Dennis Schroder's road to the NBA
BRAUNSCHWEIG, GERMANY — Prinzen Park on Braunschweig’s east side is a blocks-long, tree-filled space with shaded pedestrian paths, but at the center is a big concrete oval where Atlanta Hawks point guard Dennis Schroder spent much of his youth.
He would finish school in the early afternoon and make his way through the city of a quarter-million people in central Germany, halfway between Berlin and Dortmund, until he reached the park. He’d stay until 10 or 11 p.m. Day after day, night after night.
Schroder, 22, has joined Dirk Nowitzki and Detlef Schrempf as the only Germans to make dents in the NBA. Schroder is the backup point guard in Atlanta, which improved by 22 wins last season and topped the Eastern Conference regular-season standings. Schroder, in his second season, made strides, improving his three-point and free throw shooting to average 10 points and 4.1 assists while playing just shy of 20 minutes a game.
As a kid, though, he frequented the concrete of Prinzen Park, where he’d play some basketball, but mostly he’d fly around on the ramps and rails. He was a skateboard addict.
Liviu Calin, head coach of Basketball Loewen Braunschweig’s youth program, would come to Prinzen to recruit talent. He noticed Schroder’s natural athleticism when he was skateboarding, playing soccer or messing around with a basketball. He asked Schroder time and again to come play for him.
At that point, Schroder hadn’t played ball indoors.
In Germany, you just didn’t dream of becoming a basketball star. Although Europe’s second-biggest country, Germany has trailed in developing basketball talent.
It has been outpaced by France, Greece, Italy, Russia, Spain and Turkey as well as smaller countries such as Croatia, Lithuania, Serbia and Slovenia. In the history of EuroBasket (formerly the European Basketball Championship), which started in 1935 and is held every two years, Germany has won two medals — the same as Egypt, Latvia and Bulgaria. Germany’s best finish in the Olympics was seventh in 1992. Germany’s domestic league, Basketball Bundesliga, ranks eighth in Europe.
“It’s the structure in the sport,” Calin says. “They don’t have basketball in high school or university here. The TV, the media, the sports structure in Germany, it’s only soccer. It’s not a social thing for kids to dream to become like Dirk or like Dennis.”
But Shroder had Calin, who wanted to see him develop. He had his brother, Che, and Che’s friends, five years older, as playground competition. He also had a fierce independence and an in-your-face, never-back-down approach to competition.
“When I was young, every time he’d see me going out the door, he wanted to come with me,” Che says about Dennis, the middle of five children ages 10 to 29. “And my momma said that I had to take him with me, just take care of him. He always wanted to play with the bigger boys.”
Dennis dominated against Che and friends in Prinzen Park and developed a swaggering, sometimes insufferable confidence.
The attitude served him well as he rose through the Braunschweig organization. The club develops teenagers through its farm system to eventually play for the professional team. But his defiance hindered his development. Though Schroder had turned in his skateboard shoes for basketball sneakers, his commitment to a hoops career was unconvincing. He clashed with Braunschweig teammates, and he lacked discipline. He was often late for practice if he even showed up.
Then when Schroder was 16, his father died. He had been sick, but, not wanting to worry his children, he never told them.
“His father was his mentor, his buddy, his everything,” Calin says.
Three years later, in the fall of 2012, before Schroder’s first full season in Germany’s top league, his mother Fatou, a hairdresser born in Gambia, wanted to give her son a new look, so she suggested dyeing his entire head blond. Dennis told her that was too much, so she settled for a small area in front.
Schroder doesn’t look or play like other Germans. That season, he set the German league on fire and drew scouts from Europe’s top leagues as well as the NBA. His highlight-reel handles, his explosiveness off the dribble and his improvisational alley-oop passes contrasted with the slower, plodding style of European leagues that rely on set plays and emphasize the halfcourt game rather than freelancing and one-on-one skill.
After a standout game in the Nike Hoops Summit in April 2013, Schroder was drafted 17th overall by Atlanta two months later. He was 19.
After the meteoric eight-month rise, there was no question. The hair was there to stay.
On a Thursday in July, Schroder works out in an inconspicuous gym in town, getting ready for his third NBA season.
This basketball court in Braunschweig doubles as a volleyball court and triples as an indoor soccer field.
Music plays through a small speaker as Schroder works on his catch-and-shoot three-pointers and his free throws. He simulates a pick-and-roll by maneuvering around a chair placed at the elbow. Six other friends and family members are there to hang out and watch, and his brothers are the easiest to spot. Dennis, Che and Borry, 12, all sport the same bleached blond patch of hair above the left eye.
The lack of dedication to basketball is long gone. Five years have passed since his father died, the point at which he committed himself to the sport. Fatou calls it the moment when Schroder turned into a man.
That’s when Schroder started showing up early to practice and spending more time with Calin. He realized basketball offered a way to take care of his family, to become the provider.
“I think everything in my life changed completely,” Schroder recalls after the workout. “My discipline was there, I was on time, I was just focused on basketball and taking care of my family because I knew they needed me.”
Schroder had a long conversation with his father two weeks before the fatal heart attack, although Dennis didn’t realize the end was near.
At that point, he had the talent, but not the drive.
“I told him. ‘I’m going to make it to the NBA,’” Dennis says. “I promised him.”