NBA start World champion with leadership aspirations: Dennis Schröder before a new NBA adventure
Before his eleventh year in the NBA: Dennis Schröder
© Chris Young / Picture Alliance
World champion Dennis Schröder is about to enter the eleventh NBA season of his career. He wants to prove something with the Toronto Raptors and hopes to be selected for the All-Star team.
There are no exceptions for basketball world champions with ten years of NBA experience. “If you don’t have a passport with you, it’s over straight away. Then you can turn around and go home,” Dennis Schröder told the German Press Agency before the start of the season with the Toronto Raptors. The captain of the German national team is playing for a Canadian team for the first time in his career – constant border crossings between the USA and his new adopted home are now part of everyday life.
Farewell to Los Angeles
Even before the historic World Cup gold with Germany, Schröder said goodbye to sunny Southern California and a life in the glittering metropolis of Los Angeles and made the decision to move to Toronto. Instead of making a new attempt at the Lakers’ 18th championship with superstar LeBron James, Anthony Davis and his good friend Austin Reaves, Schröder chose more responsibility and freedom under the new coach Darko Rajakovic in Canada. “I’m the starting point guard here, the coach communicated it that way,” emphasized the 30-year-old from Braunschweig.
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The successful summer also helps his reputation in the new environment. “You know what Germany did: wrote history. And of course everyone knows who won MVP and what I contributed to it,” reported the development player.
Two months after the great triumph in the final against Serbia, the moments of the tournament are still very present for Schröder. “Every day. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t still watch clips,” he said. “This is legendary and I don’t know when this will go away. Of course I have to concentrate on the NBA. But with what we did this summer, that’s difficult.” There is no question for Schröder that he will be mentally and physically there for the start against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Thursday night in Germany (1:30 a.m. CEST).
Dennis Schröder: “I’m one of the best point guards in the league”
Local media in Toronto and also fans of the Raptors questioned the commitment in July and even at the start of training camp a good two weeks ago, it was not as clear to the public as it was to the self-confident Schröder himself that he was the one who was in charge of the game Meisters from 2019 orchestrated. But he wants to convince all the doubters, in Toronto and in all the other NBA cities. “I want to prove that I’m one of the best point guards in the league. I’m going to go out here and try to move the team forward and be a leader,” he announced.
Defensively, Schröder expects a lot from his new team and offensively he also liked what was shown in preparation. “The sky is the limit with this club and the people we have – if we do what we can do defensively and offensively,” he said. However, a championship with the Raptors is unrealistic; the Boston Celtics, the Milwaukee Bucks and the Miami Heat, for example, look too strong in the Eastern Conference.
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Schröder still wants to achieve something this season. “On my list, what I always wanted to do was always be an All-Star. And what I learned, when you win and have success as a team, everyone wins,” he said. “An All-Star selection would be something crazy, something I’ve always dreamed of. I think I had a few years, especially in Atlanta, where I should have been an All Star. Nothing came of it. That would be Another good thing.”
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