A back-and-forth battle between a pair of 8-0 teams went down to the wire in Sunday’s EuroBasket championship game, with Kings point guard Dennis Schröder helping to secure a gold medal for Germany by scoring the final six points and turning an 83-82 deficit into an 88-83 victory over Turkey.
Schöder (16 points, 12 assists), former NBA wing Isaac Bonga (20 points, 4-of-4 three-pointers), and Magic forward Franz Wagner (18 points, eight rebounds) were the standout performers for Germany, which has won two of the past three major international basketball competitions.
Although the Germans didn’t make the podium at the Paris Olympics last summer, the country is now the defending FIBA World Cup (2023) and EuroBasket (2025) champion and has posted a 21-2 record in those three tournaments, per HoopsHype (Twitter link).
Germany outlasted a Turkish national team that was led by Rockets center Alperen Sengun (28 points), former NBA forward Cedi Osman (23 points, 6-of-9 on three-pointers), former NBA guard Shane Larkin (13 points, nine assists, six rebounds), and Sixers big man Adem Bona (12 points, 5-of-5 shooting).
While they weren’t able to claim their first EuroBasket championship, Turkey matched their best-ever result by taking silver. The Turkish team lost to Yugoslavia in the 2001 final, which was the only other time the country made the championship game.
Schröder was named the EuroBasket Most Valuable Player after leading the Germans to their first title in the event since 1993. He scored at least 16 points in all nine games, averaging 20.3 points and 7.2 assists per contest.
The 2025 EuroBasket All-Star Five was made up entirely of NBA players, with Lakers guard Luka Doncic (Slovenia) and Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo (Greece) joining Schröder, Wagner, and Sengun (Twitter link).
Antetokounmpo and the Greek national team beat Finland in the third-place game earlier on Sunday.
Dennis Schröder needs to show the NBA the truth. Best player in the world
Congrats Germany ….. Dennis Schroder a true NBA PG. Still a valuable commodity in basketball.
God I hope so
Good game, unfortunately marred once again by constant whistling and booing of the German team by Turkish supporters. Classless conduct that characterizes Turks, fans and players alike, across all sports. Look no further than Sengün’s social media posts after their semifinal win, mocking Greece over the Turkish genocide on over one million Ottoman Greek Christians a hundred years ago. That sort of behavior has no place in sports or anywhere.
What stood out about this tournament was the amount of passion, exhibited by the players, compared to the NBA. For guys like Markkanen, who is about to play his eighth tanking season in nine years of league affiliation, as well as for many of his NBA colleagues, these international tournaments will be the only meaningful games in their entire professional careers. And playing for one’s home country instead of collecting, admittedly juicy, paychecks in a foreign nation’s franchise circus league, is a completely different emotional and motivational matter.
Team play replacing boring stat-padding NBA iso ball, along with actual defense. Players caring about the outcome of games and the absence of corrupt NBA refereeing. Overall a very enjoyable tournament, exhibiting a refreshing style of basketball. No wonder foreign stars are taking over the NBA.
Good analysis.
And also homegrown talent headed overseas.