Dennis Schröder is driven by ambition, the captain of the German basketball team “can’t lose. It’s gotten better over the years, but before, no matter what we played, basketball, table tennis, cards – I always had to win. Always”, said Schröder in the current issue 04/22 of Sports Illustrated“I could only go home when I had won.”
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From Thursday, the 28-year-old will compete with the national team at the European Championships at home. He is a key player in the squad and should go ahead. For him, the fact that he is in this position is due to his attitude. “You have to have this winning mentality in order to be successful in competitive sport,” said Schröder. She “brought him to where I am now”.
Schröder, son of a German father and a Gambian mother, also sees himself as a role model because of the color of his skin. “Without wanting to sound funny: Of course, the name ‘Dennis Schröder’ makes you think of a white man with blue eyes,” said the long-time NBA professional: “But I was never denied anything. And I think a lot of black guys have started basketball because of me.”
Schröder deliberately spends most of the summer in Germany. America is just “a bit more superficial, the mentality is more like this: live for the moment.” On the other hand, “things are quieter in Germany. That’s why it’s extremely important for me to be in Germany again and again. Just to relax. But overall it’s a great mix for me to live in both countries.”
He sometimes feels misunderstood in his home country. “In Germany, many don’t know me and the American mentality. People look at me on Instagram and ask themselves: ‘What is he posting there?’, but at the same time you are celebrated for exactly that in the USA,” says Schröder: “Of course I am self-confident. I stand by the fact that I’ve achieved something. Whether that has anything to do with arrogance, I don’t know.”
