If you are realistic, there are currently two teams that can win the German basketball championship: Alba Berlin and Bayern Munich.
This Thursday they play against each other for the first time this season.
Not in the Bundesliga, but in the Euroleague.
But before the international duel, news spread that could well have a decisive influence on the national duel later in the season.
Christopher Meltzer
Sports correspondent in Munich.
Follow I follow
On Tuesday, Bayern announced that they had signed German international Niels Giffey, 31 years old and two meters tall.
He won bronze at the European Championships with the national team in September and then agreed a contract with the Spanish top division club Murcia – including an opt-out clause, which he has now used.
In Munich, where he has been given a contract until the summer of 2025, he is expected to join a team that lost the Bundesliga final to Berlin in 2021 and 2022.
The transfer has a sporting and an emotional factor.
The sporty one: As a German, Giffey, who reliably hits the three and can defend in several positions, brings a bonus because in the Bundesliga only six foreigners are allowed in the squad per game.
The emotional one: He was captain of Alba Berlin from 2017 to 2021.
In addition to the Giffey transfer, Bayern announced that their Slovenian playmaker Žan Mark Šiško "will no longer be available for private reasons until further notice".