Driver + Kaman couldn t beat us in 2008. Why can Germany win the double European Championships in the World Cup?

In the 2025 Men's Basketball European Championship final, Germany defeated Turkey 88-83, and won the European Championship again after 32 years, becoming the fourth team in history to win the Men's Basketball World Cup (2023) and European Championship championships at the same time.

Schroder has won the MVP of the Men's Basketball World Cup and European Championships in a row, leading the German men's basketball team to achieve success in the last four FIBA ​​competitions: third place in the 2022 European Championships, champion in the 2023 World Cup, fourth place in the 2024 Paris Olympics, and champion in the 2025 European Championships. He is as strong as the peak Dirk Nowitzki failed to achieve his double championship in the World Cup + European Championships in his entire national team career (1997-2016). Schroder, now 32 years old, has actually done it!

So can we draw the conclusion that Schroeder's personal strength > Nowitzky? The answer is obviously no. The only thing we can be sure of is that Nowitzki did not catch up with the era of the best strength of the German men's basketball team. Since 2022, the German men's basketball team has truly ushered in its golden generation!

The German men's basketball team in the Nowitzky era was full of personal heroic tragic colors, and the German men's basketball team in the Schroeder era was truly the soldiers of the whole nation.

I believe everyone remembers the key battle in the group stage of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, when the Chinese men's basketball team narrowly defeated Germany 59-55 and entered the quarterfinals of the Olympics. Yao Ming scored 25 points and 11 rebounds, Nowitzki scored 24 points and 17 rebounds, and the ace performance was evenly matched, but naturalized center Chris Kaman was completely defeated by Yao Ming. German outside players made only 3 of 19 three-pointers in total, and the overall strength of the German men's basketball team was even worse than that of the 2008 Chinese men's basketball team.

The best results of the German men's basketball team in the era of peak drivers were the bronze medal in the 2002 World Championships and the runner-up in the 2005 European Championships. Nowitzki won the 2005 European Championships MVP with an average of 26.2 points per game. Although he could play core performance, due to the depth of the lineup, the German men's basketball team had never won the international championship in the era of Dirk.

Schroder averaged 19.1 points and 6.1 assists per game in the 2023 World Cup. He averaged 17.2 points and 7.5 assists per game in the 2024 Olympics to win fourth place. He averaged 20.3 points and 7.2 assists per game in this European Championship and led the team to win 9 games and averaged 24 points per game. He couldn't even imagine in the Dirk era.

In the final of this European Championship, Schroeder made 5 of 11 shots and 1 of 3 three-pointers, contributing 16 points, 3 rebounds and 12 assists to lead the team to win the championship. I believe everyone has noticed his assists, with 12 assists setting a new record in the European Championship finals in the past 30 years, which indirectly reflects Germany's overall lineup strength.

Türkiye has to pay a heavy price to assist Schroeder in assisting defense and attacking him. Holding down the gourd and floating, the whole German men's basketball team is soldier.

In this European Championship, Germany won all 9 games, with a net victory over his opponents by 24 points per game. The overall strength is undoubtedly the leading position in this event. Talent is the foundation for the German men's basketball team to win the World Cup and European Championships.

Schroeder first represented the German men's basketball team in the European Championships in September 2015. At that time, he was only 22 years old. He was the first and last time in his national team's career, and nowt to partner with Nowitzki. The 2015 European Championship was the curtain call of Nowitzki's national team's career. The 37-year-old driver officially announced his withdrawal from the national team on January 25, 2016.

After the veteran driver retired from the national team, Schroeder officially secured the starting point guard position in the fourth year of his time with the Hawks, and averaged 17.9 points and 6.3 assists per game. As the biggest and most capable player in the NBA, Schroeder naturally took over the veteran driver's national team leader Torch.

On July 20, 2022, the German men's basketball team officially announced the 16-man roster of the European Championship, which is a symbol of the true rise of the German men's basketball team in the "post-Nowitzky era". The German men's basketball team won the third place in the 2022 European Championships. Although they failed to win the championship, they laid the main framework and system style of the national team in the future, laying a solid foundation for the future World Cup and European Championships to win the championship.

After the veteran driver retired, Daniel Thes and Vogtmann, Schroeder in 1993, Andreas Obst in 1996, Moritz Wagner in 1997, Banga in 1999, Franz Wagner in 2001 and Tristan da Silva in 2001 entered the national team one after another. The German men's basketball team has truly ushered in a period of qualitative change in the golden generation.

While vigorously developing local leagues, the German Basketball Association encourages young people to go out for further studies.

Schroeder, Bonga, Vogtmann and Obst are all excellent players trained by their national leagues, while Wagner Brothers and Tristan Da Silva have NCAA experience. There are 6 people in the German men's basketball team's complete roster now that have competed in the NBA. The player's ability fundamentally determines the overall strength of the German men's basketball team!

The German men's basketball team has a top five-for-one lineup, and each player has a clear division of labor positioning. The system plays perfectly in line with the trend of modern basketball development today.

Thes, Wagner Jr., Banga, Obst and Schroeder, these five-man groups are basically the best five-man groups to dominate the 2023 World Cup and the 2025 European Championships. Five of them have three-point shooting ranges, except Obst, who have NBA experience, Schroeder is the absolute core leader of the German men's basketball team, Thes is a qualified space-type insider, Banga is the top 3D of this European Championship, and high-quality shooter Obst beat Halliburton in the 2023 World Cup semi-finals to eliminate the US men's basketball team.

Careful friends will find that the German men's basketball team has a top five-forward pick-and-roll configuration, Schroder is a big core with the ball, Wagner Jr. plays the second attacker with the ball, Tees, Bonga, and Obst all play without the ball, and do not occupy the ball's rights. Everyone's positioning and division of labor are extremely clear. There are a number of rotational players such as Da Silva, Timan, Ronaldo, and Horaz on the bench to ensure depth. FIBA ​​does not have the advantage of defending for three seconds. It can use regional collective defense to protect single-defense weaknesses to the greatest extent and are not named or misplaced frequently. This is very friendly to the space-type team with the five Germans with shooting ability.

In this European Championship, the German scorer group performed very well: Theis averaged 3-point shooting percentage of 44.4% (37.5% in the 2020 Olympics), Obst 46.2% (44.7% in the 2020 World Cup), Banga 45.2% (42.9% in the 2020 World Cup), Ronaldo 46.7% (43.8% in the 2020 World Cup), Timan 36.4% (40% in the 2020 World Cup), Tristan da Silva 52.9% - Such a top scorer group is combined with Schroeder and Wagner Jr.'s hard solution and instigation ability, which is terrifying to think about it carefully.

Schroeder and Wagner Jr. have dual cores, lineup depth, and overall shooting ability. The success of the German men's basketball team is by no means accidental.

The success of the German men's basketball team in recent years is essentially a talent renaissance. Since the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the German league has trained Thes, Schroeder, Banga, Obst, Vogtmann, Timan, etc., and Wagner Brothers and Tristan Da Silva have studied in the United States and scored into the NBA from the NCAA. Obviously, Germany's 2023 Men's Basketball World Cup and the 2025 European Championships are inseparable from talent reserves.

Ten years of growth, a hundred years of talent, and a country with strong talents, is the same in the field of basketball. Youth training and talents have always been the fundamental guarantee of comprehensive competitiveness.