Dennis Schröder does not come at all, the Berlin championship players only come on Sunday. At the Supercup in Hamburg, national coach Henrik Rödl has to improvise a lot in preparation for the Olympic qualification.
Does he come, does he come later, does he not come at all? The wait for NBA star Dennis Schröder is slowly but surely taking on strange traits. “We don’t have complete clarity yet,” said national coach Henrik Rödl shortly before the Supercup in Hamburg, the German Basketball Association (DBB) still doesn’t know when to expect the 27-year-old. Then there is the unnecessary fuss about Joshiko Saibou’s calling.
Actually, the already short preparation for the Olympic qualification in Split / Croatia (June 29th to July 4th) is about getting used to it, trying out tactical things. Not that easy when there is a lot of background noise and the director is missing. So far, only one thing is clear: Schröder will not be in the Supercup at the weekend.
“The situation with Dennis is that of course he wants to and can join us as soon as he can. We have not yet decided exactly when that will be,” said Rödl. He did not want to answer the question about Schröder’s whereabouts, but emphasized: “We are in very close contact with him.”
What is holding up Schröder (Los Angeles Lakers) is completely unclear. “He might join the team in Heidelberg,” said Rödl. There the DBB selection contests their dress rehearsal against Senegal on June 24th. If the point guard is missing there, too, he would appear in Split without prior deployment.
But that’s not all. Niels Giffey, Maodo Lo and Johannes Thiemann from the old and new German champions Alba Berlin got free after the Bundesliga final and will only travel to Hamburg on Sunday. The trio will then start team training in Heidelberg. Means: a test game.
Do the personnel problems interfere with the preparation? “Very,” said Center Johannes Voigtmann: “We had the mindset: Who is there, is there. That is of course not ideal. But what should we do?”
DBB: “Made big mistakes”
On Friday the Supercup will kick off against the Czech Republic, on Saturday against Tunisia, possible opponents from the semi-finals at the qualifying tournament in Croatia. At the end on Sunday, the DBB team is then challenged against Italy (every 8:30 p.m.).
“We have a very top-class tournament,” said Rödl: “The Tunisians are in our group, so it’s a more explosive match than usual.” It was “clear to him that the preparation was very, very short”. That is why the importance of the tournament is increasing.
Lots of construction sites, but by no means all. There was plenty of criticism because of the nomination of Saibou, who had shaken heads the previous year with participation in demos against the anti-corona measures and crude theses.
“We made big mistakes as an association,” said DBB Vice President Armin Andres: “You can’t wipe that away. We would like to apologize for that.” The state of affairs and the scope were “somewhat underestimated”.
Saibou had spoken the day before with a video. “It is important to me to say that I do not doubt the existence of Corona and have never doubted it,” said the 31-year-old in a message that the DBB published on Twitter.
“Opinion ends somewhere,” said Voigtmann about the affair. “Joshiko got lost in things.” If there is a relapse, “I’ll be out of the national team,” said Voigtmann: “Or he’ll be kicked out.”
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