10-02-2020, 06:10 AM
(This post was last modified: 10-02-2020, 06:15 AM by meistermatze.)
Cool thread you guys, really nice to learn some personal information. Not a surprise that ze germans are the biggest minority around here.
I am german myself, a "Schwabe", if you like because I was born and pretty much bounced around the whole south of Germany. I went to school in Rottweil, finished my first studies in Freibrug, my second in Stuttgart und worked in Munich for a while (I am a Advertising and Communications consultant, turning 31 this month). I don't really share the accent though, since there's only Prussians on my mothers side of the family tree.
I started to follow Dirk when we first got internet access in our home, which was around 99, I'd say. I started to read about him online, bought magazines ("Bravo Sport" in the beginning as a kid, later "5ive" and "Basket"). I almost immediately grasped how special it is, that some german blonde white dude was over there and killing it - that's what fascinated me. Stuck to reading and playing video games (NBA Live 2001 was the first one) and watching the national team play. Hedo Turkoglus three-pointer was my first of many heartbrakes as a basketball fan.
Kept that going for a few years until finally, my dad answered my pleas to get us Premiere (now known as Sky), which was a pretty expensive pay TV option and the only way to really follow the games at that time. I was around 13 or 14 and, sometimes with, mostly w/o my parents permission I watched the games at night (they showed like 3 games a week and Dallas was featured every two weeks or so).
Premiere went bancrupt at one point and we did not have another option so I could not really watch the 06 debacle but the year after, I discovered illegal streaming services on the internet and my quest of finding out how tired I could be at school really picked up pace. I think between 07 and 12 I almost watched every game live, which was pretty insane. But since I started my studies in 09 I guess I could handle that lifestyle.
I think I got the League Pass in 2010 and I eventually adopted the habit to avoid learning about the results and watching the games on demand later, sometimes 2 or 3 games in a row. My family and friends now know not to tell or ask me about basketball until they are sure I am up to date lol. That's how I do it now, since I am working full time, which is a big reason that I don't post anymore, because I have to skip this place as well in order for me not to get spoilered.
My best memory, of course, was our title run in 2011. I shared this story on the board before (I remember Pat aka flamethrower especially cherishing this part): After the next disappointing season my dad (who's a big sports fan but never came around to basketball, I guess only due to the time shift) started repeating what the mainstream media was saying about Dirk: He'll never win a title. I told him at the beginning of the season that if me made it to the finals, he'd have to watch a game with me in the middle of the night. Back then I thought Roddy B and Tuff Juice would put us over the hump that year. When Butler got hurt in Milwaukee, I thought the season was over. Boy was I wrong all the way lol.
So we watched game 4 together (he acutally had to wake me up, I would have overslept), drinking beer, cheering together and watching JETs great game. To this day, my dad refers to him as "der Kleine", which means "the little guy" lol.
A couple of days later, I was in Italy on vacation, I watched the game by myself in the morning (on demand not knowing the result because the hotel's internet was broken. I was scared to death to get a glimpse of a newspaper or anything on my way to the bar) in a little bar with internet access, cracking beers, too nervous to talk, eventually crying like a little kid.
Good times.
I am german myself, a "Schwabe", if you like because I was born and pretty much bounced around the whole south of Germany. I went to school in Rottweil, finished my first studies in Freibrug, my second in Stuttgart und worked in Munich for a while (I am a Advertising and Communications consultant, turning 31 this month). I don't really share the accent though, since there's only Prussians on my mothers side of the family tree.
I started to follow Dirk when we first got internet access in our home, which was around 99, I'd say. I started to read about him online, bought magazines ("Bravo Sport" in the beginning as a kid, later "5ive" and "Basket"). I almost immediately grasped how special it is, that some german blonde white dude was over there and killing it - that's what fascinated me. Stuck to reading and playing video games (NBA Live 2001 was the first one) and watching the national team play. Hedo Turkoglus three-pointer was my first of many heartbrakes as a basketball fan.
Kept that going for a few years until finally, my dad answered my pleas to get us Premiere (now known as Sky), which was a pretty expensive pay TV option and the only way to really follow the games at that time. I was around 13 or 14 and, sometimes with, mostly w/o my parents permission I watched the games at night (they showed like 3 games a week and Dallas was featured every two weeks or so).
Premiere went bancrupt at one point and we did not have another option so I could not really watch the 06 debacle but the year after, I discovered illegal streaming services on the internet and my quest of finding out how tired I could be at school really picked up pace. I think between 07 and 12 I almost watched every game live, which was pretty insane. But since I started my studies in 09 I guess I could handle that lifestyle.
I think I got the League Pass in 2010 and I eventually adopted the habit to avoid learning about the results and watching the games on demand later, sometimes 2 or 3 games in a row. My family and friends now know not to tell or ask me about basketball until they are sure I am up to date lol. That's how I do it now, since I am working full time, which is a big reason that I don't post anymore, because I have to skip this place as well in order for me not to get spoilered.
My best memory, of course, was our title run in 2011. I shared this story on the board before (I remember Pat aka flamethrower especially cherishing this part): After the next disappointing season my dad (who's a big sports fan but never came around to basketball, I guess only due to the time shift) started repeating what the mainstream media was saying about Dirk: He'll never win a title. I told him at the beginning of the season that if me made it to the finals, he'd have to watch a game with me in the middle of the night. Back then I thought Roddy B and Tuff Juice would put us over the hump that year. When Butler got hurt in Milwaukee, I thought the season was over. Boy was I wrong all the way lol.
So we watched game 4 together (he acutally had to wake me up, I would have overslept), drinking beer, cheering together and watching JETs great game. To this day, my dad refers to him as "der Kleine", which means "the little guy" lol.
A couple of days later, I was in Italy on vacation, I watched the game by myself in the morning (on demand not knowing the result because the hotel's internet was broken. I was scared to death to get a glimpse of a newspaper or anything on my way to the bar) in a little bar with internet access, cracking beers, too nervous to talk, eventually crying like a little kid.
Good times.