after the tournament he was hospitalized instead of celebrating. In an interview with “stern” Mumbru talks about the hard times.
Basketball national coach Alex Mumbru spoke in detail in an interview about his serious illness, which broke out shortly before the start of the European Championships in August. After arriving at the team hotel in Tampere, Finland, he felt a stabbing pain, the 46-year-old Spaniard told the “star”.
“I had just put my suitcase down when my stomach bulged as if I were pregnant.” He was taken to the hospital in an ambulance, where doctors diagnosed acute inflammation of the pancreas.
“They put lots of cannulas and tubes in me, I was pumped full of painkillers. I knew where I was, but I couldn’t feel anything anymore. I was a zombie those days.”
Mumbru: “I was sad that I couldn’t be the coach I wanted to be”
Because of his illness, Mumbru largely left the coaching during the European Championships to his assistant coaches. The Germans won the final against Turkey and won the European Championship title for the first time since 1993.
Although he could hardly look after his team, he felt like European champions, Mumbru told the magazine. “A coach is not only a coach when he is on the sidelines. I prepared our games together with my assistant coaches, via video call from the hospital. I also took part in the team meetings. The team played the systems that I had practiced with them in the months leading up to the tournament. That’s why: This European Championship victory is also mine.”
Nevertheless, Mumbru looks back on the tournament with sadness: “I was sad that I couldn’t be the coach I wanted to be. Someone who leads the way, who carries the whole team along. But I didn’t talk to anyone about my emotional world during the tournament,” he told “stern”.
After the European Championships, Mumbru sought treatment in his hometown of Barcelona. “I was supposed to have an operation, but I was in too weak a condition for it. The attending doctor said to me: ‘I watched the final on TV, congratulations on winning the European Championship. But you played with your health, my boy. You shouldn’t have been in the hall,'” said Mumbru, who suffered from severe weight loss. “I’m 2.02 meters tall and normally weigh 105 kilograms. At my lowest point it was 19 kilograms less.”