Brooklyn Nets star Dennis Schroder made history at the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics when he became the first Black person to carry the German flag at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.
Schroder, who was born to a Gambian mother, also made headlines with the German national basketball team last year after he captained the squad to clinch their first FIBA World Cup. And though he represents the country of his birth with pride, the 30-year-old in an interview with Andscape said it was tough growing up as a Black person in Germany.
“Growing up in Germany was tough, man,” he revealed. “It’s wrong, but I just went with it. In kindergarten people asked, ‘Why is your skin Black? ‘Why are you dirty?’ and all those little tough moments. But then when I started playing basketball at 12, I went to a basketball school and people started respecting and accept me as a Black person because I did something for Germany and for my hometown …”
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Schroder, however, said that “remembering all those tough moments, it makes it even sweeter to carry the flag and show everybody it’s possible to do something.”
Schroder also touched on people telling him that was impossible during his childhood and being at the center of ridicule when he expressed his desire to play in the NBA. “Because I remember when I was little people told me it’s not possible to do that,” he recalled.
“My dreams were the NBA and I said it and people was laughing. And it’s for sure possible if you put a lot of hard work and passion into it,” he said, though he admitted that “you got to have a lot of luck.”
“That comes with it. You got to have a family who supports you. My family was there since day one, every single game, never missed a game,” he continued. “So, all their support as well was just incredible. It’s just, it’s like a dream still to me that worked out that I carried the flag. That’s insane.”
Asked what advice he was going to give any Black German kid experiencing racism, Schroder said: “Everything I went through, of course, it makes me so mentally tough. I would probably tell him that it don’t matter what anybody says, it don’t matter if it’s the teacher, it don’t matter if it’s your coach, you got to see the vision. You got to, of course, stay humble, listen to your family. But at the end of the day, you just got to focus on what you want to accomplish because you can accomplish whatever you want.”
Schroder also reiterated on having abundant luck. “Of course, it is up to you, of course. I always say you got to have a lot of luck because I wouldn’t be in the league. I went to the [Nike] Hoop Summit [in 2013]. There was a 50-50 chance that I was going to play in the Hoop Summit because my team [Basketball Lowen Braunschweig] was playing to stay in the first division and not going down in the league,” he said.
“And I was thinking about not going, but going to that Hoop Summit changed my life. So, of course you got to have a little bit of luck and have the right connects and the right people that can connect you. It opens up everything you want to do.”
Schroder and the German national basketball team’s hope of clinching gold at the Paris Olympics was dealt a permanent blow when they lost 69-73 to France in the semifinal on Thursday. They are, however, still in contention for a bronze medal as they’ll be facing Serbia in the 3rd place match on Saturday.
