How Germans Suddenly Got Good At Basketball

[@BasketNews_com]

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[@AlexDodig]

The German Football Association (DFB) announced the dismissal of then coach Hansi Flick as German national football coach just as the German basketball team won the World Cup, overshadowing the basketball victory with this controversial timing, especially since they had originally planned to wait, but rushed due to a leak. I remember that this was a big mood killer, because the media focused much more on Flick's dismissal than on the basketball victory.

[@brutongaster767]

cant really blame the association tho, its more the leakers fault

[@Nitrox_909]

if that overshadows a worldcup win there is a problem in the first place

[@Champion2710]

@@Nitrox_909 Depends, I think Flick leaving the national team is more interesting

[@Skyl3t0n]

@@Nitrox_909 Winning a basketball wc is nice. Winning a football world cup is not even comparable.

[@CoL_Drake]

lets be honest even without that most germans would niot known we won the world cup as no one rly follows it

[@boza5684]

You had to mention Svetislav Pešić separately. His contribution to German basketball is immeasurable in my opinion.

[@andrijapfc]

Indeed. Pesic was coach of Germany 1987-93 and led them to the Eurobasket title (his son Marko was a player on the German national team 1996-2005). He was again coach briefly in 2012. Meanwhile he coached Alba Berlin 1993-2000, Koeln 2001-02, and Bayern Munich 2012-16. Afaik he was also involved in setting up the German basketball federation's system. So his personal impact is huge, and he facilitated a major transfer and adaptation of Yugoslav basketball knowledge to Germany.

[@xxdemestrosxx]

people in germany think dirk is famous because he just made it into the nba. i always tell them that he was the first european mvp ever. that he is the 6th best scorer of all time. that he is a finals mvp. that he had one of the most unbelievable runs ever, beating some of the most skilled players ever in a row. and that he had a huge impact on how the game is played today. this moves me to tears. he is my hero!

[@benitofranklyn4237]

It was actually the Dream Team on TV and Detlef Schrempf on the Sonics who made Basketball so popular in Germany. In the 90's there was more Basketball on German mainstream TV than there is today. The Germans will fall off as soon as this generation of players gets old, same as it happened with Spain, it's just luck of the draw which Western European nation has a few strong players, since nobody cares about basketball over here, our best athletes are always going to football(soccer). Sadly, overall nobody cares about basketball in Western European countries, most people don't even know who their national champion is.

[@user-sr3sf]

He is the best NBA foreign ever

[@xxdemestrosxx]

@@user-sr3sf i personally think that but hakeem the dream has a very strong case. Though

[@marceloasensiofilho3833]

This current generation being inspired by Dirk Nowitski is great for their growth in the sport

[@MoinMeister_187]

Dirk really the goat to put german basketball on (at least for me personally)

[@benitofranklyn4237]

It was actually the Dream Team on TV and Detlef Schrempf on the Sonics who made Basketball so popular in Germany. In the 90's there was more Basketball on German mainstream TV than there is today. The Germans will fall off as soon as this generation of players gets old, same as it happened with Spain, it's just luck of the draw which Western European nation has a few strong players, since nobody cares about basketball over here, our best athletes are always going to football(soccer). Sadly, overall nobody cares about basketball in Western European countries, most people don't even know who their national champion is.

[@styleminister]

@@benitofranklyn4237hahaha, the current generation ist way to young for dream team and is truly inspired by Dirk (for example Franz is born in 2001 and was 10y old at Dirks Championchip)! Btw: the U18 has won European Championship fee days ago

[@mgns8058]

I mean basketball is growing in germany the arena of the top bbl teams are full nearly every game and the younger people love to watch the sport

[@felixw19]

Tbf the arenas aren't that big. The biggest (Berlin) has 14.500 seats, but besides that the next biggest arenas only seat about 6.000 people. 8 out of the 18 teams have a capacity of less than 4.000. (You can look up the exact numbers on the Wikipedia article about each BBL season)

[@benitofranklyn4237]

It was actually the Dream Team on TV and Detlef Schrempf on the Sonics who made Basketball so popular in Germany. In the 90's there was more Basketball on German mainstream TV than there is today. The Germans will fall off as soon as this generation of players gets old, same as it happened with Spain, it's just luck of the draw which Western European nation has a few strong players, since nobody cares about basketball over here, our best athletes are always going to football(soccer). Sadly, overall nobody cares about basketball in Western European countries, most people don't even know who their national champion is.

[@mgns8058]

@@benitofranklyn4237 i mean the german u18 ist european champion lol

[@Eppu_Paranormaali]

The success of the German men's national team actually started in 2021, just before Herbert era. Making it into the Olympic quarterfinals from the qualifiers without most star players was a notable achievement even if they didn't have to beat any really good teams.

[@bnb6868]

It's not only that basketball isn't the most popular sport in Germany it's not even the second or third most popular. It's unbelievable how quiet Germanys win was in the country itself and how quickly it was forgotten. Contrasted with Spains 22 eurobasket victory being huge in the country despite being as or even more football crazy than Germany but basketball at least being essentially the number 2 sport.

[@clintstewart5545]

I don't think spanish people are more crazy about football Germans crowds are way better bundesliga 2 probably get more attendance that la liga games

[@bnb6868]

@@clintstewart5545 cause all the big German clubs play in the second while all the big Spanish ones play in the first

[@clintstewart5545]

@@bnb6868 that's excuses germany always has the highest attendances even 3 division matches have huge attendances and there are still big spanish clubs in lower divisions, some teams can't even fill their stadium while in la liga, Germans are number one over the spanish by far ...

[@bnb6868]

@@clintstewart5545 all the big German clubs like Nürnberg, hertha, Schalke, FCK, HSV and other not as big but still somewhat big clubs play in the second division in Germany contrasted to the first division with all the plastic clubs (Leverkusen, Wolfsburg, Hoffenheim, Leipzig) who have no fans or the small clubs (Heidenheim, Augsburg, Darmstadt) who have fan bases but not as big as those of the previously mentioned second division clubs. That's why the German second division has such a huge attendance. The Spanish second division on the other hand with few exceptions is made up of Clubs who have always been at best second division clubs while all the major clubs play in the first division

[@clintstewart5545]

@@bnb6868 even leipzig gets full attendance or leverkusen etc , there is no comparison , bundesliga 3 probably has more fans than la liga ,

[@tayo6882]

Thanks for the love (from a German player and coach)!

[@maikotter9945]

Welche ... Mannschaft; Ligenstufe; Staffel?

[@justus5879]

To give some more perspective of how small basketball is here compared to football. My hometown basketball club was playing in the bbl just a few years ago, but it was nothing more than a fun fact you told someone. Meanwhile our main football club is playing in the fourth division and you can hear the chants on matchday through the entire city, find stickers and graffitis everywhere etc.

[@Robin93k]

German too. I honestly don't even know if we have a Basketball Team... But yeah, our 4th division football team is visible everywhere. Even the female team...

[@Schweinegulasch]

Essen? :D

[@justus5879]

@@Schweinegulasch jena and i despise essen

[@Stiegelzeine]

Your hometown has a basketball team? Mine doesn’t that’s how insignificant it is in Germany, many towns don’t even have one it’s probably only towns with 100k+ people who got them with maybe some exceptions

[@RafaelangeloDeNazareth]

its simple logic. Basketball is always thought to be a hip hop thing (i've lived in Germany on and off for ten years) and outside of the major cities like Berlin where the youth embrace hip hop culture, you wont see good ol Nils working in an homogenous environment logging off of his mac at his tech company to go put some shots up at the local court lol

[@olafweiske6132]

germany is getting better in the european team cups, too. last year bonn won the champions league and resently chemntitz (where i live) won the europe cup. was a great celebration (10k people around), cause we only have a 4th tier football team.

[@MattEffect]

Basketball fighting for 2nd place with Handball and Ice Hockey is delusional imho. Handball is clearly number 2 and I would put Ice Hockey in front of Basketball popularity wise. A Statista survey taken between 2021 and 2023 has Basketball in 12th place behind obviously football, then skiing, track & field, handball, motorsports, tennis, boxing, swimming, cycling, ice hockey and horse riding

[@Goldfish_1313]

That‘s what I was thinking too. Handball is much bigger. Many small towns don‘t even have a basketball club.

[@pglanville]

Lol. Negative much?

[@Goldfish_1313]

@@pglanville it‘s just the truth. Nothing negative here

[@wurstbrot1772]

Noone in northern Germany is interessted in ice hockey. That is a very regional thing. But apart from that, I agree. It is interessting haow they seem focus on team sports only. I mean, even Ski Jumping is more popular than Basketball.

[@pglanville]

@@wurstbrot1772 Ski jumping. Now you're ridiculous. That's a rich man's sport. it can't be popular at all.

[@lukaskunath8300]

7:20 I like how you added some footage of the gamewinner from the game Alba Berlin against San Antonio Spurs back from 2014. Despite just beeing a friendshipgame that game won by Alba felt somehow special to me as a kid

[@dtikvxcdgjbv7975]

The rise of German basketball began in mid 80's with German players that played in NCAA and some made it to be NBA star, like Schrempf. Euro in 1993 was expected to have Lithuanians, but they lost qualification game against Belarus (Daineko destroyed them).

[@benitofranklyn4237]

The Dream Team on TV and Detlef Schrempf on the Sonics made Basketball so popular in Germany. In the 90's there was more Basketball on German mainstream TV than there is today. The Germans will fall off as soon as this generation of players gets old, same as it happened with Spain, it's just luck of the draw which Western European nation has a few strong players, since nobody cares about basketball over here, our best athletes are always going to football(soccer). Sadly, overall nobody cares about basketball in Western European countries, most people don't even know who their national champion is.

[@SkilledGen]

Another German perspective I havent read yet: I was born in the 90s and as a kid we had a lot of playgrounds with football fields as well as basketball fields. The only occupied ones ever were the football fields. There was a change in like the late 2010s where suddenly the basketball fields started getting occupied more and more. The same fields that were empty almost my entire childhood - and its only getting more! Think the Americanization is also playing a big role in this. Me and some of my friends watch the NBA, some other friends watch the NFL, which is even on national TV nowadays. All of our dads only ever watched football and handball as far as we know.

[@benitofranklyn4237]

In the 90's there was more Basketball on German mainstream TV than there is today. The Germans will fall off as soon as this generation of players gets old, same as it happened with Spain, it's just luck of the draw which Western European nation has a few strong players, since nobody cares about basketball over here, our best athletes are always going to football(soccer). Sadly, overall nobody cares about basketball in Western European countries, most people don't even know who their national champion is.

[@Goxilla]

Another big change was the implementation of farmteams. Young players could play against grown pro men slightly above College level (Pro A or Pro B) or if good enough in the BBL. That way coaches could have them play their respective development level and let them "grow"

[@nicowo4439]

Good research on the video. Keep up the great work! Greetings from 🇩🇪

[@benitofranklyn4237]

It was actually the Dream Team on TV and Detlef Schrempf on the Sonics who made Basketball so popular in Germany. In the 90's there was more Basketball on German mainstream TV than there is today. The Germans will fall off as soon as this generation of players gets old, same as it happened with Spain, it's just luck of the draw which Western European nation has a few strong players, since nobody cares about basketball over here, our best athletes are always going to football(soccer). Sadly, overall nobody cares about basketball in Western European countries, most people don't even know who their national champion is.

[@Rakshiir]

As mainly a fan of Icehockey, what the two sports share is: Gaining interest in the public eye due to higher quality and results (and propably because our football national team really wasn't performing well). It is enjoyable to watch if you feel like your team actually puts in effort.

[@Smurez]

I think there's a deal between german/european and american sport broadcasters. For 2 or 3 years now there's much more news and broadcasting regarding american sports in germany, maybe it's the same in the U.S. and european sports. Football/Soccer is gaining popularity in the U.S. for some years now as well. I guess this medial output is another big reason for the rise of popularity, regardless of success.

[@davinnicode]

To demonstrate how much football dominantes every other sport in Germany: People in Germany didn’t even know that Dirk Nowitzki won a MVP in 2007 and became a NBA champion in 2011. You could call yourself lucky if a German news show would actually report on these happenings. The show would rather report on a football game in the second division

[@henningg.1687]

To be fair Dirk was voted to be Germany's athlete of the year in 2011 and even people who have no clue about basketball still at least know his name. But still, I hear what you are saying..

[@benitofranklyn4237]

It was actually the Dream Team on TV and Detlef Schrempf on the Sonics who made Basketball so popular in Germany. In the 90's there was more Basketball on German mainstream TV than there is today. The Germans will fall off as soon as this generation of players gets old, same as it happened with Spain, it's just luck of the draw which Western European nation has a few strong players, since nobody cares about basketball over here, our best athletes are always going to football(soccer). Sadly, overall nobody cares about basketball in Western European countries, most people don't even know who their national champion is.

[@McDonaldsMitarbeiterKatze]

Fragt sich wie du für alle Deutschen sprechen kannst ,Atze. Sprech gefälligst für dich und hör mit der pauschalisierung auf!

[@benitofranklyn4237]

​@@McDonaldsMitarbeiterKatze Ist nun halt mal Fakt. Ich bin selbst Basketballfan, aber die meiste Berichterstattungen im TV gehen an Fussball und die meisten Leute wissen überhaupt nichts von Basketball. Das ist nun halt mal in ganz Europa so. Die Aussage is absolute korrekt, anstatt über Dirk's MVP oder NBA Titel zu berichten, wird lieber über ein 2.Liga Spiel berichtet, anstatt über den FIBA WM Sieg der Deutschen lieber über einen Trainerwechsel in der Bundesliga. Ist alles genau so passiert. Die meisten Leute haben keine Ahnung wer ihr Nationaler Basketball Champion ist, aber fast jeder weiss wer die jeweilige Fußball Liga oder WM gewonnen hat.

[@McDonaldsMitarbeiterKatze]

@@benitofranklyn4237 sie ist nicht korrekt . Er kann nicht für alle Leute sprechen .

[@RafaelangeloDeNazareth]

Im from NYC and I've hooped with all kinds of levels in Germany... one thing I can say is the youth have playmaking ability (most people in their twenties couldn't run a P&R or put a pass in the shooters pocket) , poise when it comes to shooting under pressure and they do play tough (albeit a lot of hacking at times haha) . Im a big fan of Dennis Schroeder by the way. He plays the game with joy and confidence like steph curry does lol...

[@thtben]

An aspect that's easy to overlook is the effort the basketball federation here in GER has made to attract and keep children to the sport, with dedicated rulesets and coaching initiatives for under-12 and below (borrowed largely from Spain, or so I've been told). These are kids which will be our future federal youth league, BBL, Euroleague and NBA players - but also coaches, functionaries, referees, organizers, Basketball-affiliated health professionals, and of course spectators. It'll be interesting to see where all this goes long-term.

[@Schorsch5]

The federation is doing a ton for the sport but sadly all money is pumped into football. Out cities pro-team who went first in last season 2.League and used to be a household BBL Team has to pay money to play in their own arena while the football club which is playing in 5-6th Division gets paid thousands to survive eventough it's not a profitable business model. They get paid tax money to not go bankrupt, get new Training facilities for millions yet the Basketball Teams in our city which there are 5 of, with 2 being huge in terms of members(around 400-500 per Club) get next to nothing. We dont even have our own gyms and the professional team has one small gym inside their Arena thats it

[@jannik7054]

dope vid Hartenstein actually played for a german BBL's youth team (Artland Dragons Quakenbrück)

[@christiang5209]

8:10 the system implented 2010 i would say some of the older players didnt profit from it, while you can say that Hartenstein has his roots in the german youth system (Artland Dragons)

[@jbg.goetting]

Hartenstein actually also played in the BBL for Quakenbrück before making the move to Kaunas

[@kennichdendenn]

Regarding dropping out of school: that does not happen because its basically illegal. You have to attend either school, trade school or some other forms of education for a certain number of years. That varies a bit between federal states though.

[@notnice2521]

the thing is that everybody can play football and get good at it, but in basketball you basically cannot succeed to a high level if youre not tall. Im slightly above average in height and have played football and handball in amateur leagues. I was never crazy good at both but there were tall people and short people in every team. I also often play at the public basketball court with my friends and i just feel bad for some of my friends who dont have long arms and are shorter because playing just isnt fun for them.

[@cristiano7ronaldoTHEGOAT]

Germans and Europeans in general are tall.

[@mattesthoele7018]

Hartenstein played in the youth bbl with the Artland Dragons and in the men's 2nd league. Then he went to Lithuania

[@Franko384]

I'm German. And I didn't even know, my country is the 2023 Basketball World Champion, before I clicked on this video.

[@marombestander2616]

Same

[@everythingtaken3674]

same but not gonna lie, ill probably have forgotten about it in a week from now

[@jmainb0y192]

Shame on you alter

[@minimi870]

So you don't watch the news?

[@Vootekk0815]

Huer auch. Auch wenn man tägluch Sportschau klickt, das is völlig an einen virbei gegangen. War maximal eine Schlagzeile direkt danach.

[@Etemuss]

I'm a 25 year old german and never had a sport that I enjoed watching till I saw the semi and than the final of last years World Cup. I think it would help if it would be easyer to watch NBA at the moment it is kind of confusing which streaming plattform you have to follow to watch the game you want to and when

[@Schorsch5]

Denke es wäre interessanter Euroleague und BBL einfacher schauen zu können. Die TV Gelder die man für die NBA blättern müsste sind wahrscheinlich astronomisch. Da ist ran mit ihren 2 Spielen am Wochenende schon wirklich Luxus

[@Alochmann]

i like basketball, live in germany, and didnt even know we are world champion

[@facts2676]

Wtf 😂

[@sweetxlies6761]

Saw Schröder at my gym after the world cup because he is from my home town but I was too scared to ask him for a picture and I wasn’t 100% sure I it was really him lol

[@gregorkalinkat7657]

Just for a bit more perspective: considering the big team sports in Germany basketball is only third or even fourth place by several accounts. For example the number of active (amateur & youth) players is much bigger in handball than in basketball. Handball is also where the club teams are world class while German 🏀 clubs have no chance to (ever?) win the Euroleague. In terms of spectator attendance ice hockey is the number 2 behind football

[@tinobommelino3376]

I would put it that way: Inthe south of Germany Basketball is nr. 3 behind football and ice hockey. In the north it ist 3rd behind football and handball. Here in Freiburg or Munich nobody cares about handball. And so does nobody care about ice hockey in most of northern Germany. The centre might be devided. Interests are varying from region to region.

[@gregorkalinkat7657]

@@tinobommelino3376 handball is really widespread in Germany, I was explicitly referring in my comment to the amateur player level. You can also check the numbers, for DHB it is roughly three times the number of club members nationwide compared to Basketball. Historically handball also used to be THE team sport for small villages who were not big enough to have competitive 15-18 player roster for football, which is one of the reasons why the Bundesliga was dominated by clubs from small cities and rural areas for many decades (Gummersbach, Göppingen, Großwallstadt etc), and many of those were/are from the South (btw the women's team from Bietigheim near Stuttgart just made it to the final four in Europe while the men's ice hockey team from Bremerhaven played the playoff finals)

[@tinobommelino3376]

@@gregorkalinkat7657 There certainly are some „handball islands“ also in the south. Just as there are ice hockey teams in the north. But none of them get the widespread recognition as the Adler Mannheim or the red bull München do. Or even the Nürnberg ice tigers. In the south handball has always stayed a local phenomenon. In opposition to Gummersbach or Großwallstadt (for us that’s way up north🤣). Basketball unfortunately stays behind both. Only differing from north to south. But I wouldn’t put handball in Bietigheim in a popularity position ahead of Ratiopharm Ulm or Ludwigsburg, Bayern München Basketball or Bamberg.

[@Schorsch5]

Ist zum Teil richtig, aber du darfst auch nicht vergessen, dass die Euroleague nicht das höchste Level im Basketball ist. Das heißt für viele ambitionierte Spieler geht es eher Richtung College, G-League, NBA und nicht EuroLeague. Ansonsten sind bis auf die Bayern und Alba niemand in der finanziellen Lage sich das überhaupt leisten zu können. Denn geldtechnisch steht die Euroleague im Basketball besser da, als der Handball. Alleine schon aus dem Grund, dass in Spanien, Griechenland, Serbien und co der Sport einen zum Teil unantastbaren Stellenwert in der Gesellschaft hat

[@davidwright2454]

Even though there are only 250,000 kids playing basketball, ( versus millions playing football) Germany has a large enough population that in the next 20 years or so, a certain # of kids with strong athleticism who start out playing football, will eventually switch to pursuing basketball when they, in their teenage years, grow just too tall to be super effective on the football field. This has already been shown in the NBA as several of the non-American super stars started off their basketball pursuits in their mid- teens after the grew just too tall to reasonably expect to star at football.

[@DanTheBizeps]

well researched video, great job!

[@coellnbrueder8879]

Great video, which brought many long lost memories, of Schrempf, Hansi Gnad and all the others, who pulled of this fairy tale in 1993. Thanks for that!

[@oliverpfister3972]

Nice video, thx. You should have mentioned Detlev Schrempf how had a proper nba career in the 90s. Won the 6th man of the year award, reached the finals against Chicago and has been selected to the all star game at least once if lam not mistaken. In Germany it’s a huge difference if you are growing up in a city with a bbl or second division team and not just a football club every 5 meters.

[@michaelrivera2832]

Plz make these type of videos more often. I throughly enjoy them

[@Schorsch5]

The German basketball association(DBB) got 1,8 million euros of government fundings in 2023 while the football association got 130 million just for youth development that speaks a lot by itself. Handball is pretty similar to basketball in terms of government support. My cities football club playing in the 5th division build a new football field just for their youth teams which cost over 1 million euros funded by the government. Thats nearly as much as the whole dbb got in fundings for the whole year.

[@TokyoBalletReprise]

Tristan Da Silva will get drafted in the first round this year and is german.

[@Smido83]

Yeah, he will hopefully be a future constant on the roster. That being said, we could really need some future guard depth.

[@george_lours]

We really need to use their example in our non-existent development system 😢. Amazing video! Keep up the good work! Greetings from Athens!🇬🇷

[@boombl443]

As a die hard: I Remember how my whole Family was criying after we won the WDC. I mean 15 years in .....15 years on the sidelines.... Horrible losses..... And the we Beat seerbia and the Us .... Hell Still goosebumps Here

[@RealTaIk]

Basketball in Germany definitely has seen better days. We used to have 2 basketball courts in our direct village and 4 more in the surrounding villages. Within 10 years (in the 2000s) they removed 5 of those courts and placed something else there. On the last remaining court for some reason they removed the baskets. I don't really see Basketball getting popular in Germany again. On the other hand, football can be played everywhere you don't even need a real goal for that. Put down 2 objects and you have a goal.

[@henningg.1687]

Then we are living in two different Germanys

[@RealTaIk]

@@henningg.1687 apparently you live in 1687

[@henningg.1687]

@@RealTaIk sure buddy, 1687, the golden age of German basketball... :)

[@salatwurzel-4388]

As a German: Dirk Nowitzki was the only german basketball player i knew before watching this video.

[@hiob3970]

I would not say there will be a serie for Germany but we improved a lot. Hope we're getting better and better. But it's also much to do. I am optimistic for the future.The most important is to have fun, the spectators and support from the association from the media.

[@mrwatermelo50]

The Thumbnail was a deliberate choice

[@coellnbrueder8879]

Matter of fact you "forgot" Tristan da Silva from the Orlando Magic - although a super Brazilian name, he´s German too.

[@tb2571]

As a german it was Football Football Football Ice hockey Handball Tennis .... ... Basketball 🏀 a few years ago. Now the Ranking is Football Football Football Darts Handball/Basketball/ ice hockey.... Basketball became more popular in the last years

[@mariow.8802]

Good video as always!

[@SiqueScarface]

Just a proxy measure for Basketball's popularity: In the videotext service of ARD, the first public TV channel, Pages 250-299, and 500-569 are reserved for Football. Basketball gets pages 654-657. For some unknown reason, this is pretty close to an 32:1 ratio.

[@jonasbartz208]

Great Video!

[@Zebrahead91]

I‘m German, and I have to say this Basketball journalist is overstating the relevance of Basketball in Germany if he says Basketball is the second sport behind Football, together with Handball. Handball is clearly more popular in Germany than Basketball. Germany has 800.000 registered Handball players compared to 250.000 Basketball players - thats more than triple the numbers! Also, games of the Handball national team in World Cups and Euros regularly draws TV audiences of 5-10 million people per game. Basketball of the national team in the last couple years wasnt even shown on regular TV (only a small streaming service), and back in the Nowitzki days when the national team was shown on TV, it had viewerships of about 1 million per game (compared to 5+ million for Handball). Also, the Handball Bundesliga has a bigger average attendance than Basketball Bundesliga, and Handball Bundesliga games are being shown on state TV from time to time. You could even have arguments that Ice Hockey is bigger than Basketball in Germany. Fewer play it, but the Eishockey Bundesliga has much higher average attendance (7.200 vs 4.300) and much higher TV viewership than Basketball Bundesliga. The popularity of Team Sports in Germany goes like this: 1) Football 2-4) Nothing 5) Handball 6) Basketball and Ice Hockey 7) Volleyball (but Volleyball has double the numbers of active Players than Basketball) The current successes of the german basketball national team might help to improve Basketballs popularity in Germany compared to other sports - but it’s a long way to go for Basketball in Germany. For example in the Basketball World Cup 2023, the Matches were not shown in regular TV (just streaming), and even for the semi final against the US, no TV channel decided to show it. Only the final of the World Cup then was shown on state TV. That said, at least we can say that Basketball, while not very popular, does have SOME relevance in Germany. Thats still a better basketball situation than in most other central & north european countries. Basketball surely has more relevance and popularity in Germany than it has in surrounding countries like Austria, Switzerland, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Czech, Poland or Scandinavia.

[@fuhgettaboudit]

Franz Wagner 🇩🇪 Future NBA champion for the Orlando Magic 💫 🪄 🎩

[@Meazzy2k]

fakten fakten fakten

[@intimissimi88]

great video! see you in berlin!

[@nothing9260]

I play handball, we also have a problem developing young players and sadly a quota is not really an option. The german Handball Bundesliga IS the hardest league in the world with a lot of the great players This is good for the league but bad for the youth, when you turn 18 and have to play there it is such a huge jump from even the youth Bundesliga. The difference in physical strength is just too much. This issue doesn't apply to Basketball or Football that much, as they are way less physical.

[@JohanSmalls]

I'm a 40 year old German and in spite of still enjoying watching football games, I really hate how football centric we have become. This hasn't always been the case though. Back when I was a kid, in the 90ies there always used to be a "second sport" that - at least for a time - was just as big as football for a while in terms of mdeia coverage and public interest. People would often tie their attention for a specific sport to a successful individual like Boris Beker and Steffi Graf in Tennis, Michael Schuhmacher in Formula 1, Jan Ulrich in Cycling, Sven Hannavald in Ski Junping and last but not least Dirk Nowitzki in Basketball. In Dirks hometown which coincidentely happens to be my own hometown, there were like hundreds of thousands who would watch and celebrate the Mavs... but that's how it used to be. Things have changed. When Zverev won gold in the olympics, nobody cared, when Germany won the FiBA world cup - nobody cared. Most Germans can't even name one player from the team who did it. Maybe the internet is to blame - there is no common puclic anymore. Maybe rooting for a sportsperson just because of their nationality deterrs those who opose the German nationalist party (AfD) while those voting for that party don't like sports people for their often mix ethnic heritage or them being a face in an anti racism/ anti sexism campaign.

[@Viktor-jo4kr]

Where did you get that drone shot from 9:27? I went to school there :D

[@candymarx-ramos1970]

Nowitzki is very popular in the Philippines.

[@NereoSal]

Do the same video with Italy and its decline plz!

[@gabepizza]

Italy's decline? plz. They still made the quarter-finals. When have they ever been great? One silver medal in the 2004 Olympics? II know they're not a European team but if you want to talk about decline mention Argentina. Gold in the 2004 Olympics, silver in the 2002 & 2019 World Cup and now not even able to qualify for the 2023 World Cup or the qualifying tournament of the 2024 Olympics

[@ghcanestro5859]

​@@gabepizzai think you don't know Italy basket. The silver in olympics twice 1980 and 2004m winning euro basket twice silver 4 times and bronze 4 times so 10 times in top 3. In the world cup the worst ranking is the tenth in 2019. Let's talk about teams basketball the Euroleague Italy won 13 times behind only Spain and the last Italian team won was in 2001. So in 2001 Italy had 13 titles while Spain had only 9 Greece only 3 titles Russia 5. The Italian league was the best outside the nba before the 2000s and players like Schmidt the goat the top scorer of all olympics 1093 points while poeple talk about kd having 500 Played in Italy ginobili was in Italy

[@benitofranklyn4237]

It was actually the Dream Team on TV and Detlef Schrempf on the Sonics who made Basketball so popular in Germany. In the 90's there was more Basketball on German mainstream TV than there is today. The Germans will fall off as soon as this generation of players gets old, same as it happened with Spain, it's just luck of the draw which Western European nation has a few strong players since nobody cares about basketball over here, our best athletes are always going to football(soccer)

[@rosenvasilev4219]

As some already mentioned below, basketball is VERY FAR from being mainstream . The biggest advantage there is that many foreigners are coming and contributing with their knowledge and/or skills especially from former Yugo countries, Russia and America .But still this sport is not popular at all to mainstream fans unlike football. Even Dirk himself is more appreciated in US than in Germany as his number was first retired in Dallas and several years later in Germany. Gordi Herbert imo changed so much stuff and is the mastermind behind all those successes. Germans should retain him as he made playing for Germany cool which before his tenure wasnt exactly the case with their previous coach.

[@user-sr3sf]

Germany always had great players, one of best nba foreign is German (Nowitzki). The reason why they are better currently is because now they have a proper coach

[@elias_1739]

I'm sorry but what he said about people watching the semis was not true. To this day I'm spreading awareness of that gane and that moment but at best some maybe heard about it. Just to make it clear I was in Leipzig a pretty big City and there was no location to watch the game, not even the Sportsbars were showing it. The Game wasn't on television (the year before the even the quarterfinal was) and on the day of the finals I was in Braunschweig (Schröders and Theis home City) no attention to it nowhere.

[@gian323]

Thank you for this vid! Any draft junkies gotta keep an eye out for German players

[@CoL_Drake]

as a german who isnt rly intrested in sports i say 1. football 2. handball 3. icehockey 4. basketball i would also argue that there is still a gap after handball to the rest and handball being much bigger then icehockey or basketball. but jaeh honestly 5th league football will get more people then handball or basketball.

[@rexexcalibur3009]

Hard to say. It all depends of the popularity and the playerpool. We will see.

[@TheVisidor]

Oh! I didn‘t realize we had had a basketball 🏀 in Germany.

[@apfxlkuchen]

9:25 i know exactly where this school is

[@FantasKanal]

1:15 The german basketball league has only the 6th highest viewership after handball, icehockey and the top 3 football flights. So it would be: Football A whole lotta nothing Ice Hockey Handball Basketball So he got it right that its in 4th

[@james0696]

i knew germans would cook

[@sehu1291]

They don't even nominated Hartenstein for the Olympics, and Hartenstein said he would love it to play the Olympics for Germany. And also Kleber is not in the squad because they want only loyal players

[@drillminister7839]

it was definitely dirk who brought the sport to germany. the result of his games were always in the newspaper or in the radio

[@rainerwahnsinn9585]

In fact germany has many sports out of football, justz the media had to wake up, to show them more, cause football = always people who watch it (Winter)Biathlon, Ice-Hockey,Ski-Jumping, (Summer/Indoor)Handball, Basketball, Cycling,Formula 1,Rallye Any other Motorsport on a Table-Tennis, American Football, Swimming, any Olympic Sport at Olympia , and all is on free TV (Private)Hiking, Cycling,Running, Swimming, Table Tennis, Climbing, Fitness Studio...and 100 more

[@balvadragon310]

As a german. Honestly,the win was good,didnt watch it. But i have a feeling that only if we win a few world cups in a row that the sport will really grow here. Cause i never heard someone at a young age saying "they wanna become a basketball player" here. Regardless of what demographic we are talking about. Best example is i prefered to play a dying sport aka Prellball over playing basketball of any sort. And basketball is still largely seen as just a "fun game" for most,not even a hobby. Tho id gladly welcome ot becoming larger and more than that. Tho sadly this might take a decade or more if that even fully happens.

[@TheLdoubleE]

The flood of ads on everything imagineable really puts me off watching German BB. Even the leagues name are sold to ads, not to mention all jerseys, courts and even team names.

[@MrHaggyy]

I'm not that big into basketball but german. Basketball is growing here, but it's not even a top 10 sport in terms of people playing it. Football, traditional olympic games and motorsport dominate. Handball is a lot more popu and ice hockey is about the same, despite most cities have a major team in all three sports. Building a highly competitive national league with a strong native player base very typical for us. But the education is also important. We do our sport in clubs from the age of 4-5 all the way to pensioner. So different schools, education or even work wont break a team unless you move cities. It's also expected from the pro teams to offer some amount of training for those local clubs. Dirk Nowitzki's success brought basketball to a lot of local clubs and he engages helps with coaching and training whenever he is in germany. So quite a view players will go in a similar direction as Dirk pioneered.

[@laander4861]

In bavaria and Berlin basketball is very popular but in contrast in east Germany it is almost non existent

[@tautvydasv2127]

why post this midgame

[@bastianandersen4652]

Basketball is 4 - 6 The popularity ranking in Germany is Football Handball Motorsports And I can’t split hockey cycling and baskbetball

[@mtgplayer1239]

Icehockey is second , it surpassed Handball in Views and Fans in Stadium . Numbers are online available

[@gerdanbombales]

DOUITSU NO BASKE SEKAI-ICHI!!! - Stroheim

[@CavHDeu]

American Football is 2nd popular Sport in Germany but BB and HB fans won't like it. 😂

[@kuroshi1011]

like Jokic Giannis and Luka said. Scoring in Europe is harder than in the NBA

[@peterweiss123]

thx so much for this video! Yeah, Basketball and all other sports in general have to develop in different areas to archieve, what football has archieved! Still basketball is growing and if the german BBL teams wouldnt have s*cked in the CL, hype would be bigger! Still the systematic changes by likes of Pesic, Herbert and many more mark the system and offer great opportunities for future growth

[@matthewbaynham6286]

The 6 + 6 rule should be illegal in the EU. Previously in football every country in the EU would only allow 3 players who were not from that country. Then a player went to court and won a legal case called the Bosmann ruling (hopefully I spelt that right). But now after the Bosmann ruling all teams in the EU are limited to 3 non-EU players, but you can't discriminate against any EU play. The EU has freedom of movement of people, so the 6+6 basketball rule is illegal.

[@HansPeter-hw8js]

Damn he did Preußen Münster dirty

[@cristiano7ronaldoTHEGOAT]

In our country, its the opposite. Basketball is the most popular sport and soccer/football is not. As in majority of our countrymen dont know nor watch soccer even if its our national team playing. 😂

[@eat-myshorts]

philippines?

[@alberteinstein9591]

Track and field, handball, tennis and hockey are all more popular than basketball in germany.

[@listrahtes]

The success of Germany can be analysed with great benefit by americans about whats going wrong in the US. The whole youth basketball got streamlined on one aspect. Making the most money out of even children. I wont go into detail but this lead to spoilt brats learning close to zero teamplay focused only on their stats playing way too many games with changing teams, too much focus on athletics and roids....etc. This has huge detrimental consequences in injury ratio, bb IQ, toughness on court . In general you create much less high level players. If US coaches really want a better system look at Gemany.

[@smey02]

Lets see what our boys can do now in olympia. I feel like there are much more eyes on it, since there is no proper football in olympics.

[@opbotslol3581]

First basketball,next the world

[@michaelfarrow5817]

6+6 only works when you have the players developing below. Great Britain has been terrible for years and opening up player pathways just lowers the quality of the league.

[@gustavhls5739]

Giannis jersey 🎉🎉

[@CoL_Drake]

bastketball is MUUUUCH smaller in germany then soccer is in america ... honestly people dont even know there was a worldcup or that we won it at all xD

[@clGrenn]

not the BBL Leauge

[@larisherrmann9087]

Omg SSV Ulm Mentioned

[@lucascholle6755]

This comment section is now property of the german republic.

[@igic1991]

Micić Vukčević Jokić Jović Bogdanović Marjanović Pokuševski Serbia has 7 players.

[@boza5684]

Izgleda da Vukčevića ne ubrajaju kao naŠeg jer nije igrao za reprezentaciju a ima joŠ 3-4 državljanstva.

[@fritzfischer3648]

Vukcevic did not play so far though.

[@igic1991]

@@fritzfischer3648 In NBA or for Serbian NT? He did play in NBA, for Serbia he wasn't allowed until he turned 21 few months ago but he will.

[@fritzfischer3648]

@@igic1991 ah ok

[@wildwaters8348]

The USA has gangs in different cities/ neighborhoods, we have football clubs. (Or ultra fans)

[@attorneyk.trkz98]

İt is the denis who make the germany winner

[@marvin3935]

Sorry, you cannot talk about the rise of German basketball without mentioning the women. 6th place at the 2023 Euro, first time Olympics in 2024, lot of players in foreign leagues such as the Sabally sisters in WNBA, Leonie Fiebich also heading to WNBA after 2x Spanish League MVP. Alba Berlin (women!) winning the national championship in front of record crowd (and the men's team in the stands).

[@SN8808]

He didn’t talk about Womens‘ Basketball, though.

[@unknownunknown-tk8qt]

The focus is on the men's national team's path to success. Stop with that irrelevant shit.

[@LIL-MAN_theOG]

BBL DRIZZZZZZZZZZY!