The two-time national champion has a chance to represent his home country once again at the Olympics.
Former UConn men’s basketball great Niels Giffey was named to Germany’s 2024 Paris Olympics men’s basketball roster on Friday. It marks the second time Giffey, who has played overseas since helping the Huskies to the 2014 national title in his senior season, will represent Germany at the Olympics after playing in the 2020 Tokyo Games.
Giffey is the first former UConn men’s basketball player to play in multiple Olympic games. He joins Ray Allen (USA, 2000), Emeka Okafor (USA, 2004), and Gavin Edwards (Japan, 2020) as the only UConn men’s basketball players to play in the Olympics. Giffey was also a member of the 2023 FIBA World Cup team that captured Germany’s first-ever title in basketball.
Since leaving UConn, Giffey spent seven seasons with Germany’s Alba Berlin club from 2014-2021. He played one season in Lithuania and another in Spain before returning to Germany at the start of the 2022 season, where he has spent the last two years with FC Bayern Munich. This past season, Giffey averaged 5.8 points per game and shot 46.6 percent from three.
Giffey will join NBA talent such as Dennis Schröder, Daniel Theis and Mo and Franz Wagner on Team Germany. His squad will begins pool play in Paris on Saturday, July 27 in Pool B, which is comprised of Brazil, France, and Japan.