Dennis Schroder playing for Germany during the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. Image courtesy of FIBA
Despite losing in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris to Team France, Dennis Schröder has cemented his legacy as an all-time Olympian. The German currently plays in the NBA for the Brooklyn Nets, but opted to represent his home country without hesitation in this year’s Summer games.
Schröder was the official flag bearer for Germany during the Olympics’ opening ceremony. As his boat ran down the Seine River in Paris, Schröder proudly carried the flag of the nation he was born in.
He had a chance to etch himself permanently into German basketball lore forever by winning a Gold Medal in this year’s international games. While that did not happen, as he and the rest of Team Germany fell to Team France in the Semifinals, there is no doubt Schröder has already cemented himself as an all-time Olympian.
Growing Up German
When Schröder opted to carry the flag of his nation at the Olympics, the flag of the same nation that gave him troubles growing up Black, he opted to use the moment as an opportunity. For him, it was an opportunity to defy the racism within his own country.
“For me, the biggest thing was to carry that flag for the whole Olympic team,” said Schröder. That was my goal to set a big statement, an important statement in Germany, to show all those [who are] Black, light skin, whatever color…that you guys can do something with a lot of hard work and passion. And that was a big statement that we set in Germany that a Black guy carried that flag.”
Schröder elaborated on how he grew up in Germany, specifically the city of Braunschweig. He stated that he was often picked on and judged unfairly based on his race, as Germans were not used to seeing people of his skin color — out of 84 million residents, only 577,000 Germans are estimated to be Black, a percentage of just 0.3.
“Growing up in Germany was tough, man,” he continued. “It’s wrong, but I just went with it. In Kindergarten, people asked, ‘Why is your skin Black? ‘Why are you dirty?’ and all those little tough moments.”
Finding Himself
It would be basketball where Schröder would excel. According to him, he did not even start playing the sport until age 12, at which point he joined a basketball camp. There, he thrived and found inner peace as he began to bond with those at the camp, who did not judge him unfairly like others did.
“When I started playing basketball at 12, I went to a basketball school and people started respecting and accepting me as a Black person because I did something for Germany and for my hometown,” Schröder said.
In 2010, Schröder would begin playing professional basketball, with his first break coming with his hometown club Phantoms Braunschweig. Three years later, his dream would come true when he would reach the basketball pinnacle: entering the NBA. He was drafted 17th overall by the Atlanta Hawks in that year’s Draft.
Legacy Cemented
Schröder officially stamped his place in the NBA after playing for the Hawks, as he would bounce around between several teams before landing on the Brooklyn Nets currently. But through all of that, he never lost his German pride, as he would lead them to a basketball success on the international stage.
The 2022 EuroBasket would see Schröder lead his national team to win Bronze at the international contest. EuroBasket is Europe’s premier basketball competition across various different nations, and securing the Bronze for his team was no short feat.
The 2023 FIBA World Cup would be Schröder’s shining moment, as he would carry Team Germany to the Gold Medal over Serbia, securing the first Gold Medal in German basketball history.
Those honors would lead Schröder to cement himself as the greatest German basketball player in the current era, allowing him to be the country’s flag bearer for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. There, Schröder led his team to a Bronze medal after they dropped the Semifinals game to France.
Even though Schröder and the Germans did not get as far as they had hoped in the 2024 Summer Olympics, it still did little to detract his Olympic legacy. The fact of the matter is that Dennis Schröder is a German basketball legend, and secured that status through the various hardships and adversity faced, and the work he put in to defy the odds stacked against him.
