German basketball lived its greatest moments last month when its national team won the gold medal at the 2023 Basketball World Cup. The squad was made up of, among others, seven Turkish Airlines EuroLeague players. Now in Round 1 of the new season, four of those gold medalists will be on opposite sides in the German derby in which FC Bayern Munich hosts ALBA Berlin on Friday night.
Bayern features three newly crowned world champions, Isaac Bonga, Niels Giffey and Andreas Obst, while center Johannes Thiemann will be in an ALBA uniform.
"To put Germany on the map with this team and just to be a world champion is just amazing," Bonga said in the video. "It's hard to find to express it into words."
He and his fellow gold medalists will have to put that success behind them as the new EuroLeague season tips off. All the players partly credit their previous EuroLeague experience for playing a big role in the success of the German national team.
Bonga, entering his second EuroLeague season, has the least experience in the competition of the group. Obst is entering his third campaign, Thiemann his fifth, and Giffey is going into his sixth EuroLeague season.
"Playing every week in the EuroLeague prepares yourself perfectly for the World Cup," Thiemann said. "You have so many talented players and competing against the best and every other week is [the] best preparation you can have."
In the EuroLeague opener, however, these players will now find themselves on opposite sides as the two biggest German rivals collide in Round 1.
"I just want to have a good game, compete, enjoy it, because that's why we all play basketball," Obst said. "On the court, you're not maybe friends, but off the courts when the game is over, we're all good, we are brothers."