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Monday, December 30, 2013

Schumacher Tragedy



What a tragedy happening to Germanys finest superstar Michael Schumacher.
All our prayers go out to him and his family.
Keep fighting back into life please !!!!

Friday, December 27, 2013

8 game road trip / Call Up #2


We embarked on a 8 day road trip yesterday. We flew into Cleveland and then took the bus up to Erie (Ohio). We play the Bayhawks today. They have CJ Leslie and Jeremy Tyler on their roster, two of the hottest players in our league. I am really looking forward to match myself up with Tyler, who is a NBA player for sure.

We have a second call up to the league from our team, as the Rockets have called up our PG Isaiha Canaan. This was logical due to their backcourt injuries and IC's play lately. We will dearly miss his playmaking.

Vipers have new look

We had some practices to find our new composition, but let's see how it all works out today !

Watched the Portland:Clippers game tonight. What a game with Chris Paul taking over at the end of regulation and Batum sending the game into overtime with this monster three pointer. Aldridge is huge !

Andy Seiferth is coming on big for Trier against my former team Bonn !  AND what a game Elias Harris had in his debut for BAMBERG !!!!

Great to see Lukas Podolski back on the pitch for Arsenal... great GOAL !! Thats a way to come back from injury !

Thursday, December 26, 2013

Christmas Break


Back in McAllen after we had couple of days off over the holidays.

We had a team XMAS celebration courtesy of our owner, who presented each of us with a little present. We will try to give back with WINS...



Surely we also had  some community work during the days, as the Vipers Team visited the local childrens hospital. We took pictures, played table games, autographes, the whole package. I love doing this as you can see the joy one can bring to all those children who are not so blessed right now. Children are always so amazed, not only for us beeing local celebrities, but specially me beeing so tall. Had some nice presents for them, that made their eyes shine!!!


 


I received some email questions regarding our style of play. Let me pleases show you this article:

The reliance on the 3-pointer

Published by Zach Lowe (@ZachLowe_NBA) who is a staff writer for the Grantland Network established by Bill Simmons, who now works for ESPN.

It in a way explains what we are doing and why. GM Morey of the Rockets is one of the most innovative and creative minds in the business and he wants us to try this style of play, because if it works in our league, it may also be an alternative for style of play in the big league.

I can tell you it is physicly demanding to the max, as one is always running and running and running....

The christmas days I spend with my familiy in San Antonio at my parents in law's house. We had some exquisite dishes to choose from. Big shoutout to my parents and brother in Wuppertal, I missed you all big time.



Time flies by and soon enough we are back to McAllen and practice, practice practice.....

In between had the chance to watch Bamberg and Munich play some crucial Euroleague matches. The Bamberg game was so close, it was sad to see them loose. Shoutout to Elias Harris, who will make Freak City proud and will turn some heads in Germany.

Congrats to Bayern Munich for advancing to the next round with a convincing win over Galatasaray. Convincing performance by my former Bonn teammate Bryce Taylor. What a great job Coach Pesic is doing in Munich.

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Viper Call Up #1 JJ

Our teammate James Johnson has been called up to the NBA Memphis Grizzlies !

Congratulations, this is what we all strive for. JJ averaged 18,5 Pts and 9 boards in only 30 minutes and led our team in blocks. He deserved  to be in the big league again.

Another player using the Vipers as a springboard to make a career....

There are some minutes, rebounds and points to be redistributed now. I will work extra hard get them.

Had some extra workout with Coach Mokeski, besides regular team practice. Coach is BIG (7'1), he played in the league himself and he can teach me so much each time we are out there.


Monday, December 16, 2013

Need more practice

Quite some time since my last blog, but was busy a little. Our series of consecutive wins was stopped at 25, when we lost to the Texas Legends on Friday on their home floor as backend game of a back to back instate Texas away and away series that started at the Austin Texans. Let's start a new series...



We failed to score 120 points for the third consecutive game that night, which included a homegame against Reno before the trip.

I am still not in total sync with my teammates yet and my play lately hasn’t been my best performance.

I could have blamed  a bad toe for some of this, as Robert Covington came down on my toenail just before the Reno game, that broke the nail twice with a lot of blood and finally killed the nail. 





I think this is too easy to help for an  excuse, but I really need to get in some more practice time with my teammates and we will have some two a days comming until our next game on Thursday against Springfield which I will surely use to find a good rythm again.

Thank you all who gave me feedback on the blog. If you have questions, just drop me an email !

Monday, December 9, 2013

Away trip Des Moines


What a trip it was to go to the Iowa Energy. After some intense practices in Texas we departed on our first tour across the country.

When I came home I found that the AC in my appartment was broke. It is not nice to experience this at 30°C+. Had to get up in the middle of the night, drive down to the supermarket to fetch me some fans, to at least have some releave and sleep. Next day had to move back into the Hotel until this is fixed.

We were expected to leave on Saturday to Iowa, but when we came in for morning practice our afternoon flight was canceled due to a blizzard. Remember we are sitting here sweating it out and they call out a blizzard!?

In the evening it finally had settled and we departed on a night flight session to Des Moines Iowa, go figure that out on a map. Anyway, I am always representing GERMANY:

One stopover and a lot of sleep less, we finaly stumbled into our hotel very late in the night or very early in the morning, however you may call it, to get some sleep.


Next morning this is what it looked like:























I mean going from 30°+ to 10°- on a little flight is scary. At least the Hotel had the AC going.


Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Double double and off day

Second game of the back 2 back went real decent for me, had 13 points and 12 boards in only 20 minutes against Delaware, the dleague affiliate of the 76ers, the team I had the priviledge to spend the summer with. We again cracked 120 points and therefore gave the fans free taccos. Feel there are lots of Taccos to be won this year.

Comming off the first game my legs felt like shot, but I grinded it out and coach helped me with his substitutions. Today we should have taken it  little easy, but I decided to work out even more to quick get back to maximum game conditioning. After a couple of hours I just fell down on my bed.

We again will face Delaware tomorrow at home. I will be ready to go as far as my legs take me.

Today information circled that Dennis Schröder was designated to the Bakersfield Jam of our league.
Coach Voigt of the Jam I know well, as he was the one who finally sold me on the d-league 2 years ago by giving me a second round draft guarantee after my workout in Atlanta, but as you all know I went before that. He will give Dennis his confidence back. DS will get lots of playing time which is great. It is so hard to succeed in the NBA as a rookie, but DS will grind it out and take that opportunity at its best. This is not a demotion but a help. Great coach and outstanding talented player make great results.

All German officials should take a look at DS games, as their Center Brian Butch is extremely talented and should be a monster steal once he decides to come to Europe.


Monday, December 2, 2013

Back on the court


Tonight had my first game back as a Viper in Hidalgo Arena and we won going 145:116 away versus the Texas Stars. Now the Vipers have 20 straight wins dating back to March 16th.


It felt so good to be back on the court in a real game setting. Two days of practice before that got me back into 5:5 competition, but nothing can give you the extra juice of a actual game. Coach Smith want us running and gunning, uptempo and shooting the three.

I had to go through a lot of shirts to get all this sweat away during practice, but it was addictive to mash with my teammates, get used to their games and tendencies. Coach spreads the floor very good, giving each lots of room to operate. We all worked so hard and intense. And got to meet last years assistant coach Matt.



We made league history tonight as a team to make 24 threepoint baskets and also got the crowd free taccos to score over 120 points early. This is our way to go and I am feeling a lot of free tacco nights coming for our fans down the road. First 500 fans tonight got a replica of our championship ring.


Missed a double double closely by havin 9 points and 11 boards in 23 minutes, but I also had a threepointer in the record game, that felt real good! I can tell my legs are not yet back to where they need to be, but only 5:5 practices and games can get this back to me.

Tomorrow we have the backend of a back to back home series, this is against Delaware and I guess they a affiliated with the 76ers, so lets see if I know anyone.

Got to see a BBL game on my PC on Sunday. Bamberg pulled out an impressive win in Oldenburg and shoutout to Mike Zirbes for his off the backboard three.