Dennis Schroder etched his name in FIBA lore with one of the best closing performances you’ll ever see.
The 31-year-old point guard scored six points in the final minute to lead Germany to its first EuroBasket title since 1993. Germany defeated Turkey 88-83 in the gold medal game held at Riga, Latvia.
The win comes two years after Deutschland — largely with the same core group of players — won the FIBA World Cup title in 2023 in Manila. The rare double of winning the World Cup and European championships boosts Germany into the top tier in FIBA, and it could now lay claim to the title of second-best team in the world behind only the United States.
“We never shy away from the big moments. It’s not just Franz, it’s not just me, it’s the whole team,” said Schroder, who finished the final with 16 points, a game-high 12 assists, and he was named MVP of EuroBasket 2025. Schroder became only the seventh player to win MVP at both EuroBasket and the FIBA World Cup. The other six were Sergei Belov, Drazen Dalipagic, Drazen Petrovic, Toni Kukoc, Dirk Nowitzki and Pau Gasol. All six are in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
The German captain was also named to the all-tournament team, joining teammate Franz Wagner, Turkey’s Alperen Sengun, Greece’s Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Slovenia’s Luka Doncic.
“To be a World Cup winner and European champ, it’s big time,” said Schroder, who averaged 20.3 points and 7.2 assists for the entire tournament.
Winning EuroBasket elevates Schroder’s profile. His NBA credentials may not be up to par with other established stars like LeBron James or Kevin Durant — he’s now on his ninth NBA team in 12 seasons — but he’s building an impressive FIBA resume.
And his performance down the stretch in the gold medal match against Turkey was one for the ages.
After Shane Larkin put Turkey ahead by one point with 1:34 left in the fourth quarter, Schroder answered seconds later with a lefty layup high off glass over Sengun to give Germany an 84-83 lead. Then with under 24 seconds remaining and the shot clock winding down, Schroder calmly pulled up from free throw line and swished a rainbow jumper over Ercan Osmani to put the Germans up by three with 18.4 seconds left.
Turkey had an opportunity to tie but Sengun’s desperation 3-point heave barely drew iron. Schroder grabbed the rebound and iced the game with two free throws.
Germany joins the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and Spain as the only nations to hold both FIBA World Cup and FIBA EuroBasket trophies at the same time.
Turkey reached the final for only the second time in 25 years after dismantling Greece 94-68 in the semifinals. Osmani starred with 18 of his 28 points in the first half alone, and Sengun added 15 points, 12 rebounds and 6 assists.
Meanwhile, Germany booked their spot in the final after beating Finland 98-86. Schroder led the way with 26 points and 12 assists, with Franz Wagner adding 23 points in the win. Schroder’s 12 assists set a new EuroBasket record in the semifinals. Lauri Markkanen was held to 16 points (2-for-9 from 3-point and 6-for-17 from the field), eight points below his scoring average in the tournament. In two games against Germany, Markkannen was held to 13.5 points and 2-for-14 from behind the arc.
ONE-MAN SHOWS
EuroBasket 2025 produced many outstanding individual performances. From Luka Doncic’s historic scoring games to Giannis Antetokounmpo’s individual brilliance, the best basketball players in the world showed up and showed out in Riga.
Giannis put Greece on his back with a 30-point, 17-rebound performance in the bronze medal match against Finland. Giannis also added six assists, giving him a 20-10-5 stat line for the fourth time in the tournament. No other player has more than three over the last 30 years of EuroBasket.
It was Greece’s first EuroBasket medal since winning bronze in 2009. Head coach Vassilis Spanoulis was on the last Greek team that made the podium in EuroBasket.
Giannis called winning a bronze medal for his country “one of his biggest accomplishments.”
“I know I’ve won an NBA championship, but there’s no feeling like representing your national team and representing 12 million people that breathe and live this national team. This is probably the greatest accomplishment so far in my life,” the Milwaukee Bucks star said.
The Greek Freak scored 37 points, going 18-for-23 from the field, and grabbed 10 rebounds in leading Greece to an 84-79 win over Israel in the Round of 16. Only one other player on Greece scored in double figures (Kostas Sloukas had 11 points).
Luka Doncic’s one-man show continued in the knockout stage as the L.A. Lakers superstar dropped 42 points on 11-for-19 from the field, including 5-for-11 from 3-point, and had 10 rebounds in carrying Slovenia past Italy 84-77. The 42 points are five points off Doncic’s EuroBasket high mark of 47 against France in 2022.
Slovenia was eliminated by eventual EuroBasket champ Germany in the quarterfinals. In a loss, Doncic dropped 39 points on 11-for-25 shooting from the field and hit five 3-pointers. He also added 10 rebounds and seven assists.
Doncic finished with a tournament-best 34.7 points per game, becoming only the third player to average north of 30 points. Doncic’s 34.7 average is the third-best mark in tournament history. Only Greek legend Nikos Galis had a better tournament scoring average. Galis averaged 37.0 in 1987 and 35.6 in 1989.
SHOCKING UPSETS
In the most stunning result of the tournament, gold medal favorite Serbia was eliminated in the Round of 16 by Finland despite 33 points from Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokic. The Joker is still searching for that elusive FIBA gold medal, and this is the second straight EuroBasket tournament that Serbia went out in the Round of 16. Serbia lost to Italy in the Round of 16 in 2022, and now they bow out in the same stage in 2025, this time to Finland.
Finland got a team-high 29 points from Lauri Markkanen and timely 3-pointers from Elias Valtonen. The Fins pounded Serbia on the boards to the tune of 45-36 advantage, including 20 offensive rebounds.
Finland started on fire and went up 11-1 and extended the lead to 16-5 midway through the first quarter.
“They played a great game. From the start we didn’t come ready. I just wasn’t ready from the jump,” said Serbia forward Nikola Jovic, who plays for the Miami Heat. “Their 20 offensive rebounds were just unacceptable. We knew what they were doing, we prepared well, we watched film, still they managed to just better and more physical than us.”
The other major upset in the Round of 16 was Georgia beating France 80-70. The Paris Olympics silver medalists led for just four minutes as Georgia, behind the outside shooting of Bayern Munich guard Kamar Baldwin. Baldwin, who played college ball at Butler but went undrafted, picked a perfect timing for his EuroBasket career-high, scoring 24 points on 8-of-10 shooting from the field.