Everything about the historic NBA appearance

In the middle of the season, ratiopharm Ulm travels to the USA to play a test game against the NBA club Portland Trail Blazers – to which the Swabians were invited. The club has gained an excellent reputation overseas in recent years. ratiopharm Ulm travels almost 16,000 kilometers and a nine-hour time difference in the middle of the season – for a test match. Why? The reason: The 2023 champions are the first German basketball team to take part in the NBA preseason on US soil. And was invited by the Portland Trail Blazers to the game on Thursday night (4 p.m.). “We feel very flattered,” Ulm’s sports director Thorsten Leibenath told Sport Bild.Read here

With Jakob Pöltl, only one Austrian is currently preparing for the upcoming National Basketball Association (NBA) season. On Thursday morning, Thomas Klepeisz will also be able to briefly get a taste of the best basketball league in the world. The Burgenlander is visiting the Portland Trail Blazers for the first time with his German club Ulm for a test match. A historic opportunity to collect a lot of air miles with Klepeisz and Co. “We are looking forward to the challenge of being the first German club team to play a test game in the USA against an NBA team.” “It is something very special,” said Klepeisz in the ORF interview, looking forward to the trip across the Atlantic. Read here

For Ulm's sports director Thorsten Leibenath (right), canceling the guest appearance in the States was not an alternative. In the middle of the season, Ratiopharm Ulm travels almost 16,000 kilometers for a test game against an NBA team. The club is also putting a possible league win at risk. Ratiopharm Ulm travels almost 16,000 kilometers and a nine-hour time difference in the middle of the season – for a test match. The reason: The 2023 champions are the first German basketball team to take part in the NBA preseason on US soil. Read here

On Wednesday evening (US time) the basketball players from the Danube city will meet the Portland Trail Blazers. Nine fans will be cheering them on. Interim report of an unforgettable trip. The magic wand has it all. Politics, restaurants, music, dogs and cats. The big and the small messages of humanity – packed in adhesive pictures. Here, in downtown Seattle, they become an ever-changing work of art. Stickers are stuck over, dropped, and new ones are added. The wall is a pulsating world. Read here

Ulm is the first basketball club in America to be allowed to compete against an NBA team. The 2023 Bundesliga champions have developed a reputation in the USA as a springboard for future stars. The basis of success is a sophisticated youth system. The invitation is a great honor. A team from the Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) has never played against a team from the NBA in North America. Germany was simply not on the map for the clubs from the motherland of basketball. But at the beginning of the year, the Portland Trail Blazers came up with the idea of ​​sending an invitation to a test game in Germany. However, they did not choose the industry giants Bayern Munich or Alba Berlin, but rather Ulm. Read here

Six away games in a row! The basketball players from ratiopharm Ulm have an incredible amount of travel stress ahead of them. The stations: Vilnius, Bamberg, Istanbul, Portland, Oldenburg and Gran Canaria. In addition to the five competitive games, there is this very special game in Portland with an NBA team. Sports director Thorsten Leibenath talks about this very special journey (time period 1:08:35-01:21:28). Listen here

It's a game that has never been seen before. Next Thursday, ratiopharm Ulm will be the first time a Bundesliga basketball team in the USA will play against an NBA team. They play in the Bundesliga against teams like Bayern Munich, the giants Ludwigsburg or the Niners Chemnitz. In the Eurocup the opponents come from Gran Canaria, Badalona or Istanbul. On Thursday, ratiopharm Ulm will face a team that puts all of these clubs in the shade – the Portland Trail Blazers from the NBA. USA against Germany – NBA against BBL – Portland Trail Blazers against ratiopharm Ulm. That sounds like a dream, and it is one that sports director Thorsten Leibenath from ratiopharm Ulm would never have even dared to dream of. “It is well known that NBA teams come to Europe from time to time to test against a European team. But I never even dreamed that we would fly over as a German team and play a test match,” says Leibenath. Read here

Mammoth trip for the former champion! Six games in 16 days, 25,000 kilometers of distance: exciting days ahead for ratiopharm Ulm. Ulm travels halfway around the world…Never before in the history of the BBL has a team interrupted the season – but the 2023 champions have a very good reason: Ulm was invited by the NBA – and will be in Portland on October 16th compete in a friendly match. Read here

For the first time, a team from the BBL will compete against an NBA team in North America – and the choice falls on Ratiopharm Ulm. Ulm's reputation as a springboard for future NBA players convinced the Portland Trail Blazers. Quite unexpectedly, ratiopharm Ulm announced the test game against the NBA team Portland Trailblazers a few weeks ago. “We feel very flattered,” said Ulm’s sports director Thorsten Leibenath. The invitation was sent via WhatsApp and surprised the Ulm team, which has made a name for itself as a talent factory in international basketball.
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In an interview with the experts from Dyn, sports director Thorsten Leibenath talks about his team's trip to the USA and the short and long consequences (time period 1:16:15-01:30:05). Listen here

For the first time in the history of basketball, a German club will play a game on the home court of an NBA franchise: ratiopharm Ulm will be playing at the Portland Trail Blazers on October 16th. As far as I know, it is the first time that a “test game by a Bundesliga team has taken place on the home court of an NBA team,” Ulm's sports director Thorsten Leibenath confirmed the special game. In order to be able to accept the invitation to Oregon, the people of Ulm are pulling out all the stops. Because: The German champions of 2023 are already fully operational at this point and a tight program is waiting for them. Read here