Dennis on Der Spiegel

[DJlaysitup]

I was fooling around today...looking to see how the Germans are taking our NSA spying on Merkel's phone calls and ran across this article...some cool information on Dennis:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/german-rookie-dennis-Schröder-hoping-for-basketball-stardom-a-931038.html

I didn't see it posted before so here it is....

[Guest]

Very good reaad, thanks for posting!

Highlights:

At age 17, Schröder was a junior national player, and his teammates said that he was so arrogant that he wouldn't pass the ball to fellow players who he thought were untalented. (damn Shredder,lol)

When Schröder was trying out for the German national team at age 16, he made a promise to his father: I'm going to make it into the NBA. Schröder's mother comes from Gambia and runs a hair salon in Braunschweig. His father was German and worked for engineering giant Siemens. He died of a heart attack two and half weeks after his son made his promise.

His father's death changed Schröder's life. He dropped the attitude, buckled down and started training harder. He says he had to keep his promise.

There are veterans like Elton Brand, 34, who was once an up-and-coming star in the NBA. Now he's coming to the end of his career and often sits on the bench, but touchingly looks after Schröder during away games.

I especially like this:

Schröder watches a lot of videos. Every training session by the Hawks is recorded and he studies them at home, he says, because it helps him improve. He also puts in plenty of extra hours. His shooting average has so far been mediocre, so he's practicing layups, medium-range shots and three-pointers before the actual training begins.

When he came to Atlanta in late August, he weighed 71 kilos (156 pounds). He had to put on at least five more kilos, his coach said, "or they'll blow you over in the NBA." Training includes 45 minutes in the weight room and three protein shakes, which the Hawks' fitness guru mixes for him. Schröder now weighs 78 kilos and still looks as if they would blow him over.

[DS17Fanboy]

He does have a bit of Payton's attitude in many ways.

Other than that, I like he puts in allot of extra work and already gained 14 pounds of muscle. Also small things like not wanting to see Atlanta's homeless to stay focused on b-ball, which may sound negative, but actually shows that he's sensible, thinking that this might affect him to much, and that negative thoughts might get his focus down.

He's very pro-smart.

His last game against LA was also a big step forward IMO. He had less TO's and stupid fouls, was thrown into a situation where Atlanta was blown out but in his period Atlanta stabilized the game, and after missing open long range shots reverted to some effective drives to the basket. He gets more secure out there

Edited November 5, 2013 by DS17Fanboy

[DJlaysitup]

Highlights:

At age 17, Schröder was a junior national player, and his teammates said that he was so arrogant that he wouldn't pass the ball to fellow players who he thought were untalented. (damn Shredder,lol)

LOL...maybe that's part of why we let Smoove go...Shredder wouldn't have thrown him the ball..

Edited November 5, 2013 by DJlaysitup

[Admin]

I really thought this post would have to do something with Dennis on the cover of a catalog...

[cam1218]

I'm really impressed with Dennis so far, he is going to be a really good player. You can see it in his play and reading things like this really make you appreciate what kind of player he is at such a young age.Minus Horford, our best draft picks have been outside of the lottery. Smoove, Teague, Schröder and Jenkins/Scott appear to be decent players. Obviously we haven't been in the lottery for awhile but that may be a good thing!

[ATLHawks3]

Good to know he's working on his weaknesses to refine his overall game. Once he does that, NBA watch out................