“Excellent man” as a coach
World champion successor Mumbrú starts new basketball era
The new national basketball coach Álex Mumbrú has to enter the footsteps of World Champion coach Gordon Herbert. But despite the well-being upheaval, the 45-year-old is not anxious. He sees it as an honor to work with “some of the best players in the world”.
The new era in the land of the world champion started Álex Mumbrú with a laugh. In the inner courtyard of the noble five-star hotel in the west of Berlin, the new basketball national coach shone when he posed for the cameras together with DBB President Ingo Weiss. The Spaniard, it immediately became clear, burns for the difficult mission to create a change and at the same time continue the impressive path of success coach Gordon Herbert.
“It is an honor for me to be here,” said Mumbrú at his imagination: “I am ready to continue the wonderful work that the national team has done in the past. I am ready for this challenge.” And the work started immediately. Talks, many conversations, are waiting for the 45-year-old, whose task it will be to form a new winning team for the European Championship 2025 after the Golden years.
It was quickly clear to the decision-makers at the German Basketball Association (DBB) that the internationally renowned Mumbrú, with Spain as a player world and European champions and as a coach at the Euroleague club Valencia Basket, is exactly the right man. “We were looking for a national coach who is hungry, competent and highly motivated and who radiates that he really wants to work with the team. Álex Mumbrú quickly convinced us,” said Weiss.
“Of course I spoke to many friends in Spain who said: If you get it, excellent man. That also confirmed a little bit at the end of the day.” Even before the Olympics, Mumbrú was basically agreed.
“Some of the best players in the world”
Mumbrú's contract with runtime until the end of 2026, which contains an option up to the 2027 and Olympics 2028 in Los Angeles, is to be interpreted as an advance of trust. At the DBB they wanted a “long -term agreement to build something,” said Weiss. However, Mumbrú also knows, and that was important to him to emphasize that after Herbert's departure to Bayern Munich, he works in a fairly well -ordered field.
Mumbrú appeared elegantly in a black suit, he gave his answers in English. Many details of his plans and working methods will only appear for the next few months. He prefers a game with a focus on defensive and quick counterattacks, he said. In the end, the trainer always has to orientate himself to the players that he has available.
“It is very important for me to perform with the same team chemistry as under Gordon Herbert,” he said. Captain Dennis Schröder or the brothers Franz and Moritz Wagner are also “some of the best players in the world.” Mumbrú will speak to all of them before his debut on November 22nd at the European Championship qualification game in Sweden. Although the NBA stars and almost certainly the Euroleague professionals are missing, it is essential to work out the future face of the national team in parallel.
Gentle upheaval in the team is inevitable
At least a gentle upheaval is probably inevitable, even if, according to Mumbrú, no player has spoken to him with him. Several world champions such as Daniel Theis, Niels Giffey or Johannes Voigtmann could now end their DBB career after EM bronze 2022, World Cup gold 2023 and fourth place at the Olympics this year. But Weiss and Mumbrú were not worried about the future.
“If someone resigns now, we have many good young players in our team,” said Weiss. The seasoned NBA-Center Isaiah Hartenstein is just as much a candidate as Rookie Tristan da Silva or the world champion Justus Hollatz, which was painted just before Paris. “This is incredible for me to have such a big team,” said Mumbrú enthusiastically and added: “Isaiah and Justus Hollatz are players who get closer to the team. Everyone has the opportunity to get into the team.” Because a new era has come.
