Basketball
From dpa
January 17, 2024, 5:15 a.m. Reading time: 1 minute
ARCHIVE – The German World Cup fairy tale still feels a bit unreal for Franz Wagner.
Photo: Darron Cummings/AP/dpa
Berlin (dpa). Regardless of the German national team’s surprising World Cup triumph, world champion Franz Wagner recognizes the increased importance of European basketball in the NBA.
This is “now very high” in North America, said the Orlando Magic professional in an interview with the “Augsburger Allgemeine”. “Today, three of the absolute top players in this league are from Europe,” Wagner added: “When you come in as a young player, as was the case with me personally, you feel a certain respect right from the start.”
But Germany’s World Cup victory didn’t really make a big impact in the NBA, Wagner reported. He “honestly doesn’t really believe that the Americans know exactly what actually happened at the World Cup.” “They do their own thing, look more at the NBA and can therefore claim, for example, that their best players weren’t there at the World Cup – but ultimately we Germans don’t care at all about that.”
The German World Cup fairytale still feels a bit unreal for the Berlin native. “The fact that we won the world championship title at the end can hardly be described in words,” said the 22-year-old: “I therefore think that this feeling about what we achieved in the summer of 2023 will last for many years to come. »
© dpa-infocom, dpa:240117-99-641303/2
2024-01-17 04:16:02
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