BROOKLYN TO PARIS: Dennis Schroder named to Olympic All-Stars after German loss

It was an up-and-down day or more precisely a down-and-up for Dennis Schroder Saturday. After Serbia beat Germany in the morning, depriving Schroder of a medal, the Brooklyn Nets point guard was named to the Olympic men’s basketball All-Star team 5, joining some exclusive company.

The day began early (5:00 a.m., New York Time) with the bronze medal game pitting Nikola Jokic and Bogdan Bogdanovic, against Schroder and the Franz brothers, Serbia went up early on Germany and never really relented, winning the bronze, 93-83.

Schroder finished with 13 points on 4-of-11 shooting including 3-of-6 from deep. He added, six assists, four rebounds but six turnovers as well.

“We’re still one of the best teams in the world. That’s what I believe,” Schroder, Germany’s captain, said. “But basketball sometimes doesn’t go your way, and sports in general doesn’t go your way.”

Germany went down early, dropping behind 46-38 and Serbia, fresh off its monumental loss to Team USA, turned it on the whole game, led once again by Nikola Jokic, Germany made a late push in the fourth quarter, but never got things closer than eight points, 82-74. Serbia responded with an 11-4 run and that ended Germany’s hopes for its first medal ever in men’s basketball.

Leading the way was Jokic who finished with a triple double, with 19 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists. It was the second in this year’s game but only the sixth triple double in Olympic men’s basketball. Two games back, LeBron James also had a triple double for Team USA.

Schroder in his post-game comments spoke to the differences between FIBA basketball and the NBA. He said he preferred the former.

“European basketball is no entertainment, it’s straight IQ basketball, straight coaching,” Schröder told reporters. “Really, really high IQ guys who know how to play the game. Serbia, Greece, Spain, France, Germany, so many teams out there who know how to play, is athletic, and I think there’s a lot of people from Europe in the NBA who make some noise.

“Here, they are really coachable,” Schroder added. “In the NBA, you have to be wise with your words, but in FIBA, players understand that emotional feedback comes from a good place.”

Kevin Durant, seeing a diss of Team USA’s gold medal success in Schroder’s comment, responded in his own inimitably way...

Then, not long after the gold medal game which Team USA won in a tight one over France, Schroder was named to the “All-Star Five.” He joined Stephen Curry, LeBron James, Victor Wembanyama and Jokic. James was named MVP...

Schroder led Germany to three straight wins in Group Play, then lost back=to-back games to France and Serbia. The 30-year-old led the Olympics in assists with nearly nine per game.

Schroder didn’t speak post-game about his future in the NBA but he been firm in his desire to return to the Nets, citing their family-centric culture. With a $13.0 million expiring contract and a fresh set of positives on his resume’, Schroder could easily become a trade target with the Nets in a deep rebuild and looking not for veterans but draft assets and cap space.