Germany top favorite at the basketball European Championship
If not now, when?
10.09.2025 – 8:13 a.m.Reading time: 3 min.
Defending champion and top favorite are already out of the race. The path at the Casketball European Championship seems free for the German team. If it weren’t for the duel with the best player in the tournament.
The first European champion title after 32 years for Germany’s national basketball team is already so close before the quarter-finals than it has been for a long time. The team led by captain Dennis Schröder wants to take the next step on his mission title win in Latvia’s capital Riga, where the entire knockout phase is held. On Wednesday (from 8 p.m. in the T-Online Live ticker) there will be a quarter-final duel with ex-champion Slovenia.
In view of the many favorites, the fans of the reigning world champion are wondering: if not now, when?
This expectation is fueled by the fact that the supposedly strongest adversary Serbia was sensational in the round of 16 by co-host Finland with 86:92. Of those Finns that were still exposed to the DBB selection in the group phase with 61:91.
The heavily assessed French also surprisingly drew the loser against outsiders of Georgia (70:80). Already in the group phase, the completely indisposed defending champion Spain had said goodbye in five games after three defeats.
So free for the German team, which now has the great opportunity to win the European Championship for the first time since 1993 after the 2023 World Cup title? Experts agree: No other team has such a depth and balance in the squad. And that also demonstrated in the course of the tournament: six games, six wins. And when it was last jerked in the round of 16 against Portugal in the first half, players like Maodo Lo or Tristan da Silva came from the bench and bent the game in the right direction.
This team – for Captain Schröder the best that Germany has ever had – now meets the best individual and top scorer of the tournament: Luka Dončić. The sloppy genius of the sloppy genius with the less professional lifestyle hurries the man from the Los Angeles Lakers. He regularly fights overweight and is said to have slimmed down 15 kilograms with a strict diet plan before the tournament. So far, he delivers at the final round and is the best thrower of the European Championship at a large distance at 204 points.
For comparison: Germany’s most successful shooters Franz Wagner and Dennis Schröder have 124 or 121 points. Also because they get significantly more breaks in the games. Because: With the Slovenes everything hangs on Dončić, he almost has to play through. That consumes the forces.