The for men is the basketball side that represents
Germany in international competitions. Their biggest successes are the victory in the
European Championship of
1993 at home in Germany, the silver medal in the
2005 European Championships and the
Bronze Medal in the
2002 FIBA World Championship .
The team is the successor of the West Germany national basketball team,the
Basketball side that represented
West Germany in international competition.
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.
West Germany competed again at the
Eurobasket 1953 in
Moscow . Their 1-2 record in preliminary pool play put them 3rd in their four-team group, relegating them to the classifiation 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 .
At
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 5-team group despite having scored exactly as many points as their opponents over the course of the four games. Their final game was a matchup against
Denmark for 17th place, which West Germany won 51-49.
West Germany competed in
Sofia for
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.
Until the German reunification in
1990 , the team played as the West Germany national basketball team. (Basketball was not a popular sport in
East Germany ). In decades of competitive basketball, West Germany never had much success, partly also because in that time, the
NBA made it near-impossible for German internationals to play in 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.
The win of the
1993 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 . The national team never came close to repeat the success.
But then, German basketball got a lucky break when a lanky youth called
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 small final and ended an unlucky fourth.
However, success at last came in
2002 , when Nowitzki inspired Germany to win the bronze medal in the
2002 World Championships . Nowitzki was also named
MVP of this 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 , the 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 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 lucky 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 , USA outplayed Germany 20-8 in the third quarter and at last won 65-85. In the consolation round, Germany lost 73-75 against France, choking a lead in the last 18 seconds with two easy turnovers.
In Germany, professional basketball is known for developing players whose parents or grandparents are immigrants. The national team routinely uses many players who have roots in
Africa ,
Eastern Europe ,
America 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 allochtone players are:
- : Stephan Arigbabu, Misan Nikagbatse, Ademola Okulaja
- : Robert Garrett, Stefano Garris, Demond Greene, Marvin Willoughby
- : Stipo Papic, Marko Pesic, Drazan Tomic
- : Michael Jackel
- : Teoman Öztürk, Mithat Demirel
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:
