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.
RheinStars
Lakeem Jackson (RheinStars) We Still Want To Make The Playoffs But We Have To Take These Games One At A Time
Lakeem Jackson is a 24 year old 196cm forward from Charlotte, North Carolina that is playing his professional season and first in Germany with German Pro A team RheinStars. He played his first two professional seasons with BK Iskra Svit (Slovakia-SBL). He started his basketball career in 2009 with South Carolina(NCAA) where he played a total of 120 NCAA games and as a senior played 32 games averaging 7.5ppg, 5.9rpg, 1.8apg, FGP: 56.0%, 3PT: 40.0%, FT: 33.9%. He spoke to German Hoops after the 74-69 loss against the Hebeisen White Wings Hanau.
Lakeem thanks for talking to German Hoops A tough 74-69 loss to the Hebeisen Baskets Hanau. After an offensive second and third quarter, where did both teams find the energy to buckle down and give that extra on the defensive end in the fourth quarter?
I think it just came from both teams wanting to win.
The Hebeisen White Wings Hanau had an annoying 8-0 run to start the fourth quarter. Was that the ultimate dagger that cut into the heart of the RhieinStars?
I don’t think that was the case. Down the stretch of the 4th we had some free throws that didn’t fall and also some rebounds we didn’t come up with.
The RheinStars got crushed on the boards 53-28. Do you ever remember getting hit for 22 offensive rebounds in your career?
Yeah that was definitely the part of the game that hurt us the most. But we still had a chance to tie the game with 8 seconds left. Which is really rare.
Alex Foster (RheinStars) It’s Never As Good As It Seems And It’s Never As Bad As It Seems Mindset Gets Me Through My Struggles And Will Keep Me Grounded As I Find Success
Alex Foster is a 23 year old 203cm forward that grew up in Portland, Oregon and also has the German citizenship and is playing his professional rookie season in Germany with the RheinStars(Germany-ProA). He played at Emory (NCAA3) from 2011-2015 playing a total of 108 NCAA3 games and as a senior played 20.1ppg, 7.9rpg, 1.0apg, FGP: 44.6%, 3PT: 39.9%, FT: 79.8%. He was able to improve his scoring and rebounding average each season. He spoke to German Hoops after the RheinStars 84-83 victory against Rhondorf
Alex congrats on the 84-83 win against Rhondorf. Do you think that there will be another Christmas gift that will top this Christmas gift game winning shot?
Well my parents and little sister are visiting from the US and we’re all driving down to Stuttgart to celebrate Christmas with my mom’s family. So us all being together as a family is the best gift I could ask for, but the feeling of winning is pretty great too.
It was a wild game as the RheinStars had the comfortable lead at halftime, but Rhondorf never gave up coming back in the fourth down 9 points and taking the lead. Why wasn´t the team able to close the door earlier on them?
They deserve credit for fighting their way back into the game. I thought they were able to make us uncomfortable by switching defense and then they were making lots of plays on offense. We were out of sorts and they took advantage.
Alex Foster (RheinStars) Our Biggest Improvement Is How We’ve Come Together As A Team And I’ve Felt Our Trust In Each Other Growing
Alex Foster is a 23 year old 203cm forward that grew up in Portland, Oregon and also has the German citizenship and is playing his professional rookie seasonin Germany with the RheinStars(Germany-ProA). He played at Emory (NCAA3) from 2011-2015 playing a total of 108 NCAA3 games and as a senior played 20.1ppg, 7.9rpg, 1.0apg, FGP: 44.6%, 3PT: 39.9%, FT: 79.8%. He was able to improve his scoring and rebounding average each season. He spoke to German Hoops after the RheinStars 3-0 start.
Congrats Alex on a double sweep this weekend beating Trier 80-76 and tonight Chemnitz on the road 73-69. Was this great start into the season something one could of anticipated coming out of the pre season into the regular season?
We had a challenging preseason and have gotten better every week, so I’m not surprised we’ve been successful early. I might not have guessed that we’d be 3-0, but I could feel our team starting to come together and expected us to have a chance to win once the regular season started.
What was the most difficult hurdle that the team had to do coming from the Trier game to the Chemnitz and only having 48 hours to recover and play again?
I think we were actually excited to get to play again so soon after Friday’s game. It’s a seven-hour trip from Cologne to Chemnitz and they had a packed house waiting for us. So it wasn’t easy, but it’s always a smoother ride home after getting a win.
Face To Face With Markus Hallgrimson (Rhein Stars Koeln)
Markus Hallgrimson is a 38 year old 190 cm German-American guard that has a shocking resemblance to American actor Kirk Cameron that became famous for the hit TV show Growing Pains. Since starting his basketball career in 1995, he has been somewhat of a nomad having found 16 different teams in this time. He went to the States in 1995 to have the total high school experience playing for Mercer Island. In 1996, he returned back to Germany playing for USC Heidelberg. He then decided to return back to the States and play NCAA2 ball for Montana State-Billings from 1997-2000. He led the NCAA in 1999-2000 with an all-time NCAA record 6.2 three pointers per game. He also set a new NCAA record with 16 three pointers in one game. He scored 51, 50 and 45 points and averaged 24 points per game, 4th best in the US for Div. II. He was voted to the 1st team NCAA Div. II All-American team. He then returned to Germany and from 2000-2004, he played for Avitos Giessen, BCJ Hamburg NVV Monchengladbach, TSK Wurzburg and BG Chemnitz. In 2004-2005, he left Germany and headed Spain for a short stay playing for Los Barrios Cadix (Spain-LEB1) but was released in October playing 4 games and averaging 3.7ppg 0.2apg. In April 2005, he signed at Geneve Devils (Switzerland-LNA) playing 13 games and averaging 12.0ppg, 1.2rpg, 2.2apg, 2FGP: 60.0%, 3FGP: 35.7%; In the playoffs, he played 12 games averaging 9.0ppg, 1.2rpg, 1.6apg, 2FGP: 83.3%, 3FGP: 35.7%. In 2005, he played briefly at TV Langen, before returning back to the Geneve Devils (Switzerland-LNA) playing 15 games and averaging 10.3ppg, 1.3rpg, 1.5apg, 1.1spg, 2FGP: 34.4%, 3PT: 41.1%, FT: 93.8%. In 2006-2007, he left the Geneve Devils and then went back to Germany to play for ASC Theresianum Mainz and for the Mitteldeutscher BC playing 21 games and averaging 11.4ppg, 1.7rpg, 1.1apg, 2FGP: 54.3%, 3FGP: 40.9%, FT: 63.6%. In 2007-2008, he went to England to play for the Worcester Wolves (United Kingdom-BBL) playing 6 games averaging 7.5ppg, 2.3rpg, 1.2apg, FGP: 25.0%, 3PT: 19.7%, and in Nov.’07 moved to SCH Wuerzburg Baskets (Germany-Regionalliga) playing 20 games and averaging 17.5ppg. In 2008-2009, he continued with SCH Wuerzburg Baskets (Germany-Regionalliga) playing 24 games and averaging 11.1ppg. In 2009-2010, he played for Ithry Nador (Morocco-D2), in Dec.’09 moved to SC Rasta Vechta (Germany-ProB, starting five): 17 games: 12.3ppg, 1.7rpg, 1.9apg, 1.0spg, FGP: 33.3%, 3PT: 41.3%, FT: 87.5%. In 2010-2011, he played for BV Villingen-Schwenningen (Germany-ProB, starting five): 16 games: 18.8ppg, 1.5rpg, 1.4apg, 1.1spg, FGP: 36.5%, 3PT: 32.4%, FT: 86.2%. He then palyed for the Duesseldorf Giants from 2011-2013 playing Regionaliga. Last season he played for the Rhein Stars Koeln (Germany-2.Regionalliga). He spoke to German Hoops at the 069 basketball open in Frankfurt.
Markus thanks for talking to German Hoops. Why did you decide to take part at the street ball tournament 069 basketball open in Frankfurt this weekend?
Some friends of mine from the Cologne/Aachen area asked me that I should come out and play. I wanted to play even more after I found out that the school where it was taking place is where I played two years of high school ball from 1990-1992. The place hasn´t changed. I played Varsity basketball as a freshman. It was great to come back after 22 years and play here again. It was a lot of fun as a 38 year old to play against kids have my age.
What is the difference between street ball and organized basketball?
I don´t really call this streetball, but more open gym-ratball. We were playing indoors and not outdoors which makes a difference. There is no structure in the games and whoever has game wins and who doesn´t doesn´t. The games are being played at a high intensity and defense was played. I played three games and played against many German Pro A players like ex Science City Jena guard Al Elliot.
German Hoops 