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I found this great story on Elias Harris yesterday but didn't trust Google translator to convey the proper nuance and so requested our friend gruebler to help with a translation, which I've paraphrased further below, mostly to add formatting.
Thank you, once again, gruebler for helping your language-challenged friends across the pond!
Note from gruebler that accompanied the translation:
gruebler, my apologies if I've done any harm to your excellent translation in attempting to make the story easier for English-speakers to understand. And a thousand thanks to you for your help in keeping tabs on Elias until we see the whites of his eyes on our campus!
Note: Germany next plays vs Slovenia twice on September 2nd in Bonn and September 3rd in Karlsruhe. The roster has yet to be cut by two players. Maybe one will be Elias, and we'll see him on campus before the end of Eurobasket 2009 in Poland September 20. Or maybe it won't be Elias who gets the axe and we will have to wait ....
Thank you, once again, gruebler for helping your language-challenged friends across the pond!
"Looking forward to go through hell“
In the radically rejuvenated German basketball national team, Elias Harris surprises even his coach
Bamberg – The 4000 spectators have left the arena, the live-broadcast’s cameras are switched off and the words of NT coach Bauermann have trailed away.
Elias Harris, high-school graduate from Speyer, is standing in front of the entry doors and struggles to put in words. Indeed, how to tell a story, that speaks for itself?
"Sometimes I just can’t believe what’s happening here," finally Harris says, and he’s not alone with this. Just some weeks ago, the 20 year-old played in the ProB, Germany’s third division, for BIS Baskets Speyer in high-school gyms, "in big games some 600 people came," he says. And now? He has played his third international match for Germany, a 78:77 [victory] vs. Macedonia, at the Super Cup, a tournament in preparation for the European Championships. The EC starts on September, 7th in Poland. Harris will be there.
Three very young players coach Bauermann has called into the team. Players from - that’s what he calls it – "the most talented generation since the one featuring the likes of Demirel, Okulaja, Schutze an Nowitzki". Besides Harris, these players are center Tibor Pleiss (19) and forward Robin Benzing (19), who was topscorer with 13points against Macedonia. "Robin might have been the most noticable one", Bauermann says, "but how Elias performed, impressed me most".
Every single detail of this Friday’s script fit: In the competitive game in which the Germans had quickly fallen into arrears and then fought back, of course it was Harris, who in the last quarter equalized the score to 64:64, made 3pointers creating the first German lead and after falling behind again to equalize the score again at 72:72.
"He has a great understanding of the game and a great calm," said the coach, who himself was a little bit suprised how Harris’ game confirmed his estimations, "That was of the very best."
As the TV was present, Harris also was able to a show a couple of nice dunks. However, he has to keep on working on his shot. Being just 2,01m, in Speyer, he had to play power forward, the fate of big players in small clubs. Bauermann has other ideas for him. He sees him as a small forward and in the course of the game, he made him even play as a shooting guard to defend against Macedonian veteran Vrbica Stefanov, who until that moment scored at will.
"It impressed me, how he, playing on the SG position- coped with the job to guard the PG," the coach said. This is why Bauermann closely watches Harris upcoming transfer to US-College Gonzaga. "I somewhat fear that he’ll be used there in the same role as he had to play in Speyer".
Bauermann is in close contact with Gonzaga’s coaching staff. At least Harris – in contrast to his team mate Lucca staiger - will be allowed to play in the NCAA without being redshirted [lit: without a one-year ban]. That’s because Speyer played in the ProB without any foreign professional players and therefore will be considered an amateur team.
"A ban would be a medium-sizes catastrophe", Bauermann said. This [being redshirted] is the reason why Robin Benzing for example, chose to move from ProA-Team Langen to German Bundesliga team Ulm instead of a US college. That’s no option for Harris: "It’s a fact that German players in the Bundesliga sit on the bench way to often", coach Bauerman said.
The move to the US, another team mate had made it before: Center Patrick Femerling once went to University of Washington. That was in 1995. Now Femerling (34), just having been cut at ALBA Berlin, had offered to return to the national team, for which he played more than 200 games. On Saturday’s expected 65:73 loss against Croatia [the article wrongly names Serbia here], as the young players where given a break as they had a hard summer playing U20 EC, Femerling got his first minutes. „He’ll help us with his experience“, said Bauermann who knows that the European Championship come way early for his rejuvenated team. Even the preperation is a passage through purgatory. Femerling ist still looking forward to the tournament: "This is a young, fresh team. The guys are up to play national team," he noted.
In Speyer, there are a few hundred people who have known this already.
T
In the radically rejuvenated German basketball national team, Elias Harris surprises even his coach
Bamberg – The 4000 spectators have left the arena, the live-broadcast’s cameras are switched off and the words of NT coach Bauermann have trailed away.
Elias Harris, high-school graduate from Speyer, is standing in front of the entry doors and struggles to put in words. Indeed, how to tell a story, that speaks for itself?
"Sometimes I just can’t believe what’s happening here," finally Harris says, and he’s not alone with this. Just some weeks ago, the 20 year-old played in the ProB, Germany’s third division, for BIS Baskets Speyer in high-school gyms, "in big games some 600 people came," he says. And now? He has played his third international match for Germany, a 78:77 [victory] vs. Macedonia, at the Super Cup, a tournament in preparation for the European Championships. The EC starts on September, 7th in Poland. Harris will be there.
Three very young players coach Bauermann has called into the team. Players from - that’s what he calls it – "the most talented generation since the one featuring the likes of Demirel, Okulaja, Schutze an Nowitzki". Besides Harris, these players are center Tibor Pleiss (19) and forward Robin Benzing (19), who was topscorer with 13points against Macedonia. "Robin might have been the most noticable one", Bauermann says, "but how Elias performed, impressed me most".
Every single detail of this Friday’s script fit: In the competitive game in which the Germans had quickly fallen into arrears and then fought back, of course it was Harris, who in the last quarter equalized the score to 64:64, made 3pointers creating the first German lead and after falling behind again to equalize the score again at 72:72.
"He has a great understanding of the game and a great calm," said the coach, who himself was a little bit suprised how Harris’ game confirmed his estimations, "That was of the very best."
As the TV was present, Harris also was able to a show a couple of nice dunks. However, he has to keep on working on his shot. Being just 2,01m, in Speyer, he had to play power forward, the fate of big players in small clubs. Bauermann has other ideas for him. He sees him as a small forward and in the course of the game, he made him even play as a shooting guard to defend against Macedonian veteran Vrbica Stefanov, who until that moment scored at will.
"It impressed me, how he, playing on the SG position- coped with the job to guard the PG," the coach said. This is why Bauermann closely watches Harris upcoming transfer to US-College Gonzaga. "I somewhat fear that he’ll be used there in the same role as he had to play in Speyer".
Bauermann is in close contact with Gonzaga’s coaching staff. At least Harris – in contrast to his team mate Lucca staiger - will be allowed to play in the NCAA without being redshirted [lit: without a one-year ban]. That’s because Speyer played in the ProB without any foreign professional players and therefore will be considered an amateur team.
"A ban would be a medium-sizes catastrophe", Bauermann said. This [being redshirted] is the reason why Robin Benzing for example, chose to move from ProA-Team Langen to German Bundesliga team Ulm instead of a US college. That’s no option for Harris: "It’s a fact that German players in the Bundesliga sit on the bench way to often", coach Bauerman said.
The move to the US, another team mate had made it before: Center Patrick Femerling once went to University of Washington. That was in 1995. Now Femerling (34), just having been cut at ALBA Berlin, had offered to return to the national team, for which he played more than 200 games. On Saturday’s expected 65:73 loss against Croatia [the article wrongly names Serbia here], as the young players where given a break as they had a hard summer playing U20 EC, Femerling got his first minutes. „He’ll help us with his experience“, said Bauermann who knows that the European Championship come way early for his rejuvenated team. Even the preperation is a passage through purgatory. Femerling ist still looking forward to the tournament: "This is a young, fresh team. The guys are up to play national team," he noted.
In Speyer, there are a few hundred people who have known this already.
T
Zagnative asked me to translate an article from Süddeutsche Zeitung. It was a really hard piece of work as the text is well written and plays with language. So please forgive me as my English is a good way from perfect.
To be up for purgatory [note: I don’t know whether a rather literal translation works, „Bock aufs Fegefeuer“ means something like: „Looking forward to go through hell“]
he original Text by Markus Schäflein (Sueddeutsche Zeitung) ist available online at... http://www.sueddeutsche.de/n5b38O/30...Fegefeuer.html
To be up for purgatory [note: I don’t know whether a rather literal translation works, „Bock aufs Fegefeuer“ means something like: „Looking forward to go through hell“]
he original Text by Markus Schäflein (Sueddeutsche Zeitung) ist available online at... http://www.sueddeutsche.de/n5b38O/30...Fegefeuer.html
Note: Germany next plays vs Slovenia twice on September 2nd in Bonn and September 3rd in Karlsruhe. The roster has yet to be cut by two players. Maybe one will be Elias, and we'll see him on campus before the end of Eurobasket 2009 in Poland September 20. Or maybe it won't be Elias who gets the axe and we will have to wait ....
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