Gunther Behnke

Gunther Behnke
Player information
birthday	January 19, 1963
place of birth	Leverkusen , Germany
size	221 cm
position	center
NBA draft	1985 , 101. Pick, Cleveland Cavaliers
Clubs as active
1980–1992 TSV Bayer 04 Leverkusen 1992–1994 TuS Bramsche 1994–1996 ALBA Berlin 1996–2000 Telekom Baskets Bonn
National team 1
1983-1995	Germany	146 games
1 As of October 8, 2008

Gunther Behnke medal table
Basketball (men)
Germany
European Championship
gold	1993 Germany	Germany

Gunther Behnke (born January 19, 1963 in Leverkusen ) is a former German national basketball player . The greatest success of the 2.21 meter center was winning the European Championship in 1993.

career

Behnke, who started playing basketball as a youth in Pulheim near Cologne, became German A-youth champions in 1981 with TuS 04 Leverkusen. In 1982 the success was repeated. He made his debut for Leverkusen in the Bundesliga in the early 1980s . He remained loyal to the future German record champions for eleven years and during this time won five German championships (1985, 1986, 1990-1992) and four national cup competitions (1986, 1987, 1990, 1991). With 317 appearances, Behnke is the record player for the Bayer Bundesliga team, which stopped playing in 2008. In 1985, in the same year as his former teammate Detlef Schrempf, he was selected by the NBA team Cleveland Cavaliers in the fifth round in eighth position in the entry draft , but never played a game in the NBA.

In 1989 he won the bronze medal at the Universiade  in Duisburg with the German student selection .

From 1992 to 1994 Behnke continued his Bundesliga career at TuS Bramsche. He then moved to Alba Berlin. He was part of the team that won the Korać Cup in 1995 and became the first German team to win a European club competition. His last professional station from 1996 onwards were Telekom Baskets Bonn, with whom he reached the play-off finals for the German championship twice , but lost each time to his former club Alba Berlin.

Between 1983 and 1995 Behnke completed a total of 146 international matches for the German national team , scoring 702 points. He took part in the 1992 Olympic Games , two world championships and four European championships.

Behnke was one of the longest players ever to have played in the Bundesliga. His specialty was blocking opposing throws.

Behnke ended his career after the 1999/2000 season. According to his own statement, he has meanwhile "finished with basketball".

Web links

• Gunther Behnke in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Gunther Behnke - player profile on Basketball-Bundesliga.de ( Memento from February 6, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
• List and statistics of the German national basketball players

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "These are our 12 giants", Sport-Bild from June 23, 1993, p. 32 f.
2. ↑ Third attempt: TuS 04 Leverkusen won the German championship title . In: magazine basketball . No. 11 , June 4, 1981, pp. 10 .
3. ↑ TuS 04 Leverkusen confidently maintained its role as favorites . In: Franconian Day . No. 133 , June 14, 1982, pp. 9 .
4. ↑ Traces from 40 Years, Leverkusener Anzeiger, May 31, 2008 ( Memento of the original from July 25, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
5. ↑ 1985 NBA Draft (English) ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
6. ↑ Christoph Büker: Once upon a time ... bronze 25 years ago . In: Deutscher Basketball Bund (Ed.): DBB Journal . No. 41 , October 2014, p. 36, 37 .
7. ↑ Gunther Behnke plays Glücksfee, BBL website, December 17, 2007  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.