Germany Defeated Serbia To Win Basketball World Cup For First Time
Even when Nowitzki was the nation’s finest player, the idea that Germany would be the world’s best at basketball seemed improbable.
Germany has to enjoy the season. Since Dirk Nowitzki was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame, his country has dominated men’s international basketball.
In the World Cup final on Sunday night, Germany defeated Serbia 83-77 with the help of Dennis Schroder‘s 28 points, Franz Wagner’s 19, and their combined 19 points to complete an undefeated tournament. The previous best finish for Germany in the competition was a bronze in Indianapolis in 2002; this was their first World Cup victory.
Germany won the competition 8-0 and went undefeated for the sixth time in a row. For Serbia (6-2), which lost the championship game for the second time in the past three competitions, Aleksa Avramovic scored 21 points, while Bogdan Bogdanovic contributed 17 points.
The squad’s top player, Nikola Jokic of the NBA champion Denver Nuggets, elected not to play and to recuperate for the upcoming season. As a result, little was anticipated of the team this summer. The U.S. humiliated it 129-92 in the 2014 gold-medal game.
Serbia, however, made a startling comeback after losing backup striker Borisa Simanic, who served as motivation for the squad. He was fouled late in a first-round victory over South Sudan, requiring surgery that evening for internal damage. Then, he needed a second procedure to remove one of his kidneys.
A medal will be given to Simanic. Germany proved to be too harsh. Therefore, it will be silver. After a back-and-forth first half, Germany was given all the breathing room it needed by a 22-10 run in the third quarter, and Serbia was unable to retake the lead in the final minutes.
Marko Guduric‘s two free throws with 39.5 seconds left brought it within 79-77, but Schroder sped past two defenders for a basket on the following German possession to re-establish a four-point lead.
Even when Nowitzki was the nation’s finest player, the idea that Germany would be the world’s best at basketball seemed improbable.
With this World Cup and the Paris Olympics in mind, Germany devised a strategy to urge its finest players to sign three-year contracts with the national team.
This was the second year of that strategy, and a team that placed 17th in 2010 failed to qualify for the 2014 World Cup, finished 18th in 2019, and now has the Naismith Trophy under its control for the following four years.
