Canada’s defense often made things difficult for the DBB team, but captain Dennis Schröder (below) found good solutions in the end.
Foto: imago/camera4+
It’s September 3, 2019, just before 7 p.m. at Bay Sports Center in Shenzhen. Last attack: Danilo Barthel is still behind the three-point line. The center has such distance shots in its repertoire, but it is definitely not the safest option for the German basketball players with a deficit of 68:70 against the second World Cup group opponent from the Dominican Republic. Nevertheless, the star of the team, Dennis Schröder, passes the ball to Munich. Barthel’s shot clearly misses its target, and the selection of the German Basketball Association (DBB) is suddenly out of the World Cup in China, which should have been at the birth of that new, highly talented generation. Instead, disappointment, helplessness. This moment, this whole summer, is analyzed a hundred times over the following years. Whether the right conclusions were drawn from this will be decided now at the latest, four years later, when the next World Cup is due in two weeks.
The narrow 86:81 win against NBA-experienced Canadians on Wednesday evening in Berlin could be a first indication that the DBB entourage has learned something new. The result is »just of secondary importance«, as the best German long-range shooter Andreas Obst explains afterwards. “Of course you always want to win, but we want to see progress now and recognize things that we still need to improve on. And that’s what we have today.« Obst was already there in 2019, but was only allowed to play for a total of 21 minutes in five World Cup games. At 27 he is now an important part of the team. The most important thing for him and the rest of the team is that you have these strong opponents in front of you before you go into a big tournament.
Four years ago it was very different. Germany tested against Sweden, the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Tunisia and Japan – all of them second-class at best. Almost every game was won big, just not against Japan. Only the last test opponent, Australia, was of a high standard, but nobody wanted to get injured shortly before the tournament. The intention was clear: a young German team with a lot of talent should be built psychologically with many victories. The problem, as the analysis later showed, was that the World Cup opponents suddenly offered much more resistance and Germany was not prepared for it. All the talent didn’t help against hidden fouls, annoying pushing or questionable refereeing decisions. The DBB players had not learned to hold back when things got tight. And so they failed when just that was asked.
The German national basketball team of 2023 no longer needs self-confidence. She got enough of that a year ago when she won the bronze medal at the European Championships in front of her home crowd. “We know that we can beat anyone,” confirms the Alba Berlins center Johannes Thiemann upon returning to the EM arena in Berlin. What is needed are tenacious opponents to learn how to compete at world level in tight games and earn a medal at the tournament in Japan, the Philippines and Indonesia, which starts in two weeks’ time. The success against the Canadians could have been worth a lot.
This time there are no supporting actors, but the NBA stars Dennis Schröder, Franz and Moritz Wagner, who take responsibility with the last eleven points in the final phase after the Canadians, thanks to intensive defense, closed an 18-point deficit in the second half shortly before the have balanced at the end. “The second half was very instructive for us. That’s what these tests are all about. Not about beating teams with 30 points,” says Franz Wagner later. »An opponent like that is very important for us. Here we can learn to be ready when it matters at the World Cup.«
Is the team ready for the medal now? National coach Gordon Herbert immediately dismisses this: “Not yet, we have a long way to go. It was a really good first half but then we lost all our momentum in five minutes. If you give that to good teams like Canada because you play carelessly, that’s dangerous.”
At least: The weak phase was overcome this time. The DBB team now knows its strengths and how to play to them. With tough defense and the Wagner-Schröder duo in attack. “We stopped her run and played our basketball again,” says Johannes Thiemann. “That’s exactly what we can expect at the World Cup. Enemies will be hot. In this respect, this is the best training. We have taken a step forward.«
The others are to be made in the five following preparatory games. At the Supercup in Hamburg, the team meets China and then either New Zealand or Canada again. At a stopover in Abu Dhabi, which is certainly lucrative for the association but rather questionable in terms of regeneration and ecological sustainability, it is then against Greece and the US basketball stars from the NBA. It can’t get any harder at the World Cup.
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