We are recalling all foreign players that have ever played in the League, telling about foreign championships and National teams of different countries in World basketball map project. Today we will tell about basketball in Germany.
Population: 83,2 mln
Players in the history of League: 4.
Full list of players: Tomas Vyoral (Czech Republic), Tim Ohlbrecht, Johannes Voigtmann, Jan Jagla.
The first German basketball player to ever compete in VTB United League is seven-footer Jan Jagla. Dirk Nowitzki National team teammate and coach Svetislav Pesic’s son-in-law spent 4 games in Polish Asseco Prokom averaging 11,0 points and 8,5 rebounds per game.
In 2015-16 season German National team center Tim Olhbrecht became Enisey player (29 games, 11,3 points), and since 2019 one more Die Mannschaft big man Johannes Voigtmann has been CSKA player (16 games, 8,6 points).
Besides, the most popular German coach Dirk Bauermann has worked in the League. Famous specialist, who was heading the team in 2005 when they took Eurobasket silver medals spent 2014/15 season in Volgograd as Krasny Oktyabr head coach.
Basketball in Germany
League: easyCredit Basketball Bundesliga (BBL)
Founded: in 1966
Number of teams: 17
League’s web-site: https://www.easycredit-bbl.de/de/
First basketball championship in Germany took place in 1939 but Basketball Bundesliga, the main club tournament in country even now, was founded by German Basketball Association only 27 years later.
In last season 17 teams from 17 different cities participated and Berlin Alba became the champion, they caught up Heidelberg and Brose Bamberg in number of titles (9). The most titled German team is Bayer 04 Leverkusen – 14 wins. In 2019/20 Heidelberg and Bayer participated in Pro A League, the second best German division.
8 German clubs participated in European cups last season: Bayern and Alba in Euroleague, Oldenburg and Ulm in Eurocup, Brose Bamberg, Rasta Fechta and Telekom Bonn in Champions League, and Bayreuth in FIBA European Cup.
German championship has an Arena capacity minimal requirement (not less than 3000 people), they hold and All-Star Game and German Cup (BBL-Pokal) annually, and moreover, there are lots of individual awards like Most spectacular player, Most improved player, Best German rookie, Offensive player of the year, Defensive player of the year, Best scorer, most valuable player of the regular season, Final MVP, Coach of the year and Symbolic All-five of the German chapionship.
There are a lot of VTB United League former and actual players among these awards owners. For example, Malcolm Delaney, Jamel McLean, Raymar Morgan and Will Cummings became regular season MVP, D.J. Kennedy, Raymar Morgan and Philip Scrubb were offensive players of the year. Besides, Will Clyburn, Garlon Green and Austin Hollins became German slam dunk contest champion.
In 90-s Soviet players were pretty successful in Germany. In 1990 Rimas Kurtinaitis was the best scorer of the season playing for Hagen, and in 1994 Sergey Babkov, Trier player. In 1998 Vasily Karasev became German champion as Alba player.
Interesting fact
The first basketball game in Germany took place in 1896 in Braunschweig.
Physical education teacher August Hermann in cooperation with Konrad Koch arranged first football game in Germany in 1874, Hermann found out about new game from his son who was studying in Boston University. August considered basketball as female version of football.
In 1896 August Hermann arranged the game of two female teams, and later he wrote a book with basketball rules (ger. -Korbball).
German National team
FIBA rank: 18
FIBA members: since 1934
Achievements: Eurobasket champions (1993), Eurobasket silver medalists (2005), World Cup bronze medals (2002)
Basketball was included in Summer Olympic games sports in 1936. The games took place in Berlin and German National team participated in big international tournament for the first time.
German team debuted in Eurobasket only in 1951 (7th event) and on World Cup in 1986 (10th event).
The biggest National team success in their history is gold medals on domestic Eurobasket in 1993. Germany wasn’t a contender but made it to the play-offs from the 4th place in their group with 2-3 record, then they took 3 sensational win in a row with minimal advantage. In quarterfinal Germans beat Spaniards (79:77), and in semi-final they disappointed Greece (76:73), and in decisive game they snatched the victory from Russians on last seconds (71:70) via and-one by Christian Welp. As a result, he became tournament MVP, and Die Mannschaft victory became one of the biggest sensations in the history of international basketball competitions.
In 00-s German national team, leaded by Nowitzki won bronze medals on 2002 Olympic games and silver on Eurobasket (2005). In both cases legendary forward was tournament MVP.
Nowadays, Germany is ranked 18th in FIBA list and prepares to host the part of Eurobasket 2022 games. In doing so, it is the fifth time when German cities will host Europe championship games (1971, 1985, 1993, 2015, 2022) it is an absolute record.
The most famous German players in history
Dirk Nowitzki. NBA legend and the best European player in the history. NBA champion (2011), 2007 NBA regular season MVP and Finals MVP (2011), 14-time NBA All-Star, 2002 World Cup MVP, 2005 Eurobasket MVP, and NBA leader in seasons spent in one team (21 season) and points scored by a foreign player (31560).
Detlef Schrempf. 8th pick on 1985 NBA draft. Detlef spent 16 seasons in NBA, he is a 3-time All-Star and 2-time sixth man of the year. Schrempf is 2-time participant of Olympic games as a German National team player.
Shawn Bradley. One of the tallest NBA players (7,5 ft) was selected with the second overall pick of 1993 NBA draft and spent there 12 seasons. In 1996 he took part in filming for Space Jam, in 1997 became NBA season blockshot leader.
Chris Welp. 1993 Eurobasket champion and MVP. Furthermore, Welp was Euroleague (1997) Greece (1997) and Germany (1991-1996, 1998) champion. Since 1987 till 1990 the center had played in NBA.
Dennis Schroder. 26-years old guard is now German National team leader and one of the main Oklahoma City Thunder players. He spent 7 seasons in NBA (4th best among German players) and 6968 career points (3rd among German players).
Dmitriy Kolinov
