Damon Smith is a 28 year old 200cm forward from Milwaukee, Wisconsin that is going into his fourth professional season and third in Germany and first with the Bayer Giants Leverkusen. He started his basketball career with Ellsworth CC (JUCO) and then finished at Mary (NCAA2) and as a senior played 26 games averaging 16.5ppg, 6.6rpg, 2.1apg, 2.1bpg, FGP: 57.8%, FT: 67.9%. He started his professional career in 2012 with SISU Copenhagen (Denmark-Ligaen) playing 30 games averaging 15.8ppg, 5.3rpg, 1.4apg, FGP: 54.2%, 3PT: 35.1%, FT: 72.6%. In the 2013-2014 season he moved to Germany to the Dresden Titans (Germany-ProB) playing 27 games: 13.4ppg, 6.9rpg, 1.4apg, FGP: 61.5%, 3PT: 26.2%, FT: 69.2%. In the 2014-2015 season he stayed with the Dresden Titans playing 29 games averaging 12.7ppg, 5.4rpg, 1.1apg, FGP: 51.4%, 3PT: 34.3%, FT: 69.4%. Recently he got further experience with Trigueros de Ciudad Obregon (Mexico-CIBACOPA). He spoke to German Hoops about basketball.
Welcome back to Germany. Congrats on signing with the Bayer Giants Leverkusen. This will be your third season playing in Germany. What makes Germany and it´s basketball so appealing to you as a professional player?
Thank you. What makes German basketball so interesting? I think it’s how very different it is from the way I was shown here. US basketball is worlds apart from German basketball. Not saying it’s a bad thing. Every country has their style but Germany is one of the areas that I’ve learned the most.