Alvin Dukes

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Basketball player
Alvin Dukes
Player information
Full name Alvin Dwane Dukes
Nickname Bo
birthday 4th August 1961
place of birth Inkster (MI), United States
size 168 cm
position Point guard
college XULA
Clubs as active
1979–1983 XULA Gold Rush ( NAIA ) 1983–1985 Hageby Basket 1985–1987 Detroit / Savannah Spirits ( CBA ) 1987–1988 Södertälje Kings 1988–1991 Steiner Bayreuth 1991–1993 Basket Vienna Flyers 1995–1996 SSV ratiopharm Ulm 1996–1997 SV OberelchingenUnited StatesUnited States
SwedenSweden
United StatesUnited States
SwedenSweden
GermanyGermany
AustriaAustria
GermanyGermany
GermanyGermany

Alvin "Bo" Dukes (born August 4, 1961 in Inkster , Michigan ) is a retired American basketball player . The 1.68 m tall Dukes was able to compensate for his small size for basketball, especially with his fast and tricky style of play. In his home country Dukes enjoyed a reputation as a “ streetball legend” on the Detroit courts , while in Europe as a professional he won the championships in Sweden , Austria and, with Steiner Bayreuth, in 1989, the national double in Germany . After his career as an athlete, he became a player consultant and agent.

Career

United States

Even as a schoolboy, Dukes had to fight against doubts that he was too small for the sport of basketball. The same concerns prevented him from going to a large university. In 1979 he went to study Michigan at Xavier University in New Orleans in Louisiana , whose university teams "Gold Rush" are organized in the NAIA . After graduating in 1983, Dukes became a professional in Sweden, where he played for Hageby BK in Norrköping . After two years he returned and played in the Continental Basketball Association for the Detroit Spirits. He came in the dress of the team from Michigan in the 1985/86 season on averages of 9.9 points and 5.0 basket assists per game. During the 1986 summer break, Dukes made it into the extended squad of the New York Knicks NBA club in the pre-season phase , but was dismissed before the start of the season. Then he played again with the Spirits, who had meanwhile moved to Savannah, Georgia . There he significantly increased his statistical values ​​compared to the previous season, scored 15.9 points per game and prepared 9.7 basket hits for his teammates. He also won 3.3 balls per encounter.

Europe

In 1987 he finally continued his career in Europe. Although Dukes never made it to an NBA game, he has made a lasting memory of renowned sports commentators such as ESPN's Scoop Jackson with his tricky play.

Between 1983 and 1985 Dukes had already completed two seasons for Hageby Basket in Norrköping, Sweden. After the opportunity had failed to get a contract in the highest endowed professional league NBA, Dukes returned to Sweden for the season 1987/88 and played for the Kings from Södertälje , with whom he won the championships in 1988. The US coach from Steiner Bayreuth, Lester Habegger , then brought Dukes into the German basketball league , where Dukes played his way into the hearts of the audience straight away. Dukes later described his time in Bayreuth as the most beautiful of his career. In addition, in the first season of 1988/89 there were also historic successes for the club when, after two opening defeats in the final series against TSV Bayer Leverkusen, they won the first German championship for the club with three consecutive wins . Since they successfully defended the cup winner title, they had also won the double. However, only one foreigner was permitted in the DBB Cup at that time. Bayreuth's coach Habegger gave Calvin Oldham preference over Dukes in the final against Leverkusen. In the following season Bayer Leverkusen turned the tables and defeated Bayreuth in the cup semi-finals and in the championship in the series of finals. The Bayreuth club rebuilt the team for the following season 1990/91, and Dukes initially left the club. After a false start, however, Dukes was brought back during the season, but in the play-off semi-final series they lost again to Master Leverkusen.

For the season 1991/92 Dukes went to Austria in the local A-League . With the Basket Flyers from Vienna , Dukes became Austrian champion in 1992 and runner-up in 1993. In 1995 he returned to the German Bundesliga and played for SSV ratiopharm from Ulm , where his former Bayreuth teammate Uwe Sauer was also in the squad. With the Ulm team he won the cup again in 1996, but was in the play-off quarter- finals of the BBL in 1995/96 in the battle for the championship. Then Dukes moved to the league rivals and local rivals of Ulm in Oberelchingen . While the "Elche" played a successful season, Dukes left the club at the turn of the year 1996/1997 and ended his playing career at the age of 35. In the book “50 Years of the Basketball Bundesliga”, Dukes was described as “the first big star in the Bundesliga, beyond the boundaries of the sport”. In total, he recorded 2180 Bundesliga points during his time in Germany. In 1998 he was inducted into the basketball hall of fame of the US state Louisiana.

After the end of his career, Dukes worked as a player advisor and agent.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alwin Dukes , Internationales Sportarchiv 50/1990, in the Munzinger archive , accessed on June 10, 2012 ( beginning of the article freely available)
  2. ↑ SLAM magazine Special Streetball Collector's Edition (English)
  3. ↑ a b Dino Reisner: Because with Bo Dukes the smallest was the biggest . In: 111 reasons to love Medi Bayreuth: A declaration of love to the greatest basketball city in the world . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2019, ISBN 978-3-86265-770-4 , pp. 94, 95 .
  4. ↑ a b Alvin Dukes Statistics on StatsCrew.com. Retrieved May 24, 2020 .
  5. ↑ SPORTS PEOPLE; Cartwright Returning. New York Times , October 21, 1986, accessed June 10, 2012 (item in the news archive).
  6. ^ Scoop Jackson: The Barn has impacted many, both famous and anonymous. ESPN , November 26, 2008, accessed June 10, 2012 (English, Page2 comment).
  7. ↑ Dr. Peter-Michael Habermann: The double is perfect ( Memento from January 6, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  8. ↑ Dino Reisner: Because many cooks don't spoil the broth . In: 111 reasons to love Medi Bayreuth: A declaration of love to the greatest basketball city in the world . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2019, ISBN 978-3-86265-770-4 , pp. 91-93 .
  9. ↑ Dr. Peter-Michael Habermann: US boys in Bayreuth dress ( Memento from August 1, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
  10. ↑ Dr. Peter-Michael Habermann: 30 years of Bayreuth basketball history ( Memento from February 10, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
  11. ↑ Little man, big . In: Basketball Bundesliga GmbH (Ed.): 50 Years of the Basketball Bundesliga . Cologne, ISBN 978-3-7307-0242-0 , pp. 101 .
  12. ↑ The 200 best basket hunters in the Bundesliga since 1975 . In: Basketball Bundesliga GmbH (Ed.): 50 Years of the Basketball Bundesliga . Cologne, ISBN 978-3-7307-0242-0 , pp. 212 .
  13. ↑ Men's Basketball Honors. In: xulagold.com. Retrieved May 24, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Dukes, Alvin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dukes, Alvin Dwane (full name); Dukes, Bo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American basketball player
DATE OF BIRTH 4th August 1961
PLACE OF BIRTH Inkster (Michigan)