Adam Ramstedt (210-C-1995) is a 29 year old 2010cm center from Sweden playing his first season with Hermine Nantes Atlantique (France-ProB). He began his basketball career with the Talje Knights (Basketettan). With the exception of playing briefly with Debreceni Egyetem (Hungary-A Division) and GTK Gliwice (Poland-EBL), he has palyed the rest of his career in Sweden playing 4 seasons with the Sodertalje Kings (Basketligan) and 5 seasons with the Norrkoping Dolphins (Basketligan). He spoke to germanhoops.com before a Euro 2025 qualifying game against Germany.

Thanks Adam for talking to germanhoops.com. You have been a member of the Swedish national team for many years. What is it like playing against Germany now since they are World Champions? Does that feel a little overwhelming or is it just 2 normal games again?

Playing against Germany is never easy and we know it. We’ve faced them multiple times in both friendly games and within competition games and it has never been easy for us. We know that they are not bringing their full roster who won the World Cup to Stockholm on the 22 of November, but that does not mean that we can relax and think that its going make it much easier. Germany will always put up with good players who represent their country and I can bet that they are coming with a really strong team to face us for these two games. I wouldn’t say that these two games are just “normal”, it´s always special to play in front of your fans in your home country in front of big crowds. It´s nothing that is new for the Swedish national team so we are definitely ready for the challenge to try to perform our best and hopefully do well in these important games.

This time Germany will be weaker with no NBA or Euroleague players. Will you guys be extra motivated? How good do you see your chances of winning?

Motivation would have been high for whatever roster they would have brought to play these games in November, we are going to focus on ourselves first and then adept to whatever team that we have to face. Like I said earlier, we know that it is not the winners of the World Cup who we are going to face, but it is still a big challange for us. I believe that with this group of players, and staff, that we have we can really compete with a lot of great national teams. I would not count us out from advancing to the european championship next summer.

How is the state of Swedish basketball now with the national team? The team has good chemistry and some guys that have been a mainstay in the ACB for years. What young guys are coming up?

The state of swedish basket ball in general is great, we can see that the numbers are saying that basket ball is one of the sports thats grows a lot right now in our country. We have a lot of good players playing internationally and the womens national team who just advanced to the european championship after performing really well in the qualifier’s are doing great! The mens national team is also on a good path were we have a great group of guys with amazing chemistry and the raw talent to actually win games. We are starting to see a group that has come together during multiple national team windows to build something that hopefully will last a couple years through continuity. We got young guys like Bara Njie and Melwin Pantzar who hopefully will be a part of the national team for many years to come.

Is Melvin Pantzar on his way this season in the ACB for his break out? Is this a guy that could reach the Euroleague down the road?

Yes I believe so! Melwin is a player that really has proven himsef in the national team and foremost with Bilbao both in ACB but also in FIBA europé cup. I think that the sky is the limit for him, you can put him in whatever team and he would do well becasue of the high IQ basketball he plays and how he puts his pride on playing great defense as well. I can definitely se him on a euroleague team in a couple years.

The team has experienced big men in the national team. What exactly is your role on the team?

My role throughout the years has differed depending on what team we’ve had for that specific game. My role is usually bringing energy from the bench with high quality defense, spreading the floor and being a supporting overall player who can fit with multiple different line ups. This time with Simon Birgander on the team, my role is usually backing him up and bringing another dimension as a position five who spaces the floor and be flexible in playing different pick and roll coverages.

What is it like playing on the national team with Nicholas Spires. He told me you are one of his best friends. Your nicest moment with him?

Yes me and Nick go way back to even the youth national team, we have played together in two different club teams in Sweden and throughout the years in the mens national team. It´s always been amazing playing with him, we play very well together since we know each other very well both on and off the court. He is indeed one of my closest friends so its always been fun having him as my teammate. The best moments we have shared as players is probably when we won the swedish basketball league finals together in 2023, that was a amazing feeling. As his friend off the court, the beat moment was probably attending his beautiful marriage this last summer.

How do you believe have you guys profited from each other in the last decade? How influential a player has he been for your game over the years?

I think we really have pushed each other in practices by being good competitors against one another. Both of us really like to win so playing a lot against each other has really helped both of us develop in a great way. We do have a similar type of playing style so there has always competition beetwen us of course, but both of us has developed through that competition.

You began your basketball career with the Talje Knights (Basketettan). What memories do you have of these years? How do you remember yourself developing further there?

At that point in my life I think I did not really have a plan with my basket ball career. Basketettan was at that point the second league of Sweden and Talje Knights was the second team to Sodertalje Kings who played in the first league. At this point, when I’m still in high school, I’m still just playing becasue I enjoyed the game a lot and I had talent. To be honest I would not have thought that I was going to make it to where I am now thinking back to my mentality during those years when I was 18 years old. I do remember that I never had any problems with working hard, so I was always disciplined and ambitious during these years. I was also a late bloomer and was still grooing at this time so that helped with developing my outside game before I have finished growing to 209 cm.

In the 2015-2016 season you played your first season with the Sodertalje Kings (Basketligan) and played 7 Fiba Europe Cup games. You played against Frankfurt that later won the Fiba Europe Cup with head coach Gordon Herbert. Do you remember how dominating that Frankfurt team was?

Yes we had a pretty good run that year if I remember right, we managed to make it to the second round at least. Yes I remember Frankfurt being a reall powerhouse with Herbert as coach and Johannes Voigtmann leading them. At this point I barely saw the court because of how strong of a team that we had but I was also very inexperienced at 20 years old.

In 2016 you won the league title with the Sodertalje Kings. That was a special team winning the title. How vital was leader Skyler Bowlin for the team winning the title?

Yes that years of Sodertalje Kings was truly special, we had such a great roster. Skyler Bowling was one of the players who fitted really well with the type of playing style that coach Vedran Bosnic played. He was a great leader on and of the court who provided with lethal outside scoring. Other than Skyler we had Toni Bizaca who led our team in scoring on the position 4, Chris Czerapowitz who has had a great european career and currently plays for GTK Gliwice (my old team) and of coruse with us in the national team. I can name all of the players individually that we had that year but that would take to long time.

Twice you left Sweden to go to Debreceni Egyetem (Hungary-A Division) and to GTK Gliwice (Poland-EBL) but returned back in the same season to Sweden. Did you get home sick?

I wasn’t really about me being home sick when I was returning to my old clubs during these two seasons. It was more about the situation and that both of my old Swedish clubs, Sodertljje BBK and Norrkoping Dolphins, had just gotten an opening in their roster on my position where I would fit great. Both of my experiences in Hungary and Poland was the clubs wanting to part ways with me when the teams did not perform well in their leagues. In DEAC we had a rough start to the season, I was a young 23 year old import, with back problems at that time, who did not perform any good numbers. In GTK Gliwice they were desperate to try anything in terms of switching out players because of how poorly we performed as a team, so we decided to part ways in January 2022 after the club already had parted ways with 6 other players before me. To make two long stories short you can say that I did not meet up to the expectations in both of these organisations, but I’m very greatful for these two opportunities because rhey taught me so much about being a professional basketball player outside of your domestic country.

Talk a little about your time in Hungary and Poland. What did you cherish most about your time there?

I will always cherish the bonds I’ve created with some of the teammates I had in both Hungary and Poland. And like I said before both of the situation taught me about living far away from my family, being more independent as a human being and learnning how it is to play as a import.

You then played 5 seasons with Norrkoping Dolphins (Basketligan) and won 5 titles. You played your best basketball in these years. Was this the best time of your life in basketball?

Yes, those years in Norrkoping has definitely been the best basketball years I’ve experienced as a player. I’ve had great success individually in Norrkoping but also with the team who managed to bring home 4 league championships and 2 cup titals during my time there.

You had many playoff series in Sweden, but was the 2024 final against Boras the most exciting? What memories do you have of that exciting series?

The 2024 SBL finals against Boras was definitely exciting, but I wouldn’t put it up there as the most exciting out of all my playoffs experiences. If I would have to choose the most exciting playoffs series that I have ever experienced it would probably be the 2022 SBL finals against Jamtland and 2023 Semi-finals also against Jamtland. The finals in 2022 ended up 4-2 for us where we won the last game away on their home court. If we would have lost that one it would have tured in to a game 7 in Norrkoping wich could have gone either way because Jamtland had a really good team that year. The 2023 semi-finals actually went to a game 7 were we won it away in Jamtland. We were the 3rd seed before playoffs that year so going to the finals as underdogs that season is something that I never will forget.

Now your playing abroad again this time with Hermine Nantes Atlantique (France-ProB). What kind of an experience has it been? Where would you rate the France Pro B in skill level compared with Sweden, Hungary and Poland?

We’ve had a very bad start to the season here in the French pro B, we are now at 19th place with a 2-10 win/loss record. This is definitely under our expectation before coming to this season and it is something we are trying to change for the upcoming part of the season. Other than that we as a team haven’t met up to the expectations yet I’ve enjoyed my stay in Nantes. The club is professional, nice city, good housing and a good group of guys. The league in itself is very competitive filled with great teams and talent. It´s a fast and very athletic league who plays very physical so it´s taking its time to adept to the pace of the league.

What is it like battling French big man Darel Poirior on a daily basis? 2 vets going head to head. Who gets the best of each other most?

Its been great, he is a great competiter who always plays hard. Hard to say who gets the better of one another the most, we don´t always play againt each other since he only plays the 4 and I’m both 4 and 5 in our team. Sometimes we play with each other and sometimes we play against eacher without even guarding one another.

Who wins a 1-1 in practice you or Nicholas Spires?

Haha great question. Since no one of us is truly a “one on one player” I would say we go pretty even if we play each other. It would depend on who has the best day to day shape and flow of the game.

Who is the best player that you ever battled on the court that reached the NBA?

With my years in the national team I’ve played a bunch of guys who later on made it to the NBA. If I don´t include when we played the whole team of Germany in a pre season game during the summer of 2023 (right before they won the World Cup). I’ve played Alperen Sengun, among other stars in the Turkish national team. I’ve also had the chance to play Spains u20 national team in 2014 who had both Hernangomez brothers. Willy Hernangomez dunked on me in the fast break if I remember it right haha

Please name your 5 best Swedish teammates of all-time and your 5 best non Swedish teammates of all-time?

If I’m going do teammates outside of the national team I would make the list like this :

Best 5 Swedish players: Chris Czerapowicz, Tobias Borg, Martin Pahlmblad, Nick Spires and Johan Lofberg

Best 5 non-Swedish players: Skyler Bowlin, Jackson Rowe, Toni Bizaca, Daniel Amigo and Devonte Green.

Please name your NBA Mount Rushmore?

My NBA Mount Rushmore would be: Steph Curry, Micheal Jordan, Koby Bryant, LeBron James and Shaquille O’Neal

Who is your GOAT?

Thats a tough one. I would phrase it like this: I think that Micheal Jordan is the greatest basketball player to ever play this game, meanwhile LeBron has had the greatest basketball career we have ever seen. Depending on what you prefere and reference to in the GOAT debate there are different answers. But in my opinion I value LeBrons greatness of a career and therefore hold him as the GOAT. But like I said, I won’t argue against that Jordan was more of a complete player and therefore totally understand that people hold him as the GOAT.

Thanks Adam for the chat.