By Max Brucks
Dennis Schroder, Moritz Wagner, and Germany won their first-ever FIBA World Cup gold medal on Sept.10 by beating Serbia 83-77. Shockingly, the USA didn’t medal for the second straight World Cup by losing to Canada in the third-place game. Schroder led all scorers in the final against Serbia with 28 points while adding two assists. This performance by Schroder was good enough to win him the tournament TISSOT Most Valuable Player and earned him a spot in the tournament’s All-Star top five players. Schroder said after the game in an interview translated into English, “We just want our respect; I don’t need to say more because we are a team…I don’t want to hear anything more about my name.” Schroder has now become one of Germany’s great basketball players, adding himself to the likes of Dirk Nowitzki.
The USA, who lost to Germany in the semi-final, failed to medal for back-to-back World Cups. The U.S has struggled in world competitions and some people are starting to question if they are still a dominant power in international basketball. The U.S. lost to Nigeria for the first time during an exhibition game warming up for the Olympics and lost multiple times this World Cup. The head coach for the U.S., Steve Kerr, said after the loss to Canada in the third-place game, “I didn’t need any reminder (that the world has caught up with the USA), I was on the staff in 2019 and we finished seventh. The United States haven’t won the World Cup since 2014. It’s hard, these teams in FIBA are really good, well coached, they’ve got continuity, this is difficult.” International basketball has started to catch up with the USA. and with the USA. sending teams that aren’t their best players it may be a while before they win another World Cup.
Lastly, Canada was able to get their first-ever medal in their country’s history. Led by All-NBA guard, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the Canadian team was able to make it to the semi-finals where they lost to Serbia, but were able to win the third-place game against the U.S. Gilgeous-Alexander, like Schroder, was a part of the tournament’s All-Star top-five players cementing himself as one of the best players in the world. This tournament performance by Canada was able to qualify them for the 2024 Paris Olympics; their first appearance in the games since 2000. Gilgeous-Alexander is also excited to compete in the Olympic Games saying, “We’ll try to win the Olympics. I’m confident; we have a really good group. The more we play together, the better we’ll be, and I’m excited.” Gilgeous-Alexander led his NBA team, the Oklahoma City Thunder, to their first playoff appearance since the COVID bubble. The next FIBA World Cup will be held in Qatar in 2027. Qatar just hosted the soccer World Cup in the Winter of 2022 so they should be primed to host another international sporting event.
