Before the final: “Don’t play for silver”: basketball player hot for EM gold

When Germany’s basketball player was last in an EM final, Dennis Schröder had just started running after the orange ball. “I have no memory of this game. I was twelve years old, I haven’t persecuted basketball yet,” said the captain of the national team with a view to the final defeat in 2005. At that time Dirk Nowitzki and Co. had to give up in the fight for EM-Gold Greece.

20 years later, the second European Championship title is to work after 1993. At that time Schröder was not even born, now the 31-year-old Point Guard led the German team to the final with a gala performance against Finland, where Turkey is waiting this Sunday (8:00 p.m./RTL and Magenta Sport). “We said on the first day of the training camp that we wanted to get gold. Now we have the opportunity to do so,” said Schröder with his six -year -old son Malick junior with pride.

And Germany’s giants are hot to follow the sensational World Cup title two years ago the next big triumph. “We don’t play for silver,” said NBA star Franz Wagner and, like Germany, followed a declaration of war on the Turks, which were still unbeaten. “So far we have played a good tournament, but we also have potential to increase.”

And a further increase will be necessary, because a few hours after the German 98:86 against Finland, the Turks disenchanted the highly traded Greeks around NBA superstar Giannis Antetocounmpo with 96:86. “We know that it is a strong team,” said interim national coach Alan Ibrahimagic after the Turkey gala at Magentasport, but he trusts his team. “This is a good opponent. But we also know about our qualities.”

Plugged away many setbacks

One of these qualities is that Schröder and Co. have so far defy all resistance. Even before the tournament, the team had to cope with the cancellations of world champion Moritz Wagner and NBA champion Isaiah Hartenstein. At the beginning of the tournament, national coach Alex Mumbru was also taken to the hospital for pancreatitis, which is why Ibrahimagic took over the scepter.

And in the semi-finals against Finland there were only ten players in the squad, because after the co-captain Johannes Voigtmann (knee surgery), which had been unusual during the preliminary round, Justus Hollatz also had to fit with a foot injury. “This is what distinguishes this team that they just always stand together,” said Maodo Lo.

This generation of basketball has already shaped an era, with the union of World Cup and European Championship titles, it can reach historical on Sunday. And the prospects for the future are also good. Schröder and the Wagner brothers will also wear the national jersey in the coming years, at the World Cup in Qatar in two years and at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, Hartenstein also wants to be there.

And the U18 European championship title 2024 and World Cup silver with the U19 this year show that the generation also promises to players like Christian Anderson or Hannes Steinbach basketball at the highest level. “We can ride the wave for a while,” said association president Ingo Weiss satisfied.