How big is Isaiah Hartenstein’s commitment in relation to the German national basketball team? Status of the NBA star had caused a sensation in the past few days.
Hartenstein had explained in the dpa interview: “I definitely play the Olympics.” As for the other tournaments, he first has to see “how my body feels”.
Isaiah Hartenstein could be one of the pillars of the national basketball team
Hartenstein has now answered these critics in the Podcast “Got Nexxt” by basketball journalist André Voigt. “I think there was talk of” Cherry Picking “(German Rosin Picking). I believe that the national team did it really well. How they play together is really something special and there doesn’t just want to intervene and say before the Olympics: ‘Hey, I want to come in’, made it clear.
Hartenstein also wants to play basketball European
Instead, he wanted to try to integrate in the team in the long term: “Otherwise it would not be fair to the people who were there all the time. I definitely want to play if I can play.”
However, there is still a small restriction from Hartenstein. “But as I said before: The NBA is always my number one,” said the 26-year-old.
But in a subsequent sentence, he makes it clear this time that he also wants to be there at the European Championship in the coming summer when his body plays along: “But mentally I want to play and give Germany back a bit.”
The statements sound significantly that Hartenstein could also be available to the DBB in the future away from the Olympic Games. It would be an absolute reinforcement. The center from Oklahoma from Oklahoma is one of the absolute top performers. He had last played for the national team in 2018.