German basketball players in the World Cup qualification: narrow victory in the crime thriller against Croatia

EA paternity test should not be necessary to convict the national basketball coach of a little fraud. It is also unlikely that Álex Mumbrú, father of two sons and three daughters, will plunge into personal turmoil after Sunday evening. Rather, his statement was one of immense relief as he revealed that Jack Kayil is “my child.” Kayil, 20, is also a playmaker for the German national team, at least when – like on Sunday in the World Cup qualifier – Dennis Schröder and Maodo Lo are absent. And Mumbrú has made the guard a senior national player, which Kayil has now confirmed with impressive performances.

It’s like this: German basketball players have long been able to win even when the two regular directors can’t. Without Schröder and Lo, but with Kayil as the commander, the selection of the German Basketball Association (DBB) won the game against Croatia in Bonn after extra time with 91:89. After an 88:93 defeat against the same opponent on Friday evening in Zagreb, the world champions thus gained a significantly better starting position for the further qualifying games for the World Cup in September 2027.

It took a few special features in basketball for such a constellation to arise: On the one hand, the defending champion also had to qualify for the world tournament in Qatar. On the other hand, the time windows for the qualifying games of the world association Fiba usually take place when both the NBA and the Euroleague are in the middle of their games – and do not consider it necessary to take a break in this regard.

So all the NBA players like Dennis Schröder and Franz Wagner as well as the key Euroleague players were absent. As always in this early qualifying phase, national coach Mumbrú had to make do with a B selection. A welcome opportunity to give the talents in the DBB squad some match practice. Players like Kayil, who represents the future of German basketball. The Alba Berlin professional is considered a candidate to make it permanently into the A team from Germany’s wealth of talent.

There are a few young German basket throwers with perspective: Hannes Steinbach, Christian Anderson, Sananda Fru, Johann Grünloh, Elias Rapieque and Ivan Kharchenkov. All players who have already proven their quality in the DBB’s youth teams – and will at some point strengthen or inherit the golden generation of world and European champions. However, for understandable reasons, all of these talents have accepted lucrative offers from the North American college league NCAA; according to a ruling by the US Federal Court in 2021, they can market themselves there – and earn much more money than students in the Basketball Bundesliga (BBL). Little horse’s foot: The NCAA is currently in its peak phase, so all these players are indispensable overseas like the NBA cracks.

Without FC Bayern, no world and European champions would be listed in the BBL

So Mumbrú is traditionally missing the best at the end of February, i.e. almost the entire World Cup and European Championship squad. The league is much better than it used to be, there is no longer any need to recruit old and deserving warriors like Bastian Doreth or Robin Benzing as before. But there is an unmistakable performance gap for players like Andreas Obst, Isaac Bonga, Daniel Theis and Johannes Voigtmann, who are now also absent. It cannot be prevented that the best basketball players regularly leave the BBL. The fact that the best talents are now leaving is a catastrophe for the league. Without FC Bayern, neither a world nor a European champion would already be listed in the BBL.

The Croatians had at least two of their best on the floor against the Germans in Mario Hezonja and Dario Saric: Hezonja was released by Real Madrid and Saric was available because he was recently left out of the squad by the NBA club Detroit Pistons and is currently trying to recommend himself to a new employer. In addition, naturalized US playmaker Jaleen Smith (formerly Alba Berlin) helped the German team win 93:88 in Zagreb. In addition to Kayil, who collected 15 points, the best throwers for the DBB selection were Johannes Thiemann (17) and David Krämer (22).

Which also mentions the key players in the success in Bonn. For a long time the Croatians, who led 50:41 at the break and were up to 15 points in the third quarter, looked like the winners. In the final phase, however, youngster Kayil took over, scoring 14 points, Krämer (10) finally started to score, and Louis Olinde (12) stopped the Croatians with impressive defensive actions – so the German team reached overtime with the 77:77 equalizer at the last minute. There the host and the outstanding Thiemann could no longer be stopped. The 32-year-old was the only world and European champion on the field; Thiemann had come from Japan and, despite jet lag in his legs, collected 24 points and twelve rebounds. In addition, Oscar da Silva from FC Bayern, who was missing on Friday due to Euroleague obligations, contributed 15 points and important actions to the victory. Especially in extra time, the experienced forces brought about a turnaround alongside Kayil.

It is an annual oddity that the top nations have to contest their qualifications for major tournaments with B selections, but despite this imbalance, the world and European champions’ claim must exceed a point share with manageably dangerous Croatians. Because the somewhat faded basketball nation was neither qualified for Germany’s World Cup triumph in 2023 nor for its European Championship title win last year.

Now the DBB can at least look forward to the upcoming qualification tasks with peace of mind. In July, the last compulsory tasks in Group E against Israel and Cyprus will take place, from which points will be taken against direct competitors. Then there will be a group of six with the three best in Group F for the three World Cup starting places. There will be strong opponents in Poland and Latvia – after all, these time windows are in August and November 2026 and February 2027. It is therefore possible that the German team will then have a completely different face with the participation of NBA people (at least in August) and Euroleague forces.

Jack Kayil will continue to be available to the national coach for the time being, but it is unclear for how long. The 20-year-old is currently on loan to Alba from the Serbian talent factory KK Mega Basket, but has already signed a contract for next season: He will move to college in Spokane and play for the Gonzaga Bulldogs.