Japan is a highly significant place for your basketball career, both as a player and a coach. It has a fascinating but very different culture. What did you learn from your time in Japan, that is still useful?
Well, I met my wife in Japan. She was born in Japan; three of my kids were born in Japan. I went to Japan and learned the language, which was a challenge, but it’s really been great to be able to write and speak Japanese. It’s my second home. My coach from over there and the guy that I lived with are still one of my best friends.
Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to visit because I don’t have a visa anymore, and during COVID times, it’s been disallowed. This has been really hard for me to be away from Japan for so long.
I always have a Japanese assistant coach; I do this year also. I speak Japanese every day, it’s my secret language with my wife. We got a code language going on. Our kids don’t understand what we say.
And I’m a German citizen; I feel very lucky to live in a place that’s so multicultural with so many different languages and religions. It’s a great place to live. I feel very much at home here.
But for sure, I’m a mix of some American stuff, a lot of Japanese, after 13 years of living there.
Ludwigsburg under your watch has always been one of the stable houses of European basketball, but especially after Finals Tournament in 2020, we see a different, more successful Ludwigsburg. It’s kind of weird to say ‘You guys came out of COVID stronger.’ but that seems to be the case. How did this leap happen?
I think we were almost there. We still fight for everything; nothing is smooth when you’re not working with a huge budget. We’re still taking raw diamonds, taking guys from the second league, taking guys that get cut from another team. I try to get guys to love to play, who love to compete, and I try to get guys who are hungry. Sometimes they’re 39 or 37, sometimes they’re young.
I think what put us in a better position the last three years is the youth players I’ve been working with like Ariel Hukporti, who’d been in our program for five years, and Quirin Emanga, who decided to go to the college, and Jake and Johannes, Radii Caisin. We have guys who are 16 and 17, who are more than good enough to compete with American pros and top European players, this is a huge luxury.
Having 16, 17, 18-year-old kids who can play and gain minutes is good for our fans; it’s great for us. It’s really nice to have role model guys like Tremmell Darden and Yorman Polas Bartolo, who are in their late thirties. Tremmell is gonna be 40 next month. They’re professionals and our young guys are also, in a way, role models because they help new Americans with the rules.
I feel like we have a good mix but there’s no magic potion. I think team chemistry is good but it does really help to have 3, 4, or 5 young German guys who can actually play.
What are your goals for the BCL and Bundesliga?
Actually, we try to focus on getting better. I know that’s kind of a cop-out answer, but I have been lucky enough to play on the national championship team in high school, play on a national championship team in university, play on a lot of championship teams as a pro, and I’ve coached championship teams. And I’ve never talked about a goal. Our only goal is to get better and to focus on each game.
I was taught [while] playing for Morgen Wootten at DeMatha High School and in college from Mike Montgomery at Stanford, and also as a pro player that there’s so much competition, especially if you have a name for yourself and you developed a brand. You need to focus on yourself, be self-critical, recognize your weaknesses, but also take pride in the way we wanna play.
I think if we do that, we can accomplish a lot. But I don’t wanna put an unnecessary expectation. We’ve done OK this season so far, with three of four major injuries. We have three guys out, so I’m looking forward to see how far we can get in our development before these guys come back. I’m really excited to see how we do, once we’re full strength.