Dirk Nowitzki must be mentioned at this point. Because Isaiah Hartenstein from the German Basketball star speaks as inspiration. As a huge orientation for the 2011 fourteen -year -old. At that time, Nowitzki was the first German to win the championship in the American professional league NBA, the club World Cup title, as not only the Americans like to claim as confident.
Hartenstein, the Schlacks, discovered in Quakenbrück on TV near Nowitzki’s triumph with the Dallas Mavericks, “that I can do it”. No sooner said than done. In the night of Monday, after the decisive victory of the Oklahoma City Thunder, he was the second German over the Indiana Pacers, who can put the monstrous championship ring on a finger. The greeting was not a long way off: “Thank you Dirk”.
This story does not fit completely into the picture
The role model story is part of the wonderful success story. But it does not fit completely into the picture. Because in contrast to Nowitzki, Hartenstein does not feel “from many” in Germany. Because he reveals a gap in his international statistics at the age of 27: 19, only 19 in eight years since his debut. Hartenstein neither appeared in the Olympic selection of 2024, nor in the World Cup team (2023) or the European Championship ensemble from 2022. After his first, convincing appearances, he was no longer seen.
Why does a national coach do without a 2.13 meter long, 113 kilogram professionals with a winning mentality? Because Hartenstein, the impression from the distance, does not follow his role model in everything. Nowitzki had already completed six EM tournaments with qualifications and a World Cup in the German selection at the same age. In 2008 he led the compatriots with joy to the Olympic Games, almost always ready for 18 years, despite all the pain. No national coach who was not enthusiastic about the commitment of the Würzburg, from his manager.
The fact that Hartenstein did not join in was due to the demand of the national coach Gordon Herbert, who has meanwhile been switched to Bavaria. In terms of the development of the team into a conspiratorial bunch in the best sense, he asked for a kind of alliance obligation for three years. Hartenstein couldn’t get through for this. Will he take part in the European Championship in autumn? “No idea (…)”, the German Press Agency quoted him after winning the NBA title, “Let’s see.”
And yet it would be too simple to stamp the son of an American and a German as a fatherlandless journeyman. Hartenstein has had to work hard in the Oklahoma team for years. Like Nowitzki, he wasn’t worn according to Dallas at the time and was considered the central figure of a team, around which everything was built up. The two are the same long, but Hartenstein had to fight for his size Peu á peu. It was not until 2022, five years after his first NBA mission, that he established himself as a full member of the NBA elite at the New York Knicks. In winter he showed his closeness to the German scene as an investor at the Bundesliga club Ulm. The choice of his path leaves two conclusions: Isaiah Hartenstein has done everything right and now scope to follow his model on another level. In the 2020/2011 season, Nowitzki played 112 games until he became the last NBA champion. He took part in the EM three months later.
