Meri Valkama won the prize for the best debut novel in Finland last year with her book Sinun, Margot.

In it, the author describes the story of a family whose father worked as a foreign correspondent in East Berlin in the 1980s.

Not only the location of the action has an autobiographical reference, because Meri Valkama's father actually worked for a Finnish newspaper in East Berlin.

She too became a journalist, while her two younger brothers took a completely different path and became basketball coaches.

On Saturday, Tuomas and Joonas Iisalo faced each other for the first time as head coaches in a Bundesliga game.

The scene was not the former capital of the GDR, but that of the "old Federal Republic", Bonn.

There the brothers had stood together as head and assistant coach on the sidelines last season before Joonas switched to the head coaching chair at the MLP Academics Heidelberg before this season.

Tuomas, the older of the brothers, has long since made a name for himself as a coach in Europe.

After coming to Germany in 2016, his career took off.

He managed to lead the small Crailsheim location into the play-offs of the basketball league.

His brother Joonas has been assisting him since 2019, who also moved to Bonn with him in 2021, where they sparked a new enthusiasm in their first season and only failed in the semi-finals at Euroleague participants Bayern Munich.

Tuomas was then awarded "Coach of the Year".

Both were Associate Head Coaches

The "Iisalo style" is state-of-the-art, based on pace, action speed, lots of three-point shots and strong offensive rebounding.

"We built an identity together that was supposed to represent our basketball vision and personality," says 36-year-old Joonas.

Contrary to public perception, the employment relationship was never caught in the classic division of head coach/assistant coach.

Both used the term "Associate Head Coach" for Joonas' role.

In this context, the 40-year-old Tuomas points out that his brother had previously been a successful head coach in Finland, winning the cup competition there, among other things.

While Joonas decided early on to become a coach, Tuomas played professionally for a relatively long time and took part in two European championships, among other things.

The Bonn head coach attests his brother a “great instinct”, from which he benefited greatly.

During the time they spent together in Crailsheim and Bonn, the Iisalos constantly exchanged ideas.

For three years they shared all their knowledge and information with each other.

Now they communicate little, texting here and there.

“We developed the concepts together.

That's why Bonn and Heidelberg play similarly," says Tuomas.

Joonas confirms this and emphasizes: "Now the solutions can only be found in our own coaching staff.

An outsider can't really help.” The framework in which both teams move is very similar, although there are differences in the details that are primarily to be understood as adjustments to the playing staff.

The decision that the brothers would no longer stand together on the sidelines this season was made in December 2021. At that point, Joonas informed those responsible in Bonn that he would not exercise his option for the 2022/2023 season.

"He told me that he wanted to be head coach next season or that he would come back to Finland," recalls Tuomas, who always knew his brother wanted to be head coach again.

The conclusion of the three years together is only positive for him: "No one could have foreseen that we would be so successful."

Both can understand the great media interest in their meeting, but it didn't play a role for them before.

Both were driven only by the idea of ​​how to give their team an advantage.

In the end, however, the eagerly awaited game turned out to be a clear affair.

The Bonners swept Heidelberg out of the hall with 98:65, remain unbeaten and underlined that they are likely to be the toughest competitor of the Euroleague teams from Berlin and Munich this season.

For Heidelberg, however, it was a used day.

On April 22, 2023, Joonas Iisalo and his team have a chance for revenge.

Then the people of Bonn will be making guest appearances on the Neckar.

The author was coach of the year twice in Germany.