Already at the beginning of the next medal mission, national coach Gordon Herbert gets enthusiastic when he talks about young basketball star Franz Wagner.
“He has a lot of influence on our game. With him and Dennis we can have a two-headed monster,” said the 64-year-old after the second win in the second test of the World Cup summer. The only 21-year-old Wagner and the experienced captain Dennis Schröder (29) steered the game 86:81 against Canada cleverly and kept their nerves in crucial situations. A good two weeks before the start of the World Cup in Okinawa, Japan, the next endurance test is already waiting on Saturday in Hamburg against China.
With self-confidence to the World Cup
Even before that, the German Basketball Federation surprisingly extended Herbert’s contract prematurely. The Canadian will remain head coach until at least after the EM 2025, as the association president Ingo Weiss announced in a media round. “Gordie got known very quickly and said: He enjoys it and he wants it,” said Weiss: “It’s important to me that we go a long way together.” According to Weiss, it’s not out of the question that Herbert will even stays longer: “If it’s up to me, we will continue to work together. Continuity brings success at the end of the day.”
After bronze at the European Championships last year, there should again be a medal in Asia. A concentrated success at the end against World Cup favorite Canada gives self-confidence. Top scorer Wagner scored 18 points on Wednesday in his native city of Berlin. It was also a special emotional performance, because on his father’s birthday he and his brother Moritz Wagner stood on the Spree for the first time together in the national jersey. “It was very, very cool. I got goosebumps a few times walking out here,” Wagner said.
“The win was secondary at first,” said the versatile pro of the NBA’s Orlando Magic. “We played relatively well, it looked really good in the first half. The second was very instructive for us.” Nevertheless, there is still a lot to do to be able to keep up with the heavyweights at the World Championships from August 25th. “We only have three training sessions and four games before flying to Japan. We have to use the games to get in the right form,” demanded Herbert.
Da Silva and scratches deleted
On Thursday he deleted two players from the squad in Oscar da Silva (FC Barcelona) and Leon Krat (Paris Basketball) and quickly committed himself to his twelve-man squad for the World Cup with four NBA professionals. It came as a bit of a surprise that this even happened before the Supercup in Hamburg, where it could go up against Canada a second time on Sunday. A game against New Zealand is also possible at the end for the DBB selection. There will be further friendlies next week against gold favorites USA and Greece in Abu Dhabi.
A solid axis around Schröder, the Wagner brothers and Daniel Theis from the Indiana Pacers, who is also under contract in the NBA, is already establishing itself. Bayern’s Andreas Obst was also an important factor on offense with five three-point shots against Canada. “For us it’s about winning as a team. It doesn’t matter who scores points in the end,” said Theis. After surviving an injury, the 31-year-old is in better shape than he has been in years, said the native of Lower Saxony: “I had four months to prepare myself with fitness and nutrition. I put that to good use.”
Long way to the medal
Against China, weak phases like at the beginning of the second half against Canada should be avoided in the next step of the preparation. “Play more consistently” is the goal, said Theis: “The details are more important than the result.” Even national coach Herbert is not that important in preparation, he wants to see progress in the game. “We still have a long way to go,” Herbert said when asked if there would be a German medal this summer: “Most people are already in good shape, but we still have to get them into the right basketball shape .”
2023-08-10 15:45:00
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