BERLIN (Germany) - For the 12 players representing Germany, the road to the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup began much closer to home compared to the players on the other 15 teams. For Frieda Buhner, that journey began four hours away.
Long before the German forward was competing on the biggest stage in women’s basketball, she was in the garden of her family home in Osnabruck, shooting alongside her father and brothers.
Now, with the World Cup taking place in Germany, Buhner has the chance to bring that journey full circle.
“It means everything,” Buhner told FIBA of representing Germany on home soil. “First of all, I love playing for Germany, wherever it is. But then now at home, I think this is such a huge opportunity and also just such an honour.”
The significance of the moment is not lost on her. Playing at a World Cup is already a rare achievement. Doing so in front of a home crowd is something Buhner recognises many only dream about.
“The World Cup is already like a huge deal, but playing it at home is maybe a once-in-a-lifetime thing,” she said. “So, it’s just amazing, and we’re all so excited.”
A family always in the stands
While the whole country will be rallying behind the hosts as a “13th man,” Buhner will have a much smaller but more personal support group making the journey to Berlin. Her parents will make the roughly four-hour drive from Osnabruck to watch their daughter compete.
Her two brothers will not be able to join them. One is a professional basketball player himself and is currently in pre-season, while her 17-year-old brother has school commitments. For Buhner, though, having her parents in the stands is more than enough.
“They fly everywhere, they drive everywhere for me. They came to Portland, they came to Madrid, you know, they’re just everywhere I am and play basketball there,” Buhner shared. That unwavering support has been a constant throughout her career, and Buhner is acutely aware that reaching this stage has never been a solo effort.
“When you think back, there are so many people that helped you along your way, and you don’t really realise it at first,” she shared. Her parents are an obvious example, but Buhner also remembers the teammates and coaches who may have only been part of her journey for a short time.
“Sometimes it’s just a coach you had only for one year or a teammate or something.”
From the garden to Berlin Arena
Buhner’s father built a basketball court in the family garden for her and her brothers, creating a space where she could spend countless hours shooting and developing the fundamentals that would eventually take her to the biggest stages all over the world.
Buhner laughed when asked whether some of those moves from the garden will make an appearance at the World Cup.
“I practised a lot of moves on that court, but I feel like the game has grown so much that sometimes I can’t use them anymore,” she shared. “I don’t have a size advantage sometimes, so it’s not working.”
However, one thing has stayed with her: the shooting.
“In my garden, I shot a lot with my dad. We were shooting the whole time, and he was rebounding for us,” she recalled. While her bag may not contain any of those moves, Buhner admits that even being here is no small feat.
I don’t think I ever imagined something like this; I think that little me would be very proud of me
Finding her place in Germany’s Basketball family
This World Cup represents another step in Buhner’s development within the German national team, which has been budding since her senior women’s debut at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
“This is my third summer now playing a competition with Germany,” she said. “I feel a little bit more established in the team.”
That feeling has been built gradually, through summers spent with the national team and experiences that have helped her understand her place within the group as her production has increased with each senior team appearance. She averaged 13.2 points, 5.2 rebounds and 1.8 assists in the Women's World Cup Qualifying Tournament earlier this year.
“I feel like I just kind of worked my way into this team,” Buhner said. And as she looks around at her teammates, there is another source of comfort: familiarity.
“For some people, you play with them for so many years,” she said. “We are like a family, and it makes me really happy to be here.”
A new audience for German Basketball
That family feeling could prove especially valuable as Germany takes to the court in front of an audience that has shown an enormous appetite for the tournament. With over 200,000 tickets already sold, Buhner sees the interest as evidence of just how far basketball has travelled beyond its traditional strongholds.
“I feel like before it was like the USA is the hub of basketball, but now it’s really just everywhere,” she said. And for Germany, the enthusiasm surrounding the women’s basketball team carries an added significance.
“Germany is a football or soccer country,” Buhner said. “So now to see the motivation or the support we get from Germans in Germany and then probably all around the world, people that want to come and watch us play, it’s crazy if you think about it.”
Rather than allowing the scale of the occasion to become overwhelming, Buhner is choosing to embrace it. “There’s always a little bit of pressure,” she acknowledged. “But I think we can just be happy about so many people coming and supporting.” For her, the dominant emotion is simple;
“Excitement for sure.”
FIBA