The German basketball players have to do without the two NBA professionals Maximilian Kleber and Isaac Bonga at the home European Championships in Cologne and Berlin.
Both are not part of the 16-man extended squad of national coach Gordon Herbert, which the German Basketball Association announced on Tuesday. The winger Bonga, who is looking for a club, is injured and, according to the association, is missing due to an operation.
Kleber of the Dallas Mavericks said: “After two exhausting years shaped by the pandemic with only short summer breaks, I will use this summer to get a break mentally and physically.” There has been an opportunity to do so for the first time since the summer of 2019. “Although I would very much like to play for the national team, I made the difficult decision not to play the European Championship this summer,” said Kleber.
EM course starts at the beginning of August
The squad is led by NBA point guard Dennis Schröder, NBA talent Franz Wagner and captain Robin Benzing.
The course for the European Championships (September 1st to 18th) begins on August 6th in Cologne. Then there are international matches against Belgium and the Netherlands as well as the Supercup in Hamburg and two World Cup qualifiers in Sweden and against Slovenia for NBA star Luka Doncic. Coach Herbert has to reduce his squad from the current 16 players to twelve players.
The extended German squad for the EM preparation
Robin Benzing (Fortitudo Bologna), Niels Giffey (Zalgiris Kaunas), Justus Hollatz (CB Breogan), David Kramer (Basketball Löwen Braunschweig), Leon Kramer (Telekom Baskets Bonn), Maodo Lo (Alba Berlin), Andreas Obst (FC Bayern Munich ), Kenneth Ogbe (EWE Baskets Oldenburg), Dennis Schröder (Free Agent), Christian Sengfelder (Brose Bamberg), Daniel Theis (Indiana Pacers), Johannes Thiemann (Alba Berlin), Johannes Voigtmann (CSKA Moscow), Franz Wagner (Orlando Magic ), Moritz Wagner (Orlando Magic), Jonas Wohlfarth-Bottermann (Hamburg Towers).
dpa
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