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"Big games. I love big games," Dennis Schroder said. "I love the playoffs. I think every player is working for that moment." After regaining control of the series, Atkinson said he believed Wednesday's win was the kind that could help build resiliency for what Cleveland hopes will be a long playoff run. "We're trying to get over the hump," Atkinson said. "We're trying to get to the next level. That's a real mental challenge to me. Game 5, 2-2, these are high-pressure moments. You're down. You could feel the crowd getting nervous. I think we took a step tonight."
Danny Cunningham: #Cavs comeback to beat the Raptors 125-120. It was far from Cleveland's best, but it was good enough. Harden and Mobley both had 23 points, Mitchell had 19. Dennis Schroder had 19 off the bench and may have saved Cleveland's season. Cavs lead the series 3-2.
Dennis Schröder isn’t sure how many tattoos cover his body. He’s lost count. “It’s a lot,” the Cavs guard says with a bright smile. These aren’t impulsive inkings — the remnants of regrettable drunken escapades, lost bets or youthful mistakes. They serve as a personal sketchbook of Schröder’s improbable journey, with his slender body serving as the canvas.
“My tattoos mean something, every one of them,” Schröder said. “That’s what I promised my mom. I told her that I’m not just going to do crazy stuff. I’m only going to do stuff that has meaning to me. I think my journey has been unique and I want to have as many memories as possible on my body. “At the end of the day, I think these are great accomplishments. I think it’s great to be on 11 NBA teams. I just love everything about this journey. It’s my journey. God has a plan for everything, and I embrace every single moment through the ups and downs.”
After a chaotic regular season that only raised doubts about its championship viability, Cleveland has entered this postseason looking to rewrite the narrative — and it identified Schröder as someone who can help author that change. “We needed his edge,” Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson told cleveland.com. “We needed an edge in our locker room. We needed that force, grit, personality — that blunt personality. We were missing that. We needed his feistiness — or you can even call it nastiness, but in a good way. I always say I enjoy conflict with a team. It’s welcomed. He gives us something we didn’t have”
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“We would start individual workouts at 8:30 in the morning. And Dennis, once in a while, would not be there at 8:30. “I think him and Bud had a lot of one-on-one conversations. It was like a college freshman trying to adapt to this new superstructure. It took a little bit of time and there were bumps along the way. From Dennis’ perspective, coming from Germany and all the success he already had over there, I think he expected to start right away. He was very insistent on that. He was very confident in his abilities.”
“I’m 6-foot-1. I’m not the tallest guy. I have to find my role some other way,” Schröder admitted. “It’s my job here in the NBA to bring the energy and bring an edge. “I think it’s a great reputation to have. I’m not here to make friends. Off the court, everyone knows who I am, what I do, what I’m all about. That’s all that matters. On the court, I just try to make everything as difficult as possible. I’m trying to get wins by any means possible. That’s what I’m going to continue to do, whether people like it or not.”
An assistant for Mike Budenholzer at the time, in his second NBA stop, Atkinson didn’t know much about Schröder. But he learned quickly. And when thinking back to those early days with Schröder, Atkinson still chuckles about a brash turnover-prone teenager eager to make his NBA mark. Perhaps a bit too eager. “Dennis is, how should I say, extremely competitive and maybe wasn’t aware of all the nuances of the NBA — or he just didn’t care,” Atkinson told cleveland.com “He came to the NBA in full force. He wanted to take everybody’s job, which we loved about him. We had a really structured system in Atlanta from player development to team stuff, and I think he struggled with that as a rookie because the demands were extremely high.
A native of Braunschweig, Germany, Alex played basketball professionally — a longtime passion he transferred to his son, encouraging Dennis to swap out a skateboard for sneakers. It ultimately shaped his little boy’s professional path. “When my dad passed away, playing in the NBA was the only goal,” Schröder told cleveland.com during a recent sit-down interview. “Get to the NBA, make sure I can take care of my family and make sure I get to a point where eventually I put my kids in position to be set up and successful.”
“Tell me a little bit about what it means to be the captain and being the leader of that group. What are you looking for in your group as the captain, as the leader?” Dennis Schroeder: “It means everything, first off, to be a Black man in Germany and be the captain of a whole country. Even in the Olympics, holding the flag for Germany meant a lot personally to me and my family. But the team makes it easy on me because, like I said, we’ve got high-character guys who know what I believe in, what the coach believes in, and what the whole federation believes in. That’s the reason it makes it easy on me to be the captain and to lead the way, because everybody is so committed to our program and to winning.”
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Tell us a little bit about growing up in Germany. How was your experience just growing up in Germany around basketball? You know, you were always very, very competitive. Where did you get all of that from?” Dennis Schroeder “I mean, in Germany, nowadays it’s so easy — I would say, as a black kid growing up in Germany, it’s easier now than back in the day when I was growing up. I had probably like three Black friends. That was it in the whole city, you know, and we had 250,000 people in my city. So, yeah, growing up, all these kids asking you questions, all these kids trying to get under your skin sharpened me. The mentality of it was, ‘Hey, it’s me against everybody else.’ It didn’t matter what we were playing — soccer, ping pong, basketball, skateboarding — I wanted to win. I wanted to be the best because I wanted to show everybody that I belong here. And, of course, my family — my wife says I got it from my mom because my mom is really competitive as well when we play card games or board games. And, yeah, I think I got it from growing up in Germany and from my family, of course — the same DNA: trying to win, trying to come out on top. And, yeah, that mentality sharpened me along the way.”
I know in the NBA you’ve been a journeyman, but we always see you with the number 17. Is there a reason for that number? Can you share the story about that number 17?” Dennis Schroeder: “I can say it. My dad passed away when I was 15, you know, and he was one of my biggest supporters ever. He was a guy who gave me the vision to be able to help my family financially, making sure that they were stable, that everybody was good. And he said, ‘Yo, you can do it with basketball.’ Basketball back in the day was like — nobody played it in Germany, kind of, if that makes sense. Everybody was on soccer, and I did so many other things. I played soccer, did ping pong, of course basketball and skateboarding, and I wasn’t really committed. But then my dad passed away, and a week before, we had a conversation. He was like, ‘Yo, listen. I know that you are able to help the family in a big way if you go to basketball and you commit to basketball.’ And, yeah, when he passed away, 17 was his favorite number. In the youth club in Europe, you can’t go above 15. Fifteen is the top number and you can’t go above it. But then when I got older and played pro league, I went to 17. I had my best years with the number 17 as well. Got picked 17 by the Atlanta Hawks in 2013. Our first bronze medal with the German national team at the Euros was after 17 years again.
Dennis Schroeder: “With Atlanta, we won more than sixty games and really believed we could win the championship. The chemistry was there. Then we played Cleveland in the Eastern Conference Finals. In the first game, J.R. Smith hit a bunch of threes, LeBron felt good in front of our home crowd, and they beat us badly. Then they won again. We went to Cleveland telling ourselves we were still alive, but then it became 3-0 and eventually we got swept by LeBron James in his prime. At some point you have to admit that a guy like that, with a team defending at that level around him, was just too much. It was the same with Denver against the Lakers in 2023. Sometimes another team is just better in that round. But giving up is never the answer. Even at 0-3, you still think you can win the next game.”
