National team at the European Championship: Not fit: Basketball boss Mumbru hands over to assistant

Change of coach in the final week of the European Championship: National coach Alex Mumbru moves back into the second member of the German basketball players and hands over his role to assistant Alan Ibrahimagic. The Spaniard is still not completely fit after his abdominal disease and therefore withdraws.

Instead, Ibrahimagic will take responsibility again at the European Championship and prepare the team in Riga for the quarter-finals against Slovenia with NBA superstar Luka Doncic this Wednesday (8:00 p.m./RTL and Magenta Sport), as the German Basketball Bund announced.

Mumbru as an assistant: “Help from there”

“In the past few days, I have recognized that I am not yet physically so far that I have the necessary energy to actively coach the team from the sidelines during the games,” Mumbru was quoted in the association notification. “I decided to adapt the composition of the coaching staff and to broadcast the role of the head coach at the games,” said the Spaniard.

Mumbru will remain with the team. “I will sit on the bench and help from there. We in the coaching team continue to work very closely together, and I believe that this is the best way for all of us to help the team make the best possible success.”

Ibrahimagic already in the preliminary round of the boss

The team had already looked after Ibrahimagic during the preliminary round in the Finnish Tampere and led five wins in five games. Mumbru had suffered an “acute abdomen” shortly before the start of the European Championship and was taken to the hospital in Tampere. This is an emergency situation that requires immediate medical treatment. It mostly manifests itself in violent abdominal pain.

At the round of 16 against Portugal, the 46 -year -old Spaniard returned to the sidelines, but the coaching tasks were shared with Ibrahimagic. However, it was clear that Mumbru was not yet completely fit again and has lost some weight in the hospital.

The double role on the coaching bench caused some unrest, even if the team was happy about the return of Mumbrus and dedicated his victory against Portugal. “The coach is a warrior. You can tell that he has this mentality. We know what he did,” said captain Dennis Schröder about Mumbru after the success in the round of 16.

First tournament for Mumbru

Mumbru took over the national team last year after the Olympic Games in Paris by world champion coach Gordon Herbert. The European Championship in Finland and Latvia is its first tournament as a national coach. After the European Championship, the next competitive game in the World Cup qualification is only due in November. Then Mumbru should take over again.

The ex-professional had adapted the world champion’s style of play a bit this summer. Under the world and European champion as a professional, Schröder and Co. should play faster and more aggressive than under Herbert. After a few smaller adaptation difficulties in the course of the preparation, the team has so far implemented Mumbru’s ideas very well at this European Championship.

“It is his philosophy, his system, which he brought into the national team this summer,” said Maodo Lo after the game against Portugal. “We honored him with the way we played in the first half of the season.”