Seven German basketball players will try their luck in the NBA in the 2018/19 season. Besides the established Nowitzki, Schröder, Theis and Kleber there are also some new names. SPOX will explain and give you all the information about live transmissions of the games.
One more than last year. In the 2017/18 season there were six German players in the best basketball league in the world, this year there are seven.
Daniel Theis signed a two-year contract with Boston Celtics in the 2017 off-season after signing up for the 2013 NBA draft but not picking.
From 2014 to 2017 he played with Brose Bamberg and became BBL Champion in 2015, 2016 and 2017. He also won the cup with Bamberg in 2017 and was voted best defender of the BBL.
In his premiere season in the world’s best basketball league, he has already established himself. Shortly before the NBA playoffs he tore his meniscus after a strong rookie year and missed the hot phase.
Just like his team mate Dirk Nowitzki, Maxi Kleber also comes from Würzburg. The 2.11m man took the step to Texas in the 2017 off-season and joined the Dallas Mavericks.
From 2015 to 2017 Kleber played for Bayern Munich, after one year with Obradoiro CAB in the Spanish ACB and five years with the Baskets in Würzburg.
Kleber already signed up for the NBA draft in 2014 but, like five other Germans, was not drafted. Last season the Würzburg player already showed his talent, this season the Big Man wants to become an indispensable player for head coach Rick Carlisle.
Isaiah Hartenstein was selected by the Houston Rockets as the 43rd pick in the second round of the draft 2017. For the Rockets the youngster was not used in the Regular Season yet. Last season Hartenstein played for the G-League team of the Rockets, the Rio Grande Valley Vipers.
From 2009 to 2015, Hartenstein played with the Artland Dragons in Quakenbrück before moving to Zalgiris Kaunas in Lithuania. His father is Florian Hartenstein, who was himself an active basketball player and coach.
In the coming season, Hartenstein will above all learn. The Houston Rockets want to play for the title, so for the German it will only be a few minutes here and there.
Moritz Wagner was drafted by the LA Lakers in 25th place. Previously he reached the NCAA final with Michigan Wolverines, which they lost with 62:79 against Villanova. Wagner scored 16 points in the game.
The center originates from the youth of Alba Berlin, with whom he won the U-19 championship in the Basketball Bundesliga in 2014. However, Wagner also played with the first team in the EuroLeague. For the 2015/16 season, he then moved to the United States to the University of Michigan, where he spent three seasons.
Although he is granted good playing time in LA, Wagner probably misses the season opener. In the Summer League he injured his left knee and therefore could not participate in the preseason. These are not the best conditions, but the Lakers are not very low in the frontcourt. Wagner should therefore get his chance during the season.
Dennis Schröder from Braunschweig was hired by the Atlanta Hawks for the 17th pick in 2013. In the course of his NBA career, he played 285 Regular Season games and was used 34 times in the playoffs.
Since the departure of Jeff Teague to the Indiana Pacers last season, Schröder had secured his place in the Starting Five. The Point Guard averaged 30.5 minutes in the Regular Season 2016/2017, threw 17.9 points and scored 6.3 assists.
In the 2017 play-offs, the Hawks were eliminated by Washington Wizards in the first round, but Schröder had strong numbers. 24.7 points and 7.7 assists are a good score. He joined the Oklahoma City Thunder this season and will play for Russell Westbrook from the bank.
Dirk “Dirkules, The German Wonderkind” Nowitzki has been in the NBA since 1998. The former MVP and 2011 Champion was drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks as the 9th pick and landed in an immediate trade with the Dallas Mavericks, where the 40-year-old is still working today.
In the past NBA season, Nowitsky became a member of the “30,000” club. Only as the sixth player in history (LeBron James followed last) did he break the 30,000 NBA points mark. At the same time, he was the first European to achieve this.
At the NBA-Awards 2018 Nowitzki was awarded as Teammate-of-the-Year. In his 19 seasons, he played a total of 1,394 Regular Seasons and 145 Playoff Games.
Dirk Nowitzki: His greatest successes
Isaac Bonga is Moritz Wagner’s team mate at the LA Lakers, who secured the rights at the Point Guard in 39th place in the second selection round.
Between 2016 and 2018 he was active for the Frankfurt Skyliners, which received a transfer fee of 650,000 euros. Bonga comes from the youth department of Post SV Koblenz. During the 2014/15 season he gained his first experience in the men’s field and was promoted from the 2nd to the 1st regional league with the SG Lützel-Post Koblenz.
In Frankfurt, he was introduced to the Bundesliga squad by the third-league junior team and was able to make 15 appearances with the pros in the 2016/17 season. In July 2018, Bonga signed a three-year rookie contract. But Bonga can’t expect a lot of playing time – the Lakers see the German as a project that will develop mainly in the G-League and slowly be introduced to higher tasks.
At the draft 2016 Paul Zipser was drafted with the 48th pick by the Chicago Bulls, where he signed a two-year contract.
Zipser previously played for FC Bayern Munich for three years, winning the 2014 German championship with them. In 2016 he was also voted the best young German player.
For the Bulls, the Heidelberg-born player has played 50 games so far, including six in the playoff series against Boston Celtics, who lost them. In the Regular Season he threw an average of 5.5 points at 19.2 minutes played.
Currently, the Small Forward is still looking for a team, after the Bulls gave up the option of the German national player last summer.