Forget Paris.
Germany’s basketball team may have just missed out on a medal at the Paris 2024 Olympics, but when it comes to European competition, they are kings.
If you think Dennis Schröder and the rest of his German counterparts dropped the ball last year, like when he turned down that big Lakers contract, think again.
Your EuroBasket MVP, and Sacramento star, has just taken his country to the top of the tournament mountain, cooking Turkey.
This is only two calendars after Deutschland won the FIBA World Cup. Coming fourth behind Team USA, the host nation, and Serbia’s bronze in France is nothing to sniff at.
As a matter of fact, that’s past now anyway, so wipe your nose off and look up at the Jumbotron.
Germany 88, Turkey 83.
Schröder (16 points, 12 assists) was so clutch in this contest, that cowbells could be heard from California. Lighting his own beam at the Xiaomi Arena in Riga, Latvia.
All to give Germany is first gold in EuroBasket since 1993. The year Dennis The Menace was born. Remarkably, as this is written in the Japanese time zone, on this very day.
What better way to celebrate his birthday?! Many happy returns, Dennis.
“To be a World Cup winner and a European champion, that’s big time,” the champion told the press, post-game.
Don’t forget, Most Valuable Player. Forget that Hollywood contract. Dennis Schröder has just punched his ticket to Springfield.
Yet, it wasn’t just him. To know European basketball is to know that the Wagner brothers (Franz and Moritz (absent)) are chasing down the legend of Pau and Marc Gasol.
Alongside Franz Wagner’s 18, Isaac Bonga also bounced in a team-high 20 points, including many big buckets, as Germany refused to give up the ghost in a close contest.
“You realize how hard you work for this. As a child you dream of hitting these baskets in such a match,” Isaac remarked afterwards. “It felt like a school trip with your best friends.”
They say school days are the best days of your life, but maybe these are. These friends for life will always remember each other in memories that glitter like the gold that now adorns their chest, swelling with pride of place on the podium.
Fifteen lead changes and eleven ties highlighted a game which showed Turkey underlined their own names on the silver medal, that means anything but “first loser”.
Alperen Sengun had 28 points, Cedi Osman, 23, and Shane Larkin also added 13 points, nine assists and six boards. Sengun missed a key three before Schröder won the game from the line. But when it all came down to it, the amazing Alperen could not be blamed after the tourney of his career journey.
Elsewhere, the great Greece took bronze over a fantastic Finland side led by Lauri Markkanen (19 points, 10 rebounds), as Giannis Antetokounmpo (30 points, 17 rebounds, six assists, two blocks) gave a stirring speech post-game to rival his “no failure in sports” press conference. The Milwaukee Buck legend and NBA champion called his country’s first medal since 2009, “probably one of the biggest accomplishments that (he’s) ever accomplished as an athlete.”
THIS is how important Euro basketball is.
In a terrific tournament, from a slimmed down Luka Dončić scoring and scorching, completing the ‘All-Star Five’, to Bonga’s big blocks as the ‘Best Defensive Player’, EuroBasket showed just how epic it was on the world’s biggest stage.
Last week’s Hall of Fame gave us a celebration of what was. If you’re just tuning in, you’ve missed a coronation of what IS.
This is the new Champions League.
