Careers in professional basketball can appear massively different depending on if a player stars in the NBA or anywhere else in the world, but all roads tend to lead back to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
For the Los Angeles Lakers’ 40-year-old forward LeBron James, he knows that his spot in the Hall has been locked down for a long while, but the legendary wing made a case for an unsuspecting candidate during a recent episode of his Mind the Game podcast with co-host Steve Nash.
While discussing James’ teammate Luka Dončić’s run in EuroBasket this past summer for Slovenia, Nash suggested that German basketball star and 12-year NBA journeyman Dennis Schröder has a case to receive a “Naismith Orange” jacket in the future.
Ultimately, the 21-time All-Star concurred.
“Yeah, I mean, I’ve seen a lot of the stats as well and a lot of the accomplishments this summer after EuroBasket,” the incoming 23-year pro shared Wednesday.
“If (Schröder is elected), I wouldn’t be like, ‘Oh my God, I’m so proud!”
“No. He’s put in the work, man.”
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“The international game is a big part of our game in the whole grand scheme of things.”
After the 32-year-old point guard led Germany to the EuroBasket championship with an 88-83 Final victory over Turkey, Schröder began to create dialogue around his status as one of the greatest international basketball players ever.
Schröder, who joined James on the Lakers for two different stints in the 2020-21 and 2022-23 seasons, nabbed a FIBA World Cup MVP win in 2023 and EuroBasket MVP honors for his stellar performance in 2025.
Aside from his decorated international playing career, Schröder has also established himself as one of the NBA’s most reliable reserve guards of his generation, as evidenced by a second-place finish for Sixth Man of the Year honors as a member of the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2019-20.
The shifty, undersized scoring guard has averaged career figures of 13.9 points and 4.9 assists on a 48.5% effective field goal percentage, and he’ll aim to produce at a consistent rate for the Sacramento Kings in 2025-26 as one of their top free agent signings.
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