Nets' Dennis Schroder discusses qualities of European basketball

Brooklyn Nets guard Dennis Schroder did his best to guide Germany to a gold medal in the 2024 Paris Olympics this summer to continue their success from the 2023 FIBA World Cup. Unfortunately, Schroder and company were unable to earn any medals from the tournament, but he also gave his take on the emergence of European basketball.

“European basketball I think is more, I got to be careful here, it’s no entertainment,” Schroder said on Saturday following Germany’s 93-83 loss to Denver Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokic and Serbia in the bronze medal game. One of the prevailing narratives surrounding basketball as a sport is how much the rest of the world is catching up to America in terms of talent and competition.

“It’s straight IQ basketball, straight coaching, and really high IQ guys who know how to play the game,” Schroder explained. “I mean Serbia, Greece, Spain, France, Germany, I mean, so many teams out there who knows how to play. Who is athletic and I think it’s a lot of people from Europe in the NBA who make some noise.”

To Schroder’s point, some of the best players in the NBA are from Europe such as Dallas Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic (Slovenia), Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic (Serbia), and Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo (Greece). As it stands, it seems that some of the other countries are building up their own talent in a major way and it could be something for Team USA to watch out for in the coming years.