Four years ago, the Beko BBL had two basketball legends in the making seemingly sprouting the fountain of youth with American Chris Ensminger and Bernd Kruel (210-C-76) as they were going towards their late 30’s and still going very strong in the best German basketball class and kidding them about their age wasn’t hidden, but not neccessarily bringing the non original fake denture’s to their attention, but moreover predicting that they would ball until they were at least 50. In 2013, Ensminger finally said farewell to professional basketball at the age of 39 even though he was still in great shape and could of played many more years and today the other basketball dinosaur Bernd Kruel (210-C-76) has decided to hang up his sneakers at also age 39. Kruel who will turn 40 on June however won the duel against Ensminger as he did play longer than the American who was born in December. Kruel played a total of 23 seasons and that is something that deserves the highest repect. “There is hardly a player that deserved to wear the RheinStars jersey more than him. He was a fan favorite, father figure for the young players and a link between the fans and team. We can thank him very much for the last two seasons. He helped us a lot with the development of the team with his experience, charachter and positive energy”, stressed RheinStars CEO Stephan Baeck.

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