Eric Palm is a 27 year old 185cm guard form Illinois that is playing his second season in Germany and first with the Giessen 46ers. He started his basketball career at McKendree (NAIA) in 2005 where he played until 2009 and as a senior played 35 games: 20.6ppg, 2.6rpg, 2.5apg, 1.5spg, FGP: 41.6%, 3Pts: 38.3%, FT: 85.2%. He started his professional basketball career in 2010 with Thor AK (Iceland-D1) where he played until 2012 and in the 2011-2012 season played 11 games: 26.1ppg, 4.6rpg, 3.7apg, 2.2spg, FGP: 51.7%, 3PT: 25.9%, FT: 84.5%. In 2012-2013 he played for IR Reykjavik (Iceland-Dominos League) playing 22 games: Score-3(26.5ppg), 4.3rpg, 3.3apg, 1.6spg, FGP: 45.5%, 3PT: 41.0%, FT-1(93.9%).Last season he played for BV Chemnitz 99 (Germany-ProA) playing 30 games: 15.8ppg, 2.4rpg, 2.0apg, 1.3spg, FGP: 48.2%, 3PT: 39.8%, FT: 84.1%. He spoke to German Hoops after winning the 2015 German Pro A title against the s.Oliver Baskets Wurzburg.
Eric thanks for talking to German Hoops. Congrats on winning the 2015 German Pro A title. The Giessen 46ers couldn´t have won this series against Wurzburg in more exciting fashion. What does this victory mean to you in terms of titles that you have won in your career? You reached some Sweet 16 and Elite 8´s in your NAIA career, but I believe this is your first title.
Well winning the AMC Conference Championship my Junior year was pretty sweet because I hit a buzzer beater “and 1” jumper to win it all on the road. However, this title is by far the sweetest of them all. Just knowing we had to grind out the whole season and to sweep the playoffs, could not get much better than that!
The Giessen46ers won both games by only a combined point total of three. What was really the main factor for Giessen being able to pull out this series like that?
For us it was about sticking to the game plan of solid defense and getting out in transition. As for the defensive side of things, you cannot stop Wurzburg completely so our mindset was to limit their runs in short spurts, don´t let them get an 8-10 point run and we are good.