Joe Asberry (196-F-1965, college: SF State) is an American ex professional basketball player that really has seen it all from crime to drugs, but also played against legends like David Robinson (215-C-65, college: Navy), Gary Payton, Jason Kidd and Brian Shaw and was teammates with German legendary player Christian Welp. He had a 11 year professional career that saw him toil around in the minor leagues of Germany, but he belonged to the best in his day at that level. Since retiring from the game, he has been a spokesperson for young kids and drug prevention, guest speaker, worked in the Alba Berlin organization, been a master of ceremonies for UBC Hannover and been a mentor for young Americans coming overseas trying to live the dream of being a professional basketball player. Currently he works with an agent and with young inspiring basketball kids and has his own podcast. He spoke to germanhoops.com about basketball.

Thanks Joe for talking to germanhoops.com. Where are you now and how is basketball life treating you?

Always my pleasure to catch up with you Miles. You’re my guy. Basketball life is treating me very well. I’m in Berlin.

One can call you a multi functional basketball workaholic. Tell me a little about all the projects that you are involved with now?

I’m involved in quite a few things. Scouting for Pro Basketball, trying to find talent for the Agents I’m working with. Working on putting together a Tour Team with a new Agent I want to work with and my guy, Elijah Allen,so that ‘Imports’ can get a foot in, the door doing Pro Hoops in Germany. So I’m on the grind for sure.

You have some street ball tournaments coming up. What can we await from that and who are some of the players being featured.

The Streetball Tournaments are going to very nice. I’m the MC at a big one at the Hangar. My guys,’Coach Oumar’ and ‘King Hezi’ Josh line it up. The tournaments is at Gorli Park. I’m not sure which players will pull up, but we always have Pro’s if the Stamm is there with CEO ‘Big Dia’

Another duty of yours is compiling the Eurobasket regionalliga awards. What do you enjoy most about compiling this data?

I enjoy it after the awards are up, when my guys that ball in that league, hit me up and tell me they appreciate me. I tell them hey, I didn’t GIVE you an Award, you played great, so you TOOK an Award. I know the ‘Imports’ playing in that league are trying to move up the ladder. I’m an American who dominated that league back in the days, so when guys are telling me they SHOULD be playing in the BBL, I tell them, Stop Talking, Put in the WORK, and prove to the Coaches here that you’re a REAL PRO and deserve to play at a higher level, or go and do Stand up Comedy! LOL!

You have witnessed getting the needed Information from coaches as being a tough task. Why is that?

I don’t understand it Miles to be honest. The last two years, ‘ve reached out to all of the coaches in the league to ask them to Vote for their players. Most Coaches don’t even respond to me. I won’t go too deep into it, because I don’t want to make it worse. So moving forward,I hope the Coaches see this interview and hit me up. The good news is I’m well connected. I get inside info from a few of the Coaches in the league that are my guys. I ask them who are the best players and who deserves to be on the list. After that it’s a numbers game.

How sad is that not all Regionalligas play for the title in a playoff mode? Do you ever see this happening? I hope in the future that every region will have a playoff mode to win the title.

Dyon Dyoeki has been here grinding for years. He had 26 and put his team on his back and carried them to Pro B. Shawn Scott was magnificient in the playoffs. Bryant Allen willed his team to the Pro B. He has been on the grind for years too. Gilbert Gyamfi had a flawless 40 point performance. Big Jascal Knoerig was also great in the playoffs. I watched a game in Hamm and it’s crazy to think coach Ivan Rostic took that gym from 50 fans to 1000 and a packed house. So the playoff vibe in the North and West was Awesome!

How have you seen the development of the Regionalliga in the last years? Is the quality of the players and teams improving?

The players are improving for sure. Guys are getting bigger, better, stronger and faster!

A big topic we like to discuss is these so talented Americans like Shawn Scott and Jeremy Ingram continuing to return to the Regionalliga because of their love for the game, but nobody above Regionalliga is willing to give them a chance. Will this ever change?

Sure hope it will change. Those two dudes are THE REAL DEAL! They can both play at the minimum Pro B. Scott has a motor like a Brand New 2024 Chevy Corvette. He can keep his team involved and then he hits this switch where there is NOTHING you can do. He can get to his spots with ease. Back in the days I played in the SF Pro Am at Kezar with Topper Allen and Richard Morton. Rich played in the BBL here. Those two guys could score between 20 and 50 points and not even break a sweat. Jeremy Ingram is that type of player. I call those guys Prolific Scorers.

What were your highlights of the 2023-2024 Regionalliga season?

My highlight was to see Dyon Dyoeki and Shawn Scott get player of the Year in their regions. Dyoeki has been trying to move up Neustadt for Years and he finally did it. Not alone of course. That was a great team but that last game he literally WILLED his team to a win. I felt like Scott was robbed. He won the chip with the Berlin Braves and they didn’t resign him to play in Pro B. His bounce back was magnificent to average 30,and push your team to the final game means that you’re GOOD enough to play in Pro B! PERIOD!

There were many great players again in the Regionalliga. Who were your best players in the last season?

Come on Miles don’t put me on the spot like that. There are too many ballaz that will be angry if I don’t mention them so I’ll take the high road. Elijah Allen came back from a Major Injury and he helped take a Giessen team that was horrible back to in the conversation to move to Pro B. Not to mention, I want to borrow his Raybans to do 1 of my Streetball Tournaments in 4k,so I must shout him out! LOL!

Who do you see reaching the NBA final and winning it all?

That’s a tough question. I want Minnesota because I feel like Anthony Edwards is the New MJ, but I think your boys in Boston will win it all. I think Tatum and Brown were mean puppies last year and now they’re BIG DAWGS!

Thanks Joe for the chat.