DBB team before the EM spectacle
The big chance is “just the next game”
09/13/2022, 7:24 p.m
The German national basketball team has put in a great game and is fighting Greece for a chance at their first medal in many years. The coach is relaxed and invokes team spirit.
Will the German national basketball team finally make the leap into a not entirely new, but almost eternally unattainable sphere? The DBB team last reached the semi-finals of a major tournament in 2005, when superstar Dirk Nowitzki even led his team to the final in a nerve-wracking thriller against Spain. After that, the great sadness found its way into German basketball with the end of the Nowitzki era. Now Nowitzki’s heirs can seize the biggest opportunity in many years: Coach Gordon Herbert’s team will fight against favorites Greece around NBA superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo in the evening (8.30 p.m. live on RTL and in the live ticker on ntv.de) again for entry into a European Championship semi-final.
In order to continue on your own path a little, it is not just a matter of slowing down Giannis Antetokounmpo’s 110 kilos of pure athleticism in the evening in Berlin. In all games except the game against Great Britain, where he sat out, the twice NBA Most Valuable Player colossus was the team’s clear top scorer. But the key to victory cannot lie solely in working off the Greek superstar: “It’s the same with him as with LeBron James. They will do their game – in the end you have to try to downsize the others. Stopping Giannis is almost impossible ‘ said Schroeder.
“Sacrifice for the team”
It will be a team effort that must pave the way to the semifinals. The German game lacks the outstanding points machine like the Slovenians have in Luka Doncic or the Greeks in Antetokounmpo – or like the Serbs had in NBA star Nikola Jokic. The top favorite surprisingly said goodbye to Italy in the round of 16. Which team Herbert can send into the race will only be decided shortly before the tip-off: The use of young NBA star Franz Wagner is still uncertain. The 21-year-old Wagner twisted his ankle in the 85:79 against Montenegro on Saturday and injured his ankle.
The two regular players Johannes Voigtmann and Nick Weiler-Babb are all clear. Co-captain Voigtmann is fit again after a cold that caused him to take a break from training on Monday and should play. Weiler-Babb, who was only naturalized before the European Championships, has overcome his shoulder problems and is also operational. “The players who are here have made a commitment to sacrifice themselves for the team,” said Herbert a few hours before one of the most important games in recent German basketball history. There is no special ritual or special, modified preparation for the opponent. In the dressing room, the American revealed, “For me and the players, it’s about building up tension. It’s just the next game.”
The game against Greece, the last unbeaten team in the tournament, could be the bottleneck on the way to a really big triumph – because the possible semi-final opponents Spain and Finland are not unbeatable for the German team after their strong impressions at this European championship. The big favorite Serbia is no longer in the tournament after a surprising defeat against Italy. The last international title so far was won by a DBB selection in 1993 – at a European championship in their own country.
“We want to achieve something”
Meanwhile, the last major tournaments always ended early for the German national team: At the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo, there was a clear quarter-final defeat against Slovenia, and in 2019 the World Cup in China was over for the DBB team after the preliminary round. Now the end should finally shimmer with precious metals for the German basket hunters: “China was a failure. But we’ve all matured and learned from it. Now we’ve managed, thanks to the coaching staff and how we are together, that we have fun and are successful. And we want to achieve something with the national team,” said national player Daniel Theis in an interview with the “Braunschweiger Zeitung”. “Our goal is to win a medal. We’re all not getting any younger. On paper it’s been said for the past few years that we have a great team, great players. Then it’s time to bring that to the field,” NBA demanded -Pro Theis.
The fact that the game is taking place on the big stage increases the importance of the game for German basketball even more: “I’m very happy that RTL is broadcasting our quarter-finals live and giving the general public the opportunity to be there,” said DBB -President Ingo Weiss on Monday evening. “At the same time, I would like to thank our media partner MagentaSport for making this broadcast possible. Basketball with the national team on free-to-air television at prime time: that’s what we wanted and now we’re hoping for a great quarterfinals in the EuroBasket Arena in Berlin.” Meanwhile, the DBB team’s quarter-finals will be the first game of the current European Championship to be broadcast live on free TV. RTL will broadcast the basketball spectacle live from 8:15 p.m. from Berlin’s Mercedes-Benz Arena.