Ich bin ein Rackelos? Fall 2018–Winter 2019
After a season in Canada, I had the opportunity to sign a professional contract with the Giessen 46ers in the German Basketball Bundesliga. Germany was a different world — a beautiful, strange, and ultimately transformative chapter.
Signing with the Giessen 46ers
In the summer of 2018, I signed a professional contract with the Giessen 46ers to play in the Basketball Bundesliga — Germany’s top professional league. It was surreal. A kid from Alaska, who had played Division II ball, competing in one of the top professional leagues in Europe.
Germany
Germany is hard to explain if you haven’t lived there. The culture, the food, the language barrier (ich spreche ein bisschen Deutsch — and even less at the time), the history — all of it creates this sense of being deeply outside your comfort zone in a productive way.
Giessen is a university city about 70 km north of Frankfurt. Small enough to feel like a community, big enough to have a strong sense of identity around its basketball team.
Basketball
Playing at the Bundesliga level was the highest competition I’d ever faced. Every game felt like the best team I’d played against in college — but on back-to-back nights, week after week. The professional game demanded another level of mental and physical preparation.
Friends and Family
Germany made me appreciate home more than anything else. Distance from the people you love has a way of clarifying what matters. I came back from Germany with a different perspective on relationships, on community, and on what I wanted from my life.
Media
Up next: The deep breath before the plunge — Spring/Summer 2019 →
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