After the spectacular duel in the SAP Garden against this year’s finalists, the action continues on the second matchday against the champion: On Thursday (8:15 PM/MagentaSport) the Bayern team will face the EuroLeague defending champion Panathinaikos Athens, before heading to Bonn on Sunday (6 PM/Dyn) for the chance to enter the cup quarterfinals. As before the upset against Real Madrid (97:89), the Munich team, led by head coach Gordon Herbert, is clearly the underdog in Athens, especially since the experienced player Niels Giffey (finger fracture) will be out for an extended period.
Starting Thursday, games will also be held for the first time on an LED video glass floor in the OAKA Arena in northern Athens, which has a capacity of 18,500 fans. This floor has been permanently available in Munich’s BMW Park since the beginning of the season. The club owner also invested in the old Olympic Hall this summer.
EuroLeague Premiere on Glass Floor
Panathinaikos also started the new EuroLeague season with a victory, defeating the German champion in Berlin with a comfortable 87:77 (45:36) score despite a balanced second half.
“They had a great year, Coach Ataman is doing an outstanding job, just as he did during his time at Efes Istanbul,” says Bayern head coach Gordon Herbert. “They have an extremely talented team. This is a huge challenge, but as always, it’s also an opportunity for us. We need to take away their second-chance points and force them into a half-court game. We must prevent points from fast breaks and neutralize them on the offensive boards.”
The hosts are undoubtedly the top contenders for the European crown again. Except for the Argentine playmaker Luca Vildoza, who hopes for more playing time with local rivals Olympiakos, the traditional club has not seen any significant departures. In fact, Olympiakos: This summer has seen a real arms race with the arch-rivals, as the neighbor aims to immediately reclaim the dominance that Panathinaikos lost after years of supremacy.
In their opening match, Bayern, led by center "Jo" Voigtmann, celebrated a surprising victory over Real Madrid.
Brown and Sloukas and Nunn and Osman and . . .
In the Supercup in Rhodes, Olympiakos narrowly won 86:85 in a highly contested match led by MVP Sasha Vezenkov.
Panathinaikos' already well-equipped roster has recently been bolstered by the Turkish NBA acquisition Cedi Osman (494 NBA games, 9.2 PPG), alongside his compatriot Omer Yurtseven (2.11 m, most recently with the Utah Jazz) and playmaker Lorenzo Brown (2023/2024: 13 PPG & 6.1 APG for Maccabi). The standout stars such as Kendrick Nunn (16 PPG/21 points in the final against Real), MVP Kostas Sloukas (12.7 PPG), center Mathias Lessort (12.9), and Konstantinos Mitolou (11.9) have remained with the team and/or signed long-term extensions.
In their opening game in Berlin, besides Nunn (16 points), Lessort (14), and Sloukas (10), former Spanish world champion Juancho Hernangomez (11) and Jerian Grant (10) also delivered impressive performances.
“This will be really tough because the atmosphere there is as good as it gets in the EuroLeague, and they have a really good team,” says FCBB center Danko Brankovic. “Moreover, they had a strong offseason, having retained many excellent players. Nevertheless, we are going there to win and not just to play against them.”