Basketball: DBB in World Cup qualification continues with perfect record

The German basketball team kept their white vest in the qualification for the 2019 World Cup in China. German national coach Henrik Rödl’s team beat hosts Georgia on Sunday in Tbilisi with 87:77 (51:38) and has already made it into the main qualifying round with four wins in four games.

Joshiko Saibou from Berlin was the most successful competitor in the DBB selection with 15 points.

Less than 48 hours before, Rödls Team had won against the group favourite Serbia with 79:74 (40:41) after a strong performance in Frankfurt, and Rödl was thrilled:”You don’t win every day against the Serbs,” said the 48-year-old European champion of 1993:”I’m very proud.

In the first leg against Georgia, Rödl had made his debut as national coach and celebrated a 79-70 win. In the second leg of the game, too, Germany set the tone and kept their white record.

The mode allows the teams to take the points into the main round. At the end of preliminary group G, Rödl’s team will face Austria at the end of June/beginning of July and head to Serbia for a duel.

The games of the main round will take place in September, November 2018 and January 2019. The German team wants to make the leap to the big event and create a sensation, as it did at the European Championships last September.

Above all, the proof of a new depth in the squad confirmed Rödl’s assessment that Germany is a “growing basketball nation”:”It doesn’t matter to us who stands on the field:” With the 18-year-old Isaac Bonga (Fraport Skyliners), a great talent had already made his debut against Serbia, which the scouts from the NBA have long been aware of.

In the strongest league in the world, Dennis Schröder (Atlanta Hawks), Daniel Theis (Boston Celtics), Paul Zipser (Chicago Bulls) and Maximilian Kleber (Dallas Mavericks) are already four German international players. However, due to the lack of approvals, they could not help in the first qualifying window any more than the pros of the EuroLeague clubs.