There are many great things to observe when entering the Brose arena in Freak city Bamberg like the overwhelming and amazing atmosphere that the fans give the players or seeing ex NBA player Dorrell Wright make that next amazing highlight reel memory or just sitting back and reminiscing about the good old days when Marcus Slaughter was finishing alley-op dunks with authority, ex NBA player Casey Jacobsen dropping clutch three´s from the corner or fans spelling Kyle Hines name wrong with Heinz. However at anytime in good times back then or in even bad times now as the Trinchieri era ended recently, fans are always served up a delectable menu with great players during the Euroleague season. Almost every opponent has at least one ex NBA player on board and many great European players. When the big name teams like Real Madrid and Panathinaikos enter the Brose arena you may get lost in the smorgasbord of fancy names or get wrapped up in a tasty German hog dog or pizza slice or even smuggled something in from the REWE supermarket under the arena, you may even mix up a name or two if your NBA knowhow isn´t that advanced the classic Lebron, Steph or Russ names. However sometimes that simple error can arise like recently when Spanish top team Unicaja Malaga played in Bamberg and one read the name Mccallum. For the NBA amateur´s one may have thought that CJ McCollum had taken a break from his scoring tantrum´s and taken a rest from the NBA and moonlighted to Europe, but at closer watch, it was the name Ray McCallum who also played in the NBA, but didn´t reach the notoriety of a CJ McCollum of the Portland Trailblaziers that easily belongs to the top 10 shooting guards in the NBA currently averaging 21,4ppg. Sometimes reading a name right and seeing that only an A and a O separate the names of two players is beneficial as the NBA worlds of CJ McCollum and Ray McCallum are currently about as far away as the Boston Celtics are from winning an NBA title this season with the absence of Kyrie Irving. Mccollum has helped lead the Portland Trailblazers to the third best record in the west behind Golden State and Houston at 49-33 while Ray Mccallum is playing in the best country league in Europe in Spain with Unicaja and trying to lead them to a ACB title. This season Bamberg swept Unicaja Malaga in the Euroleague and won in Bamberg 93-88 despite 13 points from Mccallum. The American remembered his first experience with German basketball 7 years ago. “I definitely remember playing in the World University games with Draymond Green and Darius Miller. I’m happy to see those guys are doing well and having a lot of success in the NBA. Germany along with the other teams in the tournament were challenging. That was my first experience with the physicality of European basketball”, stressed Ray Mccallum. After 4 professional seasons in the States and three in the NBA, Mccallum came overseas to try something new, but like any other player that has gone this path still has the NBA in his rearview mirror. “I feel I belong in the NBA and that’s where I want to be, but at this point in my career I knew that coming to Malaga was the best decision for my career”, stressed Ray McCallum. But before his European basketball vacation started, he first had to mature as a player in the NCAA and get valuable NBA experience that will help his game further in Europe.

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