Germany national basketball team

History

The team is the successor of the West Germany national basketball team, the basketball side that represented West Germany in international competition. Between 1955 and 1973, Germany temporarily competed with an East German national basketball team as well.

EuroBasket 1951

The first German presence in the European basketball championships was at EuroBasket 1951 in Paris. West Germany finished the preliminary round with a 1–2 record, third place in their group. They were again 1–2 in the first classification round, but this combined with a three-way tie-breaker put them second in that group. They then lost the classification 9–12 and 11/12 games to finish 12th place of 18 teams.

EuroBasket 1953

West Germany competed again at the EuroBasket 1953 in Moscow. Their 1–2 record in preliminary pool play put them third in their four-team group, relegating them to the classification rounds. In the first round, they again took 3rd of 4 with a 1–2 record. They then beat Lebanon 58–56 in the 13–16 semifinals to advance to the 13/14 game, in which they were defeated by Romania.

EuroBasket 1955

At the EuroBasket 1955 in Budapest, West Germany again was 1–2 in the preliminary round, taking third place of the four-team group to be relegated to the classification tournament. They won one game in the first classification round, losing 3 to take fifth place of the five-team group despite having scored exactly as many points as their opponents over the course of the four games. Their final game was a match-up against Denmark for 17th place, which West Germany won 51–49.

EuroBasket 1957

West Germany competed in Sofia for the EuroBasket 1957. They had no success in the preliminary round, losing all three decisions. They were relegated to the classification round, in which they were able to gather a few victories. They finished the round in the fifth position at 3–4, taking 13th place overall.

A "new" competitor

At the EuroBasket 1959, East Germany's national basketball team entered the tournament when their counterpart from West Germany did not qualify. Altogether, East Germany's team only qualified for the EuroBasket five times. Ironically, they finished better than West Germany every time.

After German reunification

Until the German reunification in 1990, the team played as the West Germany national basketball team. In decades of competitive basketball, West Germany only had moderate success with a few strong showings in the 1980s. This was because in that time, the NBA made it near-impossible for German internationals to play on both their NBA teams and the national team. For this reason, important players like Detlef Schrempf, Uwe Blab or Christian Welp often were unavailable in big tournaments.

An unexpected title

The win of the 1993 edition of the European Championship at home in Germany, thanks to superb clutch play of tournament MVP Welp (who had returned from the USA), came totally unexpected. The team won the election to "Team of the Year" by the German press. There was a huge wave of enthusiasm, but arguably due to lack of infrastructure and professionalism, tangible results were rare. German basketball stayed in the shadows, the next generation of youth shunning the native league while being glued to the NBA with Michael Jordan. For the next three EuroBaskets, the national team did not come close to repeat the success.

The Nowitzki era

But then, German basketball got a lucky break when a lanky youth named Dirk Nowitzki tried his luck with the Dallas Mavericks and became a superstar. He created new enthusiasm for basketball in Germany, and in his slipstream, the national team had a renaissance.

In 2001, Germany played Turkey and was one second away from the final, when Turkey nailed a buzzer beater to send the game into overtime. Turkey won, and demoralized Germany lost the third-place match and ended fourth.

However, success at last came in 2002, when Nowitzki inspired Germany to win the bronze medal at the 2002 edition of the FIBA Basketball World Cup. Nowitzki was also named MVP of that tourney.

One year later, however, the team suffered its worst setback in years. In the EuroBasket 2003, which was also the qualifier for the 2004 Olympic Games, the talented, but inexperienced team blundered through a tournament, blowing late-game leads with appalling anti-clutch play. Germany was eliminated early and failed to qualify for the Olympics.

Before the EuroBasket 2005, expectations were not too high. The German roster was depleted by injury, and remembering the disaster of two years ago, nobody dared to dream of a medal. However, an inspired Dirk Nowitzki powered the team into the finals, eliminating favourites like Spain and Slovenia on its way. In the finals, the team was blown out by Greece, but Nowitzki was named MVP again, and the team won the election to "Team of the Year" by the German press again.

In the 2006 FIBA World Championship in Saitama, Germany won most of its first-round matches, only losing to Spain. In the knock-out phase, Germany fought a tough match versus underdogs Nigeria, ending in a 78–77 win when Nigerian star Ime Udoka missed a last-second layup. In the quarter-finals, Germany played top favorite USA, and managed to play an excellent first half, trailing only 39–41. However, led by Carmelo Anthony, the USA outplayed Germany 20–8 in the third quarter and won 65–85. In the consolation round, Germany lost 73–75 against France, losing a lead in the last 18 seconds with two turnovers.

Germany qualified for the Summer Olympics 2008 in Beijing by taking the final spot with the third place in the qualification tournament in Athens, Greece.

Nowitzki's later years and retirement

Two years later, Germany qualified for the 2010 FIBA World Championship as a wild card. They were eliminated from the competition following an overtime game with Angola, and would finish with a 2-3 record, beating Serbia and Jordan. At the EuroBasket 2011, Germany qualified for the second round with wins over Israel, Italy and Latvia, but in the second round they only managed a win over Turkey, losing to Spain and Lithuania, and failed to reach the knockout stage. Nowitzki competed in both these tournaments and announced his retirement from the team following the 2011 EuroBasket.

Following an unbeaten qualifying campaign, Germany participated in EuroBasket 2013. Drawn in Group A, they kicked off the tournament with a surprise win over France (who would later go on to win the tournament), but then suffered losses to Ukraine, Belgium and Great Britain, the latter two eliminating them from contention. They won their final game over Israel 80-76 but it was not enough, France, Ukraine and Belgium qualified from the group.

Nowitzki's return

Germany then qualified for the next edition of the EuroBasket in 2015, despite a turbulent qualification which saw two defeats to Poland. In September, following qualification, Germany was announced as one of the four new hosts of the tournament following the relocation from Ukraine. In the same month, Dirk Nowitzki announced that he would come out of retirement to play for the team in this tournament. The team was drawn into the Group B, seen by many as the "Group of Death", with Spain, Italy, Turkey, Serbia and Iceland.

Current roster

Roster for the EuroBasket 2015.

International influence

In Germany, professional basketball is known for developing players whose parents or grandparents are immigrants. The national team routinely uses many players who have family roots in Africa, Eastern Europe, United States or others, but have grown up in Germany, speak fluent German and are native Germans by law. The last point is especially important, as the new FIBA rules prevent the use of more than one "naturalized" citizen per country. Famous examples of these allochtonous players are:

While most German players develop through the club system, several players over the years have played U.S. college basketball. Past and present national team players who have done so include:

Centers

Forwards

Guards

Head Coach history

source

Past rosters

Manufacturer

2014, 2015: Peak

Sponsor

2014, 2015: ING DiBa