Miles Schmidt-Scheuber and Ivan Kharchenkov´s first meeting in Frankfurt in 2021

For some reason, it never interested me to do a google search to see what other famous people had their birthdays with me until now where names like Sophia Loren, Scarlet Johannson, Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, David Hasselhoff, and Robert Downey Jr popped up. I actually found out at a young age which famous person shared the same birthday as me. When you buy Ice Hockey cards and studied stats as much as I did, it was no surprise that I learned somewhere around the age of 7 or 8 years old that legendary Montreal Canadian Guy Lafleur shared the same birthday with me on September 20th. I remember him being my favorite player as a kid even if I was a Boston Bruins fan, Peter McNabb was a close second. I remember wearing a Red like Canadians jersey and having written Lafleur on the back of his jersey. My favorite birthday memory as a young kid had to be when I met Franz Beckenbauer. My God father Aleko who was a Greek business man that lived in New York city and knew much of the high society including football legends Pele and Franz Beckenbauer who were at the end of their careers and were playing for the New York Cosmos. After school, My mom said let´s go we are taking the Eastern airlines shuttle to New York and there will be your birthday surprise. I was 11 and had no idea. We went to a high rise apartment building on 5th avenue and entered a room and there he was the “Kaiser”. In 1980, I knew little about world football, but knew that Germany had won the World Cup in 1974 and Beckenbauer was the best Libero in the world. He was very polite and signed many autographs and took pictures with me. It is definitely a moment I will never forget. It then took me many more years to discover that ex Georgetown guard Ashanti Cook also had the same birthday as me in 2006 when he played with Braunschweig and some years later after covering ex Fraport Skyliner and world cup champion Johannes Voigtmann that he also blew out the candles on the 20th of September. I found another person in 2021 that also shared my birthday and that is current FC Bayern Munich guard Ivan Kharchenkov (198-SG-2006). He is without a doubt one of the most talented and best German players from the birth year 2006. He recently won the Bronze medal at the Euro U-20 and last season became the youngest player to play in an easyCredit BBL game. I have watched his basketball journey since he turned 15 years old 2 years ago. He like me also has a favorite childhood memory around the same time as me. “I remember when I turned 10 that my parents got me a Steph Curry package that included a back pack, jersey, long sleeve and shorts”, said Ivan Kharchenkov.

Miles Schmidt-Scheuber and Franz Beckenbauer in New York city in 1980

I reach Ivan Kharchenkov who is proud of Germany having won the World Cup, but wouldn´t necessarily have predicted they would win before the tournament started at 10:30 in the morning 2 days before his birthday and the day after FC Bayern Munich won the Magenta Cup having beat Euroleague teams Bologna and Belgrad. He is in a good mood and always prepared to talk basketball with me. The roster that FC Bayern Munich have produced this season is simply incredible. The pick ups of ex NBA players Carsen Edwards and Leandro Bolmaro as well as guys like Dino Radoncic has shown that they want to get back to their winning ways. Keeping guys like Andi Obst, Isaac Bonga, Freddie Gillespie and Nick Weiler-Babb demonstrates they want to keep some continuity and chemistry from last season. But the icing on the cake was hauling in ex NBA player Serge Ibaka. Is there a sense of urgency to win titles and blow everyone away in the easyCredit BBL? “I wouldn´t necessarily say urgency. I mean we always want to win. We have a great coach and great new players. We feel no pressure”, warned Ivan Kharchenkov. Making crazy comparisons don´t always seem logical especially when you want to compare Germany´s chemistry that helped them win the World Cup to what FC Bayern Munich could develop this season, but in basketball anything is possible. “Germany had a great team, but why not develop a special chemistry like that? We have many good individual players. These new players are prepared to play for the team. We have unselfish players”, stressed Ivan Kharchenkov.

The young kid who once scored 84 points against Bamberg when he was 12 and is a 3 level scorer has had a remarkable pre-season. He scored 11 points against Real Madrid and got substantial minutes every time and played against many Euroleague teams. “My self-confidence continues to grow. Coach Laslo is testing a lot and also isn´t playing the main guys too much. That has allowed me and Martin Kalu to play more. I have realized that this is a lot different level than the Pro B”, stated Ivan Kharchenkov. Despite being out for 4 months last season, his game progressed. This season it would be beneficial if he could stay healthy. Already in pre-season he has realized that the Euroleague is tough, but one he will be able to adjust to with time. “I wanted to see where I stood at that level. I noticed that I don´t have the experience yet and can´t stand out yet, but it´s getting better. I feel like I will be good in the Euroleague in some years”, stressed Ivan Kharchenkov. Last weekend in the Magenta Cup, he battled against top Euroleague point guard Milos Teodosic and found out that his IQ is at an incredible level. “I played against him on pick and roll and he is still a good player despite not being the youngest anymore. He always had a high IQ, but it seems like with age it´s even better now. He doesn´t have many moves, but just uses what he needs to be successful with. It is difficult to stop him”, warned Ivan Kharchenkov. He obviously has profited by having daily battles in practice with Carsen Edwards and Nick Weiler-Babb so he will be best prepared when the season commences. “They don´t care how old I am. They just treat me like a regular BBL player. They answer all my questions. Communication is important. They give me vital tips and tricks about how to defend and movement. It´s the little things”, added Ivan Kharchenkov. Soon when world champion Andi Obst is back from doing the promotion rounds, the young 17 year old will hear the constant swish of Obst three´s from the parking lot. Could that help give him added confidence with his own three? “We will see. Maybe I will get less confidence. When you see how much he hits, you realize that you still have to do a lot of work in the shooting department. But I do look forward to guarding him”, commented Ivan Kharchenkov.

Now that Ivan Kharchenkov is 17 how does he in general feel about getting a year older? “To tell you the truth, I´m not really as excited about getting presents despite my young age. I know it´s a special day for everyone, but for me it just means I´m a year older”, commented Ivan Kharchenkov. It is interesting to note that he can´t really remember any great birthday parties as a kid. I can remember so many. I can remember having horses in my back yard or going mini golfing and perhaps the highlight was inviting my friends to a Redsox game where a bigger kid stole the foul ball I had grabbed. It isn´t too surprising to note that he was instilled with that normal basketball routine already as a kid. “My birthday is during the pre-season. I have school and practice. It was difficult having a kid´s party during school and practice. I really don´t remember having a birthday party as a kid”, said Ivan Kharchenkov. He had many solid games as a 16 year old recently against Euroleague teams. Were those performances by him like a birthday gift for him? “No not really. If I didn´t play well, then I got no gift. I had to earn my gifts”, warned Ivan Kharchenkov. I don´t really have any serious birthday wishes anymore. I mean if I would have to choose, I would ask for a life long supply of pop overs from my favorite Boston restaurant. It´s no surprise that for the young Bayern Phenom any gift have to do with basketball. “I would like to have a dinner or training with Michael Jordan or Steph Curry”, smiled Ivan Kharchenkov. One thing is for sure gifts or not, one thing that Ivan and I will forever be linked and share a birthday on the same day. And nobody can take that from us.