Legend duo with Buschmann
Nowitzki as an RTL expert in basketball crackers
09/13/2022 12:52 p.m
Basketball legend Dirk Nowitzki will cover the European Championship quarter-finals of the German national team against Greece live on RTL. The former superstar forms a duo with cult commentator Frank Buschmann.
Dirk Nowitzki has so far followed the European Basketball Championship games in Cologne and Berlin live in the hall. Now he is in action himself – on the RTL microphone. Together with cult commentator Frank Buschmann and presenter Laura Papendick, the basketball legend will accompany the quarter-finals of the German national team against Greece.
The game will be broadcast live on RTL from 8:15 p.m. The game will be commented on by Frank Buschmann, who enjoys cult status and is now returning to his old place of work eleven years after leaving the national basketball team. At the time, he justified his departure by saying that he was too much a fan of the boys. “I wrote on Sunday, it was a bit itchy playing against the Lithuanians,” he said in a Twitter video. “Guys, I’m looking forward to seeing you. It’s a basketball festival!”
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. “The German team offered a spectacular preliminary round at their home European Championship with thrilling duels and sparked a new euphoria about their sport with great team spirit,” said Stephan Schmitter, Managing Director of RTL News, in a statement. “Against the top favorites Greece, the key moment of the tournament will now come, and the whole of Germany can be there up close and personal on free TV.” According to the announcement, the Cologne broadcaster agreed on a sublicense agreement with the rights holder Telekom, which broadcasts the game online. “Many thanks to our partners from Telekom for giving this outstanding German sporting moment the biggest possible stage with us!”
After the first games of the tournament, the President of the German Basketball Federation, Ingo Weiss, criticized the public broadcasters ARD and ZDF for not showing the German games live. The broadcasters rejected the criticism. “I’m very happy that RTL is broadcasting our quarter-finals live, giving the general public the opportunity to be there,” said Weiss. “At the same time, I would like to thank our media partner Magenta Sport 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.”