The German basketball players are European champions. That was also due to Dennis Schröder. The captain struggled in the final and later not only was allowed to celebrate his birthday, but also a “double” title.
Alan Ibrahimagic looked aside. The coach has just completed the winning press conference.
Ibrahimagic started the tournament as the third assistant of his boss Alex Mumbru and became a man on the sidelines after Mumbru had to go to the hospital because of an inflamed pancreas. He also coached Germany in the final, which the German basketball players won 89:83 against Turkey.
Water shower for Dennis Schröder at the press conference
So Ibrahimagic answered a question and looked to the left to his captain Dennis Schröder, and then he looked at Schröder and away again.
Because suddenly Schröder’s comrades roar in the press conference room and showered their captain. He immediately raised the ski glasses, which already dangled around his neck. “Happy Birthday, dear Dennis “the national players and new European champions Daniel Theis, Justus Hollatz, the brothers Oscar and Tristan da Silva and athletic trainer Arne Greskowiak. They showered their leader with water bottles.
First Casketball European champion, Then the 32nd birthday
Schröder had become 32 years old after winning the European Basketball Championship. The birthday child enjoyed the scene, and when the serenade and the shower were over after a minute, Center Oscar da Silva said smugly in walking out: “And there they go again.”
Many people in the hall laughed at the deposit and the laughter was laughed when Schröder’s six -year -old son Dennis Malick asked Junior: “Off to the shower!”
In the first half, almost nothing works with Schröder
Papa Dennis was not yet allowed to take a shower. At first he played a little with his son, who relied on the game ball, and then the playmaker had to explain how it all worked with the first European championship title for Germany since 1993.
Because in the first half there was little work with the 31-year-old Schröder. The Turks defended him cleverly and lured him again and again to rooms, in which two players then pissed off Schröder.
For a long time, the game designer did not get to the throw and only scored two points from the freewurfine. His dangerous attacks on the basket, his jump throw from the half -distance, his threesome – none of it presented the NBA-Profi the Sacramento Kings Until the change of sides.
Legend to the break – Türkiye dominates
The Germans crept into the cabin with 40:46. Thousands of Turkish fans converted the arena from Riga to her home hall, and there were also foul problems of the defensive columns Theis and Isaac Bonga. “I didn’t play a good game in the first half”Schröder admitted, “But all of my teammates were at the start and wore me.”
At the start, Franz Wagner, Isaac Bonga and Tristan da Silva were particularly important. They kept the Germans in the game in the first half and ensured that the world champion continued to have the chance to become European champion.
Wagner always wrapped himself on the way to the basket with his spin move around his opponents and closed. Tristan da Silva converted his threesome and Bonga shone as an annoying defender and hit his throws in important phases. In the end, Bonga posted 20 points and sank four three-point throws without a failure. In addition, he grabbed five rebounds, distributed four assists – and all without a loss of ball.
Isaac Bonga: “It was exaggerated a lot of fun”
The 25-year-old world champion, who is now also a European champion, was finally recognized as the best player in the final and the best defender of the tournament. He said to his final gala: “It was exaggerated a lot of fun. Somewhere I believe in the basketball gods. We were almost the whole game in the back and in the end we still managed to get it again. This shows what kind of character this team has, what kind of self -confidence we have.
It should just be like that. The leadership changed 15 times, and Germany was more than 24 out of 40 minutes behind.
Like 2:15 minutes before the end. The Germans were 77:79 behind. The team had the ball rotated with patience, Isaac Bonga was released on the ball -off side and got the pass. He had the chance to throw the threesome, but he took a start to the ring, lifted off the baseline and stuffed the ball through the reuse to 79:79.
The last six points are all a man: Dennis Schröder
“I just want to enjoy the time with the boys”the winger said afterwards and didn’t want to talk too much about himself, even though he was the most constant international that evening. In contrast to Schröder.
The leader of the national team also struggled in the second half, he seemed to save his moments for the final phase. Because the last six points of the game all got Schröder.
First he brought his team 84:83 in the lead with a church team at 1:15 minutes on the clock. Then he converted a jump throw from the middle distance and increased to 86:83. Ergin Ataman, the head coach of the Turks, took a break. But the next attack also brought nothing. Schröder got the ball, was fouled and netted both free throws to the 89:83 final score.
Dennis Schröder (m.) Moves to the basket in the final of the Casketball European Championship
Schröder: “In the end I just hit it”
Schröder was asked by a journalist at the press conference whether he had trained such throws as a child and had imagined in his homeland in his home in Braunschweig. He replied: “You live for these moments. I worked for that every day and I field every day.”
When Papa Dennis described all of this, the voice brittle, his son looked at him and rolled up and off the game ball on the podium of the press conference. Schröder said: “In the end, when it became exciting, I took the ball and just hit it. It worked. The first two or three quarters were not optimal, but I did it in the last quarter, the others too, and we got victory.”
Germany sometimes difficult, but in the end unbeaten
Germany completed nine games at this Eurobasket and won all nine. After the sovereign group victory in Tampere, Riga’s co-phase was more difficult. First, the team tortured itself through the round of 16 against Portugal and almost failed in the quarter -finals of Slovenia.
Germany against Slovenia – a close game
Then Finland cleared it out of the way and met the Turks, which had also been unbeaten until then, and their leader Alperen Sengün. Schröder called him in advance “Head of the snake” and one “Good boy”. The head of the snake scored 28 points in the final and was not a good boy from the perspective of the Germans for a long time. But in the last minute of the game, Sengün missed two litters and missed the game.
Dennis Schröder: Finally in the right shower
Schröder then became impatient at the press conference after a few minutes. “I have my birthday and want to celebrate.” He was asked about Ibrahimagic, who as a coach had jumped in the whole tournament. Schröder praised him and said: “Maybe we’ll see him in Braunschweig at some point.”
Ibrahimagic turned over to his captain again, as with the serenade and shower campaign before. Schröder is the sole main shareholder of the Braunschweig Bundesliga basketball players. “No, fun aside. He definitely has what it takes to be a national coach.” Then the captain knocked on the table three times and was gone. Finally in the right shower.