Until maybe this weekend, Dennis Schroder was not in the position to make this demand of the NBA. Five teams in less than two season with very little minutes, not exactly the guy you stop and listen to. Now Dennis Schroder is the MVP who led the German national team to its first Eurobasket championship since 1993. And he’s one of the few who’s pulled a double FIBA World Cup and Eurobasket victory with an Olympic run in between. He credits a big part of this to the same core team that’s largely been the same for the past three years. And he wants the NBA to acknowledge his teammmates.
Among them is Isaac Bonga. He last played for the Toronto Raptors in 2022. His Lakers era didn’t coincide with Schroder’s. The 25-year-old shifted his focus to his home country’s team. He became a 2x German Cup winner, Bundesliga winner, and now Eurobasket championship by the age of 25.
At this Eurobasket finals game, Bonga was the all-round contributor with 20 points in the 88-83 win over Turkiye. The forward locked down Germany’s defense multiple times this summer. Which is why he won the Best Defender and Finals MVP honors at Eurobasket 2025.
Schroder, who won Eurobasket MVP, hailed his young teammate’s individual honors on his Instagram Stories. “JUST RIGHT!!! NBA PLAYER HURRY BACK!!!” he wrote with an obvious nudge-nudge-wink-wink to the NBA to take note of this 25-year-old German phenom.