In June 2021, Bayern basketball player Paul Zipser was diagnosed with a cerebral hemorrhage in the middle of the semi-final series against MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg. After a complicated head operation, his family and club feared for his life. 271 days later he made his comeback on the Bundesliga floor.
Hard and tearful time
For many, the comeback of the 28-year-old international is like a miracle. “Well, in the beginning, many doubted the return,” says Zipser. Few would have believed it. For him, too, basketball was “not an issue at first” immediately after the operation. “First of all, I want to walk more than ten meters at a time,” was the first goal.
“That was by far the hardest thing in my life,” Zipser remembers about the time with the rehabilitation measures. “I’ve never cried so much in my life.”
“New challenge” on the way to “more than one hundred percent”
But the experiences from past rehabilitation periods helped him to tackle it properly. Instead of throwing him back, they always meant the next step, explains Zipser. The surgery made it “a little harder than usual”, but it was simply “a new challenge” for him.
In particular, you uncover the weaknesses that he has now been able to specifically combat and wants to continue to work against. “If you work on it so much and then balance it out at some point, then that has the potential to make you better afterwards.” And there are “even more than one hundred percent” in it.
The trick: full focus, but also “don’t always think about it”
On the one hand, he has “full focus when I’m doing something”. At the same time, there is a special trick: “Don’t always think about it,” which helped him enormously. “If after two hours of training I think I haven’t achieved anything, then I take off my shoes and then it feels like everything is forgotten. I come home, I have my friends, I have my wife, who completely distract me from everything ” Zipser explains.
Between “great dribbling” and “wheelchair basketball”
The state of affairs is now: In private life, Zipser feels “at 90 percent plus X”, sporty “at 60 percent”. It still brings tears to his eyes, like last time in the BBL game against Gießen, when dribbling once again “felt really cool”. But the next few seconds could feel like “wheelchair basketball”. That makes it “so damn difficult,” explains the winger.
With an individual plan through the BBL and Euroleague games
Now he is completing a strict program with the Bayern basketball team in the upcoming BBL and Euroleague games. But sometimes he notices in the game: “You’re not as tired as you thought”. Zipser still has “his individual plan”: He sometimes takes breaks and is not on the floor in all games.
Going further step by step, also in the international playoffs
In the Euroleague playoffs, which Munich have now achieved, “everything is possible”, promises top performer Zipser. Last year, Munich were eliminated in the quarterfinals. Zipser would not even bet on participating in the Final Four tournament this time either.
Don’t even dream of it. But he wants to “give himself the chance step by step” together with the team. This is exactly what he already knows from his successful rehabilitation period.
