After the World Cup title is before the Olympics: Germany’s basketball players are facing exciting times, in the national team and in the NBA.
The rush still continues, triggered by a fantastic World Cup with a sensational end against Serbia. It will be fueled again on Tuesday when the newly crowned world champions land in Frankfurt am Main at 8:50 a.m. and will then be celebrated by the fans. And then? This World Cup title has the potential to permanently change a lot of things in German basketball.
For national coach Gordon Herbert, celebrated as the father of success, the next step is clear: the 2024 Olympics in Paris. It is the final act of the three-year plan that the Canadian issued when he took office at the end of 2021. With bronze at the home European Championships in 2022 and now World Cup gold, the plan is going better than Herbert himself could have dreamed of.
Suddenly a gold candidate at the Olympics
Suddenly his close-knit team is a medal hope for Paris. A look at sports funding in Germany shows how unexpected this is. It is based on the PotAS potential analysis, which is used to predict medal chances in Olympic sports. Basketball landed in last place in the analysis for the period 2019-2021, and the squad potential in particular was rated very poorly.
Is it even enough to win Olympic gold? It would be an immense improvement again, the USA in particular would be harder to beat there with more well-known NBA stars than in the World Cup semi-finals. Olympic basketball tournaments are more important in America than world championships; in 20 editions, the Americans won gold 16 times.
Herbert’s contract extended early
Herbert doesn’t want to commit to a precise goal yet. “Certainly a medal, as always when we compete somewhere. But which one exactly – I’ll think about it in a few months.” Germany’s national team will not get together again until February 22, 2024, when qualification for the 2025 European Championship begins, probably with a home game against Montenegro. The NBA professionals will be missing, they will then be in the middle of the season.
If Germany qualifies for the 2025 European Championships in Latvia, Finland, Cyprus and Poland, then Herbert should still be on the sidelines there. Before the World Cup, the German Basketball Federation (DBB) had extended the national coach’s contract by one year until after the European Championships.
Junior national teams are also convincing
Herbert’s world champion team is now being celebrated as the golden generation, and the look into the future gives hope. “The team has only just reached its peak performance, so we will certainly have a lot of fun with them for another three, four or five years,” said Dirk Bauermann on Deutschlandfunk.
The former national coach has been the DBB coordinator for the male youth sector since January 2023. “We’re on the right track there too. The U20s came sixth at the European Championships, the U18s won a bronze medal as the first U18s ever and the U16s qualified for the World Cup in Turkey.”
“What Dirk Nowitzki used to be, Dennis is now”
The final triumph in Manila could have just been the starting signal, also for the protagonists. Captain Schröder has proven that he can lead a team to a major title – this has given him new confidence and raised his status with his new NBA team, the Toronto Raptors.
“What Dirk Nowitzki used to be, Dennis is now,” Herbert said. “He found his identity, took over, became MVP.” Schröder turns 30 on Friday – it’s quite possible that his already strong NBA career will now really take off again.
Fruit and Bonga with NBA potential
Daniel Theis also played his way back into the spotlight. He had had a bad season with the Indiana Pacers with hardly any playing time, but now he was convincing, not least against the USA. It’s hard to imagine that the 31-year-old will languish on the bench for another year.
The NBA scouts probably noted at least the names Andreas Obst and Isaac Bonga after the semifinals. Shooter Obst excelled against the USA with 24 points, including an extremely important three-pointer in the final phase. And Bonga crushed the US hopes in crunch time with a monster block. Obst (27) and Bonga (23) are under contract with FC Bayern, and it would be Bonga’s second attempt in North America.
More NBA players than ever before
And then there is Franz Wagner, the second big star alongside Schröder. At the age of 22, he already plays an outstanding role for the Orlando Magic and is likely to shape German basketball for years to come – with his older brother Moritz (26) at his side.
Some US basketball experts may still underestimate the World Cup, but the 2023 edition has once again confirmed that other countries, especially from Europe, have caught up and the USA will probably no longer be able to win a World Cup title with a B team. 55 NBA professionals were there, spread across many countries, more than ever before.