Creative Konrad flourishes abroad

When you think of slam-dunk competitions, basketball fans typically envision high-flying, body-contorting, jump-out-of-your-shoes moves only the best players can pull off. They don’t, however, actually expect that the sneakers will be left behind. But during Germany’s Bundesliga All-Star Day Slam Dunk contest, Konrad Wysocki ’04 loosened his laces and dunked, leaving his sneakers back in the paint.

Wysocki’s clever dunk — which is actually a pretty difficult feat considering socks don’t exactly provide the kind of stability his six-foot, seven-inch frame needs to reach the rim — gave his audience a taste of the charisma that he brings to the game.

“It was nothing special,” Wysocki said of his performance. “I knew from the get-go that I really had no chance of winning the contest, so I was in there just for the fun of it.”

Playing for love of the game enabled Wysocki to make his presence felt during the Jan. 19 All-Star Day in Mannheim, Germany. In addition to having the most entertaining dunks of the afternoon, Wysocki netted nine points for the South in its 104-88 loss to the North.

Tiger fans without strong memories may not remember Wysocki as a particularly passionate player on the court, as the kind of energy he showed during this event was often stifled when he played for Princeton.

After a promising start for the Orange and Black — he shot 60 percent from the field and was the 2001 Ivy League Rookie of the Year — Wysocki’s playing time diminished, and his frustration with the program grew.

The week following Princeton’s wins over Brown and Yale during Wysocki’s senior season, he made the decision to leave the team.

“Barely having contributed, I was happy for the team but disappointed in not having played a more significant role,” Wysocki wrote in a letter published in The Daily Princetonian. “This experience led to a decision that I had been debating for quite some time which was to leave Princeton basketball.”

After graduation, however, Wysocki’s flair returned, as he has exploded on the German basketball stage during the past three years to make his mark on the Bundesliga. Mike Taylor, Wysocki’s coach at his new team, Ratiopharm Ulm, praises the small forward’s creativity.

“[Wysocki’s] charisma, his flair, his energy level and his intelligence all combine to make him a really special player,” Taylor said. “It’s taken him some time to find his game and find a place where he’s comfortable, and I’m really happy that he’s asserting himself.”

At Ulm, Wysocki averages 13.9 points and 9.7 rebounds per game. Wysocki has become a dangerous player over the past three years due to the increased confidence and playing time.

“In the three years that we’ve worked together, I think I’ve seen [a heightened] maturity level in terms of experience on the court. When you have a player that really loves to play with passion and intensity, sometimes as a young player that can go the wrong way, but Konrad has always been the same guy to me. He’s an intelligent guy, he loves to be coached, he loves the problem analysis of his game, and he’s always searching for a solution to get better,” Taylor said.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

This determination shows, as Wysocki is both creative and technically sound, which he attributes to his experience at Princeton. The patience of the Princeton Offense made Wysocki an expert in the pass-and-cut style of play, and his concentration in play architecture only added to his talent for spatial recognition.

Wysocki is rumored to be one of the top prospects for the German national team that will travel to the Olympics in Beijing this summer. Fortunately for him, his All-Star game coach, Dirk Bauermann, is also the national team coach. Despite the familiarity Wysocki might have with Bauermann, however, the politics of the selection process have left the situation entirely out of his hands.

“I’m going to continue playing the best basketball I can, and I think I should get a chance [of making the National Team]. I think I’m by far one of the best German players that’s playing right now. I don’t think there’s a basketball player or an athlete in any sport that doesn’t dream of playing in the Olympics,” Wysocki said.