Coach hails German basketball's 'best day' after hosts reach women’s FIBA World Cup semifinals

BERLIN (AP) — After what he called the “best day in German basketball,” Germany coach Olaf Lange is hopeful that kids watching the host team’s exploits at the women’s FIBA World Cup are inspired to try and emulate them some day.

Germany defeated European champion Belgium 93-74 on Thursday to reach the semifinals for the first time, delighting partizan supporters in the Berlin Arena and generating even more excitement for fans who have been waiting outside the team hotel for glimpses of the players during the tournament.

“When we leave the gym here, there’s hundreds of fans. When we leave the arena, there’s little kids on the side, they all want autographs,” Lange said. “Our young generation – hopefully all basketball players-to-be – seeing our players at the top, world, competing on this level, gracefully, and it’s hard, it’s physical, but it’s fair. It’s an incredible motivation for young kids to aspire to play.”

Germany had not even qualified for the World Cup since the unified country’s only previous appearance as host in 1998. East Germany’s women’s basketball team finished fourth at the 1967 tournament.

Soccer is by far the most popular sport in the country, with many Germans regarding basketball as something of a niche sport.

The country has its own basketball leagues known as the Bundesliga for both men and women, and there have been notable German basketball players who’ve gone on to star in the NBA and WNBA. Dirk Nowitzki, who played for the Dallas Mavericks, was among the best-known male players.

Several players in Germany’s World Cup squad play in the WNBA, including Leonie Fiebich, Luisa Geiselsöder, Nyara Sabally and Frieda Bühner.

Lange, who has worked extensively abroad and in the WNBA, said Germany needs success stories like Thursday’s to inspire younger players to take up the sport.

“We can have always more talent to play, especially on the girls’ side. So, this is incredible,” he said. “But at the same time, the World Cup is also a reflection of what happened before, because we wouldn’t have a World Cup in our own country, our federation wouldn’t invest money to have that if we didn’t already have success.”

Lange said his team’s progression to the semifinals is “as much a reflection of what happened in the past as it is an inspiration for our youth going forward.”

Germany will play France in Saturday’s semifinal, but Lange wasn’t looking forward just yet – he preferred to enjoy what his team had achieved in his home town so he could savor it a little more. He refused to answer a journalist’s question about the next opponent.

“I’m from Berlin, in front of the Berlin crowd, and seeing the fans, and if you feel as old as I am and you’ve been around basketball, then this is night and day to what we used to have," he said. "Now it’s a very special moment, so definitely even for me, it feels like the best day in German basketball.”

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