Marcus Smallwood

Marcus Smallwood (Your Individual Skills Will Always Be There But It’s Being Able To Infect Your Teammates With That Positive Energy Of How You Play)

Marcus Smallwood is a 34 year old 198cm forward that has played 10 professional seasons and last season with BG Karlsruhe where he played 24 games averaging 12.7ppg, Reb-5(9.6rpg), 1.0apg, FGP: 55.6%, 3PT: 31.0%, FT: 61.7%. He is from Elgin, Illinois and played at Northern Illinois from 2000-2004. He came to Europe for his rookie season and played for Ostromecko Astoria Bydgoszcz (Poland-EBL): 4 games: 9.5ppg, 9.0rpg: was released in and later that month signed at Pyrbasket Tampere (Finland-Sparliiga): 6 games: 13.5ppg, 10.8rpg, 1.2bpg, FGP: 59%, and also played shortly at Solna Vikings (Sweden-Basketligan): 3 games: 8.3ppg, 5.3rpg, 1.0bpg. The next season, he played in Finland for Forssan Koripojat (Finland-1st Division, starting five): 26 games: 19.7ppg, Reb-2(11.1rpg), 1.3apg, 1.0spg, Blocks-1(1.4bpg), 2FGP-3(64.1%), 3PT: 31.6%, FT: 56.2%. 2006: Elgin Racers (IBL). He had a very strong season in Finland, but surprisingly in the next few years played only briefly in the IBL for the Elgin Racers. He came back to Europe in 2008 and then played mostly in Germany for teams like Kaiserslautern, Cuxhaven, Kirchheim, Vechta, MBC and Speyer. He also played briefly in Kosovo and the Czech Republic. He spoke to German Hoops about his basketball future.

Marcus thanks for talking to German Hoops. Where are you at the moment and how was your summer?

Currently I’m in Germany and my summer was pretty enjoyable as I was able to go home to the states for a little over a month and visit family and friends.

You are currently unsigned and 34 years old. What kind of an off season transfer market did you experience?

I just took an approach to see what might be available that could be a good fit. So I guess my experience was typical of anyone that was seeking a team for this season.

(more…)

A Conversation With Marcus Smallwood (MBC)

Marcus Smallwood is a 29 year 198cm forward playing his first season with the Mitteldeutscher BC. He is from Elgin, Illinois and played at Northern Illinois from 2000-2004. He came to Europe for his rookie season and played for Ostromecko Astoria Bydgoszcz (Poland-EBL): 4 games: 9.5ppg, 9.0rpg: was released in and later that month signed at Pyrbasket Tampere (Finland-Sparliiga): 6 games: 13.5ppg, 10.8rpg, 1.2bpg, FGP: 59%, and also played shortly at Solna Vikings (Sweden-Basketligan): 3 games: 8.3ppg, 5.3rpg, 1.0bpg. The next season, he played in Finland for Forssan Koripojat (Finland-1st Division, starting five): 26 games: 19.7ppg, Reb-2(11.1rpg), 1.3apg, 1.0spg, Blocks-1(1.4bpg), 2FGP-3(64.1%), 3PT: 31.6%, FT: 56.2%. 2006: Elgin Racers (IBL). He had a very strong season in Finland, but surprisingly in the next few years played only briefly in the IBL for the Elgin Racers. He played for the Saar-Pfalz Braves (Germany-ProA) from 2008-2010 and in 2009-2010,he played 30 games: 14.5ppg, Reb-2(9.5rpg), 1.1apg, FGP: 62.8%, FT: 49.0%.Last season, he played for Cuxhaven BasCats (Germany-ProA, starting five): 9 games: 12.6ppg, 10.9rpg, 1.6apg, FGP: 51.6%, FT: 52.8%; in Dec.’10 moved to VfL Kirchheim Knights (Germany-ProA, starting five): 20 games: 15.7ppg, Reb-1(10.8rpg), Blocks-2(2.1bpg). He spoke to German Hoops over the summer about basketball.

So many players the last years have had difficulty finding jobs, because the market has been so tough. You got ajob with MBC in mid July this year. How did the off season search for a team go? Did you have many other offers besides MBC?

Well I was very fortunate to have interest from some other clubs including some outside of Germany, but to be honest when I learned I might have a chance to play for MBC that instantly became the offer I wanted the most.

(more…)

Marcus Smallwood Was Out Of Basketball For Two Years But Still Wants To Play In The BEKO BBL

Marcus Smallwood is a 28 year 198cm forward playing his second season in Germany fort he PRO A team Kaiserslautern.

He is from Elgin, Illinois and played at Northern Illinois from 2000-2004. He came to Europe for his rookie season and played for Ostromecko Astoria Bydgoszcz (Poland-EBL): 4 games: 9.5ppg, 9.0rpg: was released in and later that month signed at Pyrbasket Tampere (Finland-Sparliiga): 6 games: 13.5ppg, 10.8rpg, 1.2bpg, FGP: 59%, and also played shortly at Solna Vikings (Sweden-Basketligan): 3 games: 8.3ppg, 5.3rpg, 1.0bpg. The next season, he played in Finland for Forssan Koripojat (Finland-1st Division, starting five): 26 games: 19.7ppg, Reb-2(11.1rpg), 1.3apg, 1.0spg, Blocks-1(1.4bpg), 2FGP-3(64.1%), 3PT: 31.6%, FT: 56.2%. 2006: Elgin Racers (IBL). He had a very strong season in Finland, but surprisingly in the next few years played only briefly in the IBL for the Elgin Racers.

Last season, he played for Kaiserslautern playing 30 games: 9.0ppg, 5.5rpg, FGP: 61.3%, FT: 40.7%. He took some time to talk to German Hoops.

Marcus, you are playing your second season with Kaiserslautern of the PRO A. How do you like the style of the PRO A ?

I think the style of Pro A is a lot more physical and tough than people would imagine. The main reason for this is because it’s a league full of players hungry to show people how good they are who might have overlooked them other places and want to prove themselves!

(more…)