The enthusiastic applause of the well-travelled fans made Dennis Schröder and his colleagues smile. And the captain of the previously flawless German basketball team knew which World Cup announcement he could use to further heat up the atmosphere.
“I hope we can take something big home with us. That’s the big goal. I hope you’re all there,” said the 29-year-old in the coastal town of Chatan on the island of Okinawa to around 35 fans. Afterwards, the professionals signed autographs and were available for photo requests.
Rest day well used
The national team had already made good use of the morning hours on the completely free Wednesday. After a yoga session together, the professionals made themselves comfortable on the beach on the Japanese holiday island – the sea and the palm trees, beautifully illuminated in the darkness, are less than five minutes away from the ideally located team hotel. “The rest days are very important, as well as going out to eat with the team and spending a bit of time together,” said Schröder after the perfect preliminary round in the most difficult of all World Cup groups.
Although there is no play on Thursday before the intermediate round that begins on Friday, national coach Gordon Herbert will again play a key role. “We need good training,” announced the Canadian. Slovenia with superstar Luka Doncic and Georgia should be stronger opponents on the way to the finals in Manila than the physically inferior Japanese and the already eliminated Finns.
Herbert hopes for a Wagner comeback
Herbert, who is hoping for a quick comeback from the still ailing Franz Wagner, is becoming more and more offensive after the dream start. When the national coach was asked about the typhoon in Okinawa predicted for Friday, he replied with humor and a lot of self-confidence: “I heard about it. I don’t know if we have anything in our hands. One should come on Friday, hopefully it will be We hit the typhoon on Friday evening.” At the beginning of August, a typhoon killed two people on the southern island of Japan. The world association Fiba is already issuing warnings.
Germany’s basketball players have been familiar with unplanned adversities since the rocket alarm sounded one day before the start of the World Cup. “We’ve already had a disturbance of the peace at night. Something like that can’t stop us,” said point guard Justus Hollatz, who is a symbol of the deep squad of the Germans. It’s no longer just the front row around Schröder, Daniel Theis and the two Wagner brothers Franz and Moritz. The bank around Hollatz and Johannes Thiemann is getting better and better at the tournament.
Impressive World Cup appearances
The impressive appearances at the World Cup mean that Germany is increasingly becoming one of the tournament favourites. Finland’s coach Lassi Tuovi named the third-placed in the European Championship after his team’s 75:101 defeat as a top candidate for the title. “You can make it to the very end,” said Tuovi. Steve Kerr had already made a similar statement after his US team had a lot of trouble with the 99:91 in Abu Dhabi. It is “clear that Germany is one of the best teams in the world,” Kerr told dpa. The achievements at the World Cup in Japan prove this impressively.
Schröder and Co. have to do without a lucky charm in the intermediate round: Dirk Nowitzki left Okinawa after watching the victories over Australia and Finland from the front row of the arena. But a quick World Cup reunion is possible: Nowitzki should be there again in his capacity as ambassador of the world association in the final round in Manila.
