According to Justin Bean, his team, Alba Berlin, was a huge “underdog” in Germany’s top professional basketball league, Basketball Bundesliga, this past season.
Nobody expected the team with an albatross for a mascot to make a magical run — let alone win the championship.
Yet in the decisive Game 5 of the finals, Alba Berlin trailed by 20 points at halftime inside FC Bayern Munich’s rowdy arena.
Bean, a 6-foot-7 former Utah State Aggie and member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said his coach’s message at the half was simple: “Play with no regrets. Give everything you have.”
“I don’t think any of us expected to win, because it was such a big margin,” said Bean, adding that somehow with belief, hard work, togetherness, fight — and a little luck — his team managed an improbable comeback.
Alba Berlin stunned FC Bayern Munich, 84-81, on June 21, and Bean was named Finals MVP after posting 18 points, 12 rebounds and five assists.
“They’re already calling it ‘Das Wunderspiel’ — ‘The Miracle Game,’” Bean said, grinning.
The championship also carried deep personal meaning for Bean, who initially struggled on the court in Berlin. Off the court, he and his wife, Claire Bean, found joy by serving in their local Latter-day Saint ward and starting a family.
“Heavenly Father is everywhere you need Him, and we have definitely felt that within our little family,” he told the Church News. “We have been very blessed.”
Life in Germany
In 2023, Bean was coming off a G League season with the Memphis Hustle and playing on the Boston Celtics’ Summer League team when he was offered a three-year contract with Alba Berlin.
It was a rare opportunity for an American with no prior overseas experience, but the team’s general manager told Bean he had a “gut feeling” about him.
The 29-year-old forward said his first two seasons in Berlin were “not great,” with many losses, but he continued to learn, work and improve.
Over the last three years, playing for Alba Berlin has taken Bean to countries across the continent — Italy, Greece, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Serbia, Azerbaijan and Lithuania, among others.
At the same time, Bean and his wife welcomed their first two children — a son, Logan, now 2, and a daughter, Emery, 7 months. The family has attended the Berlin Ward (English-speaking) of the Berlin Germany Stake. Bean has served as a ward missionary and Young Men adviser. Claire Bean has served as a counselor in the Relief Society presidency.
Sharing the gospel
After Emery was born, Bean’s teammates offered congratulations by filling his locker with an abundance of diapers and wipes. Claire Bean suggested her husband invite the team to their daughter’s baby blessing at Sunday worship services — and he did.
Half the team showed up. One teammate’s wife told the Beans she appreciated the “calming peace” of the meeting, which touched her and reminded her she was a daughter of God.
His teammates have teased Bean about not drinking, but when beer and champagne flowed after the championship, they made sure he had a soda in hand for the celebration. He said his teammates admire his faith and his “relentless optimism.”
“They have respected it, even though they sometimes don’t understand it, and protected me in a lot of ways,” said Bean, a returned missionary (Nevada Reno Mission) who has not been shy about sharing the gospel with his basketball family.
“When they ask why I don’t drink, party or even use bad language, I say, ‘It’s because I love who I am and I love these guidelines — it’s what makes our families happy.’”
The ‘good life’
Bean will likely return for a fourth season with Alba Berlin.
On his final Sunday in Berlin before traveling to the United States to visit family, Bean sat in sacrament meeting reflecting on the last three years — especially the early struggles, when he questioned whether he could make it work overseas.
Then he reflected on the championship season — and felt a message from the Holy Ghost and the Lord: “When have I ever given you a reason to doubt Me?”
“He has never given us any reason to doubt Him,” Bean said, “and that is what I will really take from this experience.”
A passage from the book “Heart of the Matter,” by the late President Russell M. Nelson, has also given Bean new perspective:
“Gratitude may not come easily,” wrote President Nelson. “We may be operating under the notion that unless everything is going well in our lives, we have nothing for which to be grateful. But the opposite is actually true. Challenges and even hardships are not only a part of life; they are part of a good life.”
