Dallas Mavericks’ Dirk Nowitzki will return to the international fold after a four-year hiatus and lead the German national side at Eurobasket 2015.
Nowitzki, who last appeared with Germany at Eurobasket 2011 in Lithuania, expressed great excitement at the prospect of playing in-front of a home crowd in Berlin.
Before that, the 37-year-old competed at the Beijing Olympics, and his wish is for the new breed of German talent to compete at next year’s Games in Rio, something that he failed to achieve in 2011 for London 2012.
Alongside Nowitzki, will be Atlanta Hawks guard Dennis Schroder, who led Germany to a successful qualification round group win, earning his nation a spot at this year’s Eurobasket.
National team captain Heiko Schaffartzik, small forward Robin Benzing and center Tibor Pleiss will appear at their fourth straight Eurobasket.
Akeem Vargas was the final cut from coach Chris Fleming’s squad.
“This is the point where you would actually prefer a 13-strong squad,” Fleming said.
“It was a very difficult decision, only very small differences finally tipped the balance. I appreciate Akeem very much, he is a player with a model attitude. But ultimately, I had to make a final decision, even though it is still so uncomfortable.”
Germany will start their Eurobasket campaign in Berlin against Serbia, Italy, Turkey, Spain and newcomers Iceland.
Germany’s roster:
Robin Benzing
Anton Gavel
Niels Giffey
Alex King
Maodo Lo
Dirk Nowitzki
Tibor Pleiss
Heiko Schaffartzik
Dennis Schröder
Karsten Tadda
Johannes Voigtmann
Paul Zipser.
