Comeback after cerebral hemorrhage
Paul Zipser’s 15-second happiness
03/03/2022 11:38 am
Paul Zipser was at the top, played in the NBA and then won title after title with the Bayern basketball team. But from one moment to the next everything was gone. Brain hemorrhage, hours of surgery – but now, nine months later, he is returning to the parquet.
It’s only 15 seconds. But it’s 15 seconds of really big emotions. 15 seconds that describe an amazing comeback: On Wednesday evening, national basketball player Paul Zipser will be back on the floor for the first time after nine months and his brain operation in June 2021. He himself is highly concentrated, although his teammates from Bayern Munich have long since won against the Hamburg Towers (86:75), the fans are euphoric. They stand up and sing his name.
Bayern managing director Marko Pesic was one of the first to express his happiness at Zipser’s comeback: “For me, Paul is a role model for how he managed it. Although sometimes, I have to say, he gets carried away and his phlegm is his hallmark And it was precisely in this situation that his strength was. He really worked through it point by point, every step he took,” he said at Magentasport. “If you then followed him from rehab where he could hardly walk. He was walking with crutches. If you’ve been through it all, then you have to say that those 15 seconds are like 150 minutes. Those 15 seconds are for me a whole world that I’m so happy,” added Pesic.
In the middle of the semi-final series against MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg last season, Zipser was diagnosed with a brain hemorrhage in June. The former NBA professional had to undergo a complicated head operation, and family and club feared for the national player’s life. The winger had to start from scratch after the operation. “I had to try to re-teach my body everything,” said Zipser. At first he couldn’t even sit up in bed.
However, the Zipser comeback in Munich was overshadowed by a serious accident involving his teammate Nick Weiler-Babb. The American fell to the floor after trying to dunk, was temporarily unconscious and had to be carried off the floor on a stretcher. According to a statement from the club late in the evening, the examinations in the hospital revealed a severe concussion.
