The Other Side of the Hoop: The European Basketball Experience

By Bobby Kinzer

Praise for The Other Side of the Hoop: The European Basketball Experience
In talking about Basketball, it's on the same level as show business. There comes a time when we must move on and learn to do other things. I have been in it for 60 years. I learned years ago there are other things to do. So, in saying all of this, don't be one thing. Be many things and have another path to walk. Life is ever-learning. – Dr. Otis Williams of the Temptations
"The Other Side of the Hoop" is one of the few books about the European Professional Basketball experience. The stories shared in this book are not just for basketball enthusiasts; the rich lessons learned apply to all audiences. The book takes you on a journey through the highs and lows of stardom, fortune, and temptation. Through basketball championships and defeats, Bobby Kinzer reveals the journey's end at which he arrives, which will surprise you. – James Brown, CBS Hall of Fame Sports Broadcaster
Bob (Big BOB) Kinzer. We first met at the Boys & Girls Club on 9th & P streets in Washington, D.C. I believe you were home in between seasons from Europe. I've heard many stories of guys that went overseas to play professionally. But my curiosity has grown over the years as I've tried to imagine all the complexities that come with that experience. When I think of my experience transitioning into the NBA, it seems the challenge of making the adjustment going overseas may be even more difficult. This book will help players better understand the European Professional Basketball Experience should they decide to take the journey. It will also serve as a guide for non-basketball people to learn how to cope with life's everyday challenges. Of course, if you’ve learned the art of assimilation, it becomes a wonderful opportunity to meet new people, see the world, and experience a new culture. Much Success with The Other Side of the Hoop! – Phil Chenier, Former National Basketball Association Player/Champion, Washington Bullets

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dorrance Publishing Company
• Release date: Jan 22, 2024
• ISBN: 9798890275233

Book preview

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The contents of this work, including, but not limited to, the accuracy of events, people, and places depicted; opinions expressed; permission to use previously published materials included; and any advice given or actions advocated are solely the responsibility of the author, who assumes all liability for said work and indemnifies the publisher against any claims stemming from publication of the work.

All Rights Reserved

Copyright © 2024 by Bobby Kinzer

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted, downloaded, distributed, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, including photocopying and recording, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented without permission in writing from the publisher.

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ISBN: 979-8-89027-025-2

eISBN: 979-8-89027-523-3

This book is dedicated to Mama Edie and Daddy Lawrence – none of this would have been possible without them!

ABOUT THE BOOK

The Other Side of the Hoop is a book about the multitude of experiences and obstacles that a young black American guy encountered while playing professional basketball in Europe.

Unlike most books written by players who experienced playing professional basketball in the United States in the National Basketball Association (NBA), players like Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Charles Barkley, and Wilt Chamberlain to name a few, this story is about a totally different basketball experience.

It’s about the cultural differences, the geographic differences of being on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. Dealing with the side of foreign relationship differences and language barriers; the social and economic challenges; the sometimes-hysterical intimate encounters; coping with the ups and downs of the business side of basketball. This book has a dual purpose: One is to enlighten the readers who are basketball enthusiasts and young men and women that may consider playing ball on the other side of the ocean. The second and most important reason for writing this book is to enlighten and encourage people to persevere through their most challenging situations in life, whether they are basketball-related or not; a sort of professional development tool enabling people of all walks of life to learn from the lessons learned by the author.

Hopefully, this book provides some pearls of wisdom that illuminate a better way of life for people who may be struggling. The book is intended to make the readers laugh, engage in the journey, and go along for an adventure-filled ride. It’s a true story full of remarkable experiences and accomplishments, revealing that obstacles are only opportunities for you to overcome and to motivate you to do better! The insatiable thirst for fame, fortune, and self begins with the search within. The journey is about who you are becoming; where you arrive determines what you become!

Bobby Kinzer

FOREWARD

I have known Bobby all his adult life.  I started recruiting him as a basketball player as a junior in high school.  After meeting his mother, Edith, I realized that the apple did not fall too far from the tree.  She was a sweet single mother who raised three boys and four girls.  It was clear that he had an excellent foundation and was grounded.  On his visit to Midwestern University, he got into a pick-up game with some other players.  In the first ten minutes of the game, he came down the court and threw a behind-the-back bounce pass from the top of the circle to a cutter going in for a dunk.  The coaches looked at each other and said, that’s enough. Unfortunately, he chose Penn State University over Midwestern University.  

Bobby was 6’6" and destined to play as a point guard.  He could do almost anything with a basketball.  His passing and ball-handling skills had National Basketball Association (NBA) written all over them.  He could palm a ball in each hand, go up, and dunk both balls simultaneously after becoming airborne.  At Penn State, he played for a very defensive-minded coach in John Bach, who ran a deliberate offense.   As a result, Bobby was not getting the playing time he wanted and was looking for another option when he gave me a call.  By this time, I had become the head coach at Texas A & I University (which is now Texas A&M Kingsville).  

Bobby packed his bags for Texas.  When he showed up, it was clear that he was the missing piece for a team that had good size and shooting talent.  What was missing was a point guard who could take over and run the show.  He had to sit out a semester and would be eligible at the start of the next season.  He brought so much leadership, hustle, and the it factor that every team needs.  That next season we started on fire, losing only one game in the Cotton Bowl Tournament, and that was when Bobby broke his metatarsal bone in his foot and was out for the rest of the season.  Bobby suited up for one game in the conference tournament at the end of the year, but his foot was not completely healed.  Consequently, this also caused Bobby to miss the NBA draft.

Of all the players I coached over the years, we had the best player-coach relationship of any time in my career.  I followed his career when he decided to take his game to Europe.  He was a crowd favorite in the United Kingdom.  Bobby started doing TV commercials, sports commentary, and voice-overs for radio.  The attendance at those Euro games shot up when Bobby was in town.  

For several years, I worked as a NIKE Global Executive.  I had the pleasure of witnessing numerous European games and working with many team administrations.  I also was a Global Scout for the Memphis Grizzles, Charlotte Hornets, and Utah Jazz.  European Professional Basketball is truly a different experience than the NBA.  There are different cultures in every league and every country.  Some of the differences in the game are; the court is narrower, the 3-second lane is shaped like a trapezoid, the 3-point line is closer, and the clock is shorter.  The fouls are different.  They call goaltending differently, the defensive 3-second rule doesn’t apply, and the style of play and tactics differ.  Some games in Europe are like a war.  Fans come to games with their music and flags.  Fans sing their own songs for their teams.  The way they support their teams, the way they organize, and the work that goes into presenting a game is impressive.

Bobby’s story of his European Basketball Experience was unique and intriguing.  He gained a lifetime experience filled with knowledge and insight into every aspect of the game, whether mental, physical, or social.  In addition, the experience took him on a remarkable journey where his basketball dreams became a reality.

Bobby has a podcast called The FITT Show, which stands for Financial Information for Today & Tomorrow.  He does a great deal of public speaking engagements, teaching, and promoting financial literacy workshops.  I am most proud of Bobby for the lessons he has learned and his willingness to share with others to improve their lives.  A true success story.

Rich Sheubrooks

Nike European Executive

Global Talent Scout for the Utah Jazz, Charlotte

Hornets, and Memphis Grizzlies

IN THE BEGINNING

Nineteen-eighty, there I was sitting in a warehouse in Halifax, England where the movie Aliens was filmed.  I have my own personal actor’s chair.  Every player’s dream!  Everyone’s pampering me like a major movie superstar.  

Fame and Fortune!  All my life, I have wished and worked for this moment.  Finally, a little old boy from 14th & Webster Street in Washington, D.C., is starring in a major television commercial for Rowntree’s Fruit Pastilles that will be broadcast on national television in England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales for the next eight years, two to three times a day right after school.  My professional basketball career is getting ready to take off.  Like a man smoking a cigarette at a gas station, I’m about to BLOW UP!  

No one else in British professional basketball has ever had a chance as significant as this.  This is the break of a lifetime.  One that would open so many doors to the entertainment and celebrity world.  I always wanted to become a professional basketball star player for all the main reasons of obtaining fame, fortune, and self-realization.  

I used to watch Walt Frazier of the New York Knicks on TV at celebrity events wearing a full-length black mink coat and velour hats.  He would come down to Washington, D.C. park his Rolls Royce outside Upshur Street playground, and watch us play.  His license plate said WALT.  

Nothing inspired me more than to see Pee Wee Kirkland at the Rucker Summer League in New York City come to the game with two of the finest women you have ever seen on each arm.  

Yes, this is my time to make it big.  I have paid the dues, and now it’s my time to reap the benefits of fame and fortune.  In the same year, I had just starred in a 60-second commercial filmed in London, England, but broadcast in Holland, advertising a product called Midalgan.

Midalgan was a heating ointment produced by a company in Holland.  I was featured in the commercial rubbing on a heating ointment and displaying slick basketball moves.  But I never saw the final product, and the company released the commercial in Holland, a place I knew very little about.  And they don’t even speak English.  

However, I was starting to get the exposure I needed to propel my career.  This story could not have been scripted better, not even by Steven Spielberg.

 I have been fortunate in my basketball career.  My first most significant basketball success came when Penn State University signed me to a four-year scholarship.  I thought this would be my ticket into the National Basketball Association (NBA), the pinnacle of fame and fortune in basketball.  

Penn State used to be an independent University, they played a schedule filled with major powerhouses in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) like: Marquette, North Carolina State, Virginia, Syracuse, Rutgers, Pittsburgh, and Georgetown.  

But what started to be a great decision turned out to be a nightmare and a vision of a grand illusion.  John Bach was the coach; and went on to receive three NBA championship rings as an assistant coach with the Chicago Bulls.  But as a college coach, he was a trip.  If you have ever seen the movie Road to Glory, you would have witnessed a scene when they mentioned that they used to have an unwritten rule before colleges ever started five black basketball players.  

The unwritten rule was when you played at home, they wouldn’t start more than two black players at a time, and on the road, you would not start more than three black players at a time.  I’m not saying John Bach was a racist, but in my two years at Penn State, I never played with more than three black guys at a time. We had six black players on the team.  Oh, let me clear that up.  We did play more than three when we had to chase the ball when a team played the four-corner offense (there was no shot clock), which was a glorified version of keep-a-way.  So, we would run around like the Keystone Cops.

I saw that my basketball career was in jeopardy at Penn State when, as a freshman, I was starting in the games until we came to Washington, DC to play in a tournament at George Washington University.  Now, I was pumped because we were coming to my hometown to play, and I was starting as a freshman.  

My mother had never seen me play a high school game because she cleaned government office buildings at night.  So, she took off this night to see me play for the first time.  She was so proud of me and always supported my efforts in basketball, even if she couldn’t attend my games due to her job commitment.  

My Mom would wash my game basketball uniform.  Remember the satin booty shorts?  She would put creases in the shorts, and my teammates would always joke me.  They would say: Who put creases in their game shorts?  They would be jealous because their mother didn’t know how.

 All kinds of people came from my playground were there that night with signs they had created.  One sign said, 14th Street Loves You Bob and had signatures from several friends from my playground, old players, and even a signature with two X’s.  They told me that was the signature of Zeke, the playground bum and wino who couldn’t write.  

Bach decided this night he wasn’t going to start me.  He sent me to the scorer’s table to check into the game for the first time with two minutes left in the first half.  The play didn’t stop until a violation with 30 seconds to go.  I turned to go back to the bench because I just knew Bach still wasn’t going to want me to go into the game.  I was wrong.  Bach looked me off, so I went into the game.  

I was crushed.  All my boys were yelling out jokes and calling me the Minute Man.  My last straw with Coach Bach was in practice one day when I collided with a teammate.  There was a clash of knees, and everyone crowded around with concern about the way I went down.  But Bach cleared them away.  He formed his finger like a gun, put it to my temple, gestured like pulling the trigger, and said: POW! This is what you do to a lame horse. After that, I decided I’d had enough – I transferred to Texas A & I University (which is now called Texas A&M at Kingsville).  

I was red-shirted (on probation) for a year and itching to play again.  My homeboy Eric Staten was transferring from St Francis University too.  Our new coach at Texas A&I was Rich Sheubrooks, one of the most remarkable men I have ever met.  He taught me the power of PMA (Positive Mental Attitude).  

He was a student and friend of John Wooden (coach of UCLA and who had the most NCAA National Championships wins in history).  As a result, Coach Sheubrooks would use a lot of the philosophies and motivational strategies of John Wooden.  

This was when I began to realize that basketball was more than a game.  So, many situations in basketball emulate circumstances in life.  I began to realize that learning to deal with success and failure on the basketball court prepared me for moments in life.  

There were times when I was let down and felt so low in life yet being exposed to failure on the court provided me with the experience and tools to bounce back and move on.  

In contrast, I realized that you could be so over-indulged in the success that you can lose sight of self, control, and respect for others.  Therefore, it is essential always to keep your feet on the ground.  

I learned that you should always be prepared so that when your time comes, you will be ready.  I also learned that no matter how prepared you are, sometimes things don’t go your way.  

One of the biggest lessons I learned about winning and losing came when Eric and I had to sit out a year for eligibility to play in the NAIA Texas Lone Star Conference.  Coach Sheubrooks arranged for us to play for an amateur basketball team in Corpus Christi, Texas, sponsored by millionaire George Taylor’s Jewelry Store.  We won this basketball tournament in Houston, Texas, and George Taylor approached me to congratulate me and shake my hand after the game.  Much to my surprise, he gave me the golden handshake – he put a hundred-dollar bill in it.  

We lost the next tournament in Dallas, and Mr. Taylor shook my hand; there was nothing in it this time.  I got the message very clearly.  If you take the word text from the word context, that is