Advertisement - scroll for more content
Q. You're bringing the NBA championship trophy back to Germany. Isaiah Hartenstein: Yeah. For the for the first time. I mean I think it's something cool. I grew up there. So just to have the people out there to see it, the kids…
"I didn't sleep all night," Saraf told Haaretz from Germany after being drafted. "It's amazing, I feel really good, happy, but there's not a lot of time, there's a game tonight." Saraf and his team, Ratiopharm Ulm, will play Thursday night in the fifth and decisive game of the German league playoff series against Bayern Munich.
Julia Poe: Noa Essengue on leaving the German championship finals for tonight: “We talked a lot with all the staff from Ulm. And it was like, ‘If I get in the green room, I’m leaving.’ So on the day I learned I’m in the green room, the coach said, ‘Just go there, live your dream.’”
Alba Berlin, one of the top teams in Germany, announced that it would leave the EuroLeague, where it played under a wild-card entry, to join FIBA’s Basketball Champions League. That move has been viewed as laying the groundwork to eventually join the NBA’s future league. Tatum said it was a sign that Alba Berlin bought “into this vision of a revamped top-tier league in Europe that is going to service fans, the millions of basketball fans in Europe that currently aren’t serviced today.”
Advertisement
Jon Chepkevich: Alec Anigbata has withdrawn from the 2025 NBA Draft, I’m told. The 6’9” German forward averaged 15.2 PTS and 7.3 REB for OrangeAcademy in ProB action and carved out a minor role with Ulm, who recently advanced to the BBL championship. Auto-eligible for the 2026 NBA Draft.
Erik Slater: The NBA will hold pre-Draft activities this week in Treviso, Italy for players who were invited to the combine and excused from attending because they were playing overseas: Noa Essengue - Ulm (Germany) Joan Beringer - Cedevita Olimpija (Slovenia) Nolan Traoré - Saint Quentin
Finch had been coaching the Sheffield Sharks since 1997 and wasn’t sure where it was all going. As he bounced from England to Germany to Belgium, coaching teams like the Giessen 46ers and Euphony Bree, Finch was also applying to Division III coaching gigs in an effort to return home. He missed out on several opportunities but eventually coached the British National Team at the London Olympics and returned stateside with the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, the Houston Rockets’ developmental league affiliate.
“Now, this (was) in the ’70s. So I know there are players out there. So, in ’88, my first year, when Larry (Brown) brought me in as an assistant, I asked Bob Bass, who was the GM, I want to go to Cologne, Germany, to see the Final Four in Europe. Imagine, you walk into the food room. The only other NBA coach who’s there is Don Nelson (then with the Warriors), trying to sign Šarūnas (Marčiulionis). “I’m scrambling around. Here’s this Yugoslavian team. (Vlade) Divac is the center. Dino Radja is the four man. (Zarko) Paspalj is the three man. (Toni) Kukoč is 18 and is the sixth man coming off the bench. (Drazen) Petrović. My gosh, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. And nobody knew those guys. Except Nellie. I was busting my butt to try and get Sarunas. At the time, I was a Soviet Studies major, so I could speak Russian halfway decent then. I’d go to his room, I’d go here, I’d go there. And then, he finally said, ‘I already told Nellie that I’m coming (to Golden State).’ So, he went, I brought Zarko back. Believe it or not, Zarko and his wife and their daughter lived with me the entire year in my house.”
Advertisement
Gordie Herbert named head coach of Canada national team
Canada Basketball announced Thursday that Gordie Herbert has been named the next head coach of the Senior Men’s National Team. The Penticton, B.C., native will officially assume the role in the summer of 2026. Herbert joins the program with a winning track record and a reputation as one of international basketball’s most accomplished coaches. He guided Germany to a historic FIBA Men’s Basketball World Cup title in 2023 and followed it up with a fourth-place finish at the 2024 Paris Olympics. “We are proud to announce Gordie as the next head coach of our Senior Men’s National Team,” said Rowan Barrett, General Manager and Executive Vice-President, Senior Men’s Program. “His championship pedigree, command of the FIBA game, and understanding of what it takes to compete for medals on the world stage make him the ideal leader for this next chapter of Canada Basketball.”
The EuroBasket 2025 resurfaces Finland as the host of Group B in Tampere. Looking to clinch a berth in the Round of 16, Finland will face Sweden, Great Britain, Montenegro, Lithuania, and Germany from August 27 to September 3. “It was packed house every night, a lot of fun and really competitive games,” the Vantaa native recalled the 2017 tournament between the top European national teams, “I’m looking forward to build on that. I think we have a really good team. Hopefully, we can create some buzz and kind of make a big run.”
You can look at how Isalo dealt with strong, sometimes difficult personalities in Germany—guys who initially hated his phone ban, but later said it was the key to building trust. T.J. Shorts, his star guard in Bonn, once admitted he thought it was the dumbest thing ever—only to realize it was the best rule for bonding.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement