Brose Baskets Bamberg clinched their third straight Beko BBL title – and third league-cup double in a row – but now the really hard work begins, namely forming their team for next season. With very few players presently signed for 2012-13, Bamberg general manager Wolfgang Heyder will have plenty of competition to keep some of their core players – including some major pressure coming from Bayern Munich.

Heyder told the German daily Bild that the high profile club from Munich have already started looking at some of Bamberg’s champions.

“It’s correct that Bayern are trying to attract some players from us. Their agents have confirmed that to me. If Bayern wave around their money, we won’t have a chance,” said Heyder.

“We cannot put ourselves in debt! We will go to our pain threshold for (Anton) Gavel, (Karsten) Tadda, (Brian) Roberts or (PJ) Tucker. But we will hardly be able to keep all of our players.”

Heyder admitted Bamberg’s magical run may come to a close if they lose some of their core but they will not just hand over the title.

“We will have a big change this summer. But we also have some alternatives in mind. And we will be playing in the Euroleague next season. Alba Berlin and Bayern cannot attract players with that,” said Heyder.

“Our goals will remain the same as this season.”

+ Bamberg lock up full-time training facility
Besides the double-threepeat, Bamberg’s 2011-12 season also included an administrative highlight as they locked up a full-time training facility starting in September.

According to the Nuremberg Abendzeitung (AZ), Bamberg agreed to a deal to take over the Hauptsmoorhalle complex in nearby Strullendorf to be available 24 hours to the champions’ players. Starting in July, the facility – located a five-minute drive – will be renovated for some 200,000 euros with a new parquet floor, new baskets, a treatment room for physiotherapists, modern sanitary and team rooms as well as small retractable seating stands. Even the coaching staff of Chris Fleming, Arne Woltmann and Stefan Weissenböck will have two offices.

The players will also have a chance to bond away from basketball as there is a bowling alley in the basement of the facility and tennis courts and mini-golf and archery facilities outside the hall.

As of now, Bamberg had some of the worst practice conditions in the whole BBL as the team was forced to bounce around the nearby villages of Hirschaid, Memmelsdorf or Breitengüßbach if Stechert Arena was booked.

“I am very happy about it,” said Bamberg GM Wolfgang Heyder. “This will help greatly our successful youth teams.”
The AZ said the costs will be shared by the Bamberg basketball club, the Strullendorf community and the Basketball in Regnitztal association.

+ Würzburg pick up German big man McNaughton
s.Oliver Baskets continued to form their team for 2012-13 and locked up a valuable big man with a two-year contract for German center Chris McNaughton, who comes to Würzburg from Eisbären Bremerhaven.

“We are very happy that we could bring in a player of this caliber to Würzburg. Chris McNaughton is one of the best centers, was an absolute top player in Bremerhaven and is a reinforcement at the low post positions with his experience,” said s.Oliver Baskets GM Jochen Bähr.

“In both of our games against Eisbären, he gave us big problems with his intensive physical playing style. He will complement Jason Boone very well at the center position.”

The 29-year-old McNaughton, who played for Germany at the 2010 World Championship, is a great addition for Würzburg as he not only is a quality big man but also a German – all the more important since German clubs will need six German players on their 12-man game roster.

McNaughton, an alumnus from Bucknell University, also knows his new teammates well as he played with Boone, Ben Jacobson and John Little with BG Göttingen, winning the 2010 EuroChallenge title and scored a team-high 22 points in the final over Krasnye Krylia.
Besides McNaughton, Boone, Jacobson and Little, Würzburg also have Germans Alex King and Maximilian Kleber under contract for the 2012-13 season.

+ Bayreuth add Simon, Stommes joins Bremerhaven, Lischka leaves Ludwigsburg
In other moves, BBC Bayreuth continued their roster overhaul as they picked up 25-year-old German guard Nicolai Simon from Walter Tigers Tübingen on a two-year contract; while 23-year-old American swingman position Justin Stommes moved from ProA side Paderborn to Eisbären Bremerhaven, and 25-year-old German forward Johannes Lischka is leaving Ludwigsburg after refusing a contract offer.

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