Audio: Frieda Bühner – The hope of the German basketball players (2 min)
Status: 18.06.2025 1:47 p.m.
Basketballer Frieda Bühner has been an integral part of the German national team for a year. At the European Championship with the preliminary round in Hamburg from Thursday, the role of Lower Saxony is greater than ever.
Frieda Bühner’s absolute will to win is also unmistakable away from the basketball courts. On game evenings with the national team colleagues, she wins “always”, says the 21-year-old in conversation with the NDR and laughs with a laugh: “And if not, then the others cheated on.” It doesn’t matter what is played – “Dobble”, “City, Country, Full Port” or a quiz game.
“It’s just really nice to do something with the team and helps the team chemistry,” explains the former player of Panthers Osnabrück. Sometimes it gets “a bit heated” while playing.
Best thrower in the European Championship preparation
On the basketball field, the Bühner, which is called Mizzi (extremely mitzi) with second name, is anything but heated, but very cool and clarified. And the second youngest player in the 12-member DBB squad for the upcoming European Championship (June 18 to 29) with the preliminary round in Hamburg.
When Bühner, born in Georgsmarienhütte, is expected to be in the Starting Five of the German team on Thursday in the first group game against Sweden in the Wilhelsmburger Inselparkhalle, her international play debut on the day is just just a year ago. Since then she has become an integral part of the A national team. The 1.86 tall Power Forward convinced in the European Championship preparation across the board, was in three out of four games of Germany’s most successful thrower and put on an incredible 30 points and 12 rebounds in the test game against Turkey-a so-called double double.
Cancellation and failures – suddenly leading player
A surprising development? No! “For me it is no surprise that she performs like this,” says Leonie Fiebich, who has become New York Liberty WNBA champion last summer and just joined the DBB team from the North American professional league a few days before the tournament started: “Frieda is such an instinct player. She is simply scared.”
“It really accelerates and will be a key player for us. I am also not afraid that she will not cope with the pressure.”
DBB captain Leonie Fiebich about Frieda Bühner
Due to the failure of DBB captain Marie Gülich (Cruciate ligament rupture) and the European Championship cancellation of WNBA player Nyara Sabally (persistent knee problems) now becomes Bühner, alongside Luisa Geiselsöder (Dallas Wings), the X-factor under the German basket. “I also want to take on a leadership role,” she says confidently, “I have already joked that I am now one of the older ones.”
From Osnabrück on the big basketball stage
Already at the Olympic premiere of the German basketball players in Paris a year ago, Bühner jumped in the opening game against European champion Belgium for the injured Sabally – and impressed on a large stage with great clarity and eleven points in her fourth international match. “When I came in, my whole body trembled,” recalls Bühner. There was nothing to see.
After the Olympics, she moved from the local Bundesliga to the Spanish top league to Madrid to the CB Estudianes, where she developed into a top performer during the season (almost ten points on average). In the physical league and also in the Eurocup, the second most important European competition, she “developed as a player and has also become more adult,” says Bühner, who wants to play in the Euroleague in the medium term and “maybe at some point in the WNBA, that would be two goals from me”, but everything “step by step.”
Between setbacks and medal dreams
The European Championship, which is held in a total of four countries, now offers a good stage to continue to draw attention. There she has great dreams with the German team: a medal, the first since bronze at the 1997 European Championship, the basketball players had already spent the destination far in advance. After the upswing of German women’s basketball in recent years (including the 3×3 Olympic victory), this seemed realistic.
Germany has long been no underdog. The European Championship cancellation of top player Satou Sabally (Phoenix Mercury) and the injury-related failures of several important players are a bitter setback for the DBB selection. “We all still want to get a medal,” says Bühner: “I don’t go in in any game without thinking, we will win that now.”
European Championship preliminary round against tournament co-favorites
Just like with board games. If the German team prevails in the preliminary round against Sweden, Spain and Great Britain tournament, the first or second or second, Bühner and their DBB colleagues can continue their game rounds in Greece. The ko phase is held there.
