Interview of the Week: German national team coach Dirk Bauermann (Part 1)

heinnews’s David Hein figured this week it was time to chat again with German basketball national team coach after quite some time without catching up with the former Bamberg boss. In the first part of a two-part interview, they talked about the 2010 World Cup in South Africa; the BBL finals; the promotion of Bayreuth to the BBL; Robin Benzing and Tibor Pleiss; two decisions made by FIBA Europe and the impact of the U17 World Championship in Hamburg on German basketball. Part two will come next week.

heinnews: Hi, Dirk. Long time no chat. The World Cup is just about ready to kick off. What do you think about the German group of Australia, Serbia and Ghana?

Bauermann: I have no idea. I have no idea man. I can’t tell you anything. I have watched the German team and obviously I’m always pulling for them. But I don’t follow soccer that closely and don’t know how good Ghana and Australia and Serbia are.

heinnews: You have another sport to worry about.

Bauermann: Yeah, that’s right. I have another sport to worry about.

heinnews: So, let’s move to more your specialty. The BBL finals have the Deutsche Bank Skyliners taking on Brose Baskets Bamberg. What do you think about the final round of the playoffs?

Bauermann: It’s a bit strange that the top four teams didn’t even make it past the first round. I think that’s kind of unheard of. But that’s the kind of parity you get when you have – and I’m exaggerating here – if you have eight Americans playing against each other.

It’s good in that there’s a lot of parity and anybody can win it. Obviously there are a lot of close games. It’s a good level of basketball, no question. But it’s a little strange.

heinnews: Looking at the finals between Frankfurt and Bamberg, with your history with Bamberg are you pulling a bit more for Brose to win title number three?

Zum kompletten Interview.