TJ Shorts dribbled down the clock in the final seconds, after the final siren he took the ball in his hands, sank to the ground and let his tears run free. A short time later, the 1.75-meter-tall playmaker of the Telekom Baskets Bonn disappeared in a cluster of cheers from his teammates - who knew who they had to thank. With 29 points, Shorts led the Bonn team to a 77-70 final victory over Hapoel Jerusalem and thus to the FIBA Basketball Champions League title.
After losing five German championships and three losing cup finals, the Bonners won a title for the first time in their 28-year club history. The Bonn-based team was only the fifth German team to win an international cup. Previously, Alba Berlin (Korac Cup 1995), Syntainics MBC from Weißenfels (FIBA EuroCup Challenge 2004), BG Göttingen (EuroChallenge 2010) and Fraport Skyliners from Frankfurt (FIBA Europe Cup 2016) achieved this.
Shorts crown his special season
"These are the moments that every basketball player lives for. Those are the moments you work towards from day one of the summer," said an emotional shorts after the game. "It doesn't feel real right now."
Shorts' season so far also seems unbelievable: In the BBL, the American was named the most valuable player. The day before the European Cup final, Shorts received the MVP award for the season so far in the FIBA Basketball Champions League. And after the final success, the playmaker was also named the best player of the final tournament. After scoring 21 points in a 69-67 semi-final win over hosts Malaga, Shorts followed up with 29 points in the final, a player in the competition's seven-year history.
Despite the gala performance of his playmaker, Bonn's head coach Tuomas Iisalo singled out the team. "I don't think there's a better collective in European basketball," said Iisalo, for whom it is also the first title of his career. "I'm already looking forward to seeing each other again in 20 years and getting drunk in the Bahamas."
BBL boss Stefan Holz also congratulated the Telekom Baskets Bonn on winning the Champions League and emphasized the importance of winning the title for German basketball: "This success of one of our clubs also makes it clear that our clubs, our league and German basketball in general are making great progress in all areas," said the managing director of the Basketball Bundesliga.
However, the Rhinelanders cannot celebrate the first title in their club history for long. On Wednesday, they will start the Bundesliga playoffs as the first in the main round against the Niners Chemnitz. "I'm curious to see how much enthusiasm this triggers in Bonn, especially for our upcoming playoffs," said Holz.