Stephan Baeck

Stephan Baeck
Player information
birthday	April 12, 1965
place of birth	Cologne , Germany
size	194 cm
position	Shooting Guard
Clubs as active
0 0 0–1985 TSV Bayer 04 Leverkusen 1985–1990 BSC Saturn Cologne 1990–1992 TSV Bayer 04 Leverkusen 1992–1996 ALBA Berlin 1996–1997 PAOK Thessaloniki 1997–1998 Ruhr Devils 1998–1999 Brandt Hagen 1999–2000 ALBA Berlin 2000–2001 Cologne 99ers
National team 1
1984-1997	Germany	133 games
Clubs as coaches
2002–2003 RheinEnergie Cologne 2011 Germany (AC) 2011–2013 Cologne 99ers (NBBL) since 2013 RheinStars Cologne (NBBL) 000 0 0
1 As of: 12.09.2013

Stephan Baeck medal table
Basketball (men)
Germany
European Championship
gold	1993 Germany	Germany

Stephan Michael Baeck (born April 12, 1965 in Cologne ) is a former German national basketball player . The Shooting Guard was part of the German European championship team from 1993 and won six German championships as well as the national cup competition and the Korać Cup once during his playing career .

career

Stephan Baeck began his career at Bayer Leverkusen and was pulled up in 1983 as a B-youth by coach Chris Lee in the Bundesliga squad. He became a national player at the age of 19 and won his first German championship with the club in 1985. Baeck received offers from universities in the United States, but he did not accept them. He moved to his hometown of Cologne, where he signed his first professional contract. With the BSC Saturn he became German champion in 1987 and 1988. During the 1988 final series, Baeck scored 36 points in the fourth game against his former club from Leverkusen, which he later classified as his best game. In 1989 he won bronze with the German selection at the World Student Games ("Universiade") in Duisburg and was the third best German scorer during the tournament. However, he gave up his studies in English, educational science and sports in favor of basketball during his time in Cologne. After the financially-related end of top basketball in Cologne, Baeck played again for Leverkusen in 1990. It was followed by winning the double in 1991 and another championship the following year. From 1992 to 1996 Baeck played for Alba Berlin and was part of the team that won the Korac Cup in 1995 and thus celebrated the first victory of a German team in a European club competition.

Back in 1993, Baeck, who also took part in the 1992 Olympic Games , experienced another career highlight when he won the European Championship with the German national team . He scored five points per encounter on the way to European gold in the tournament. In the same year, however, his career threatened a sudden end: During a Korac Cup game on December 8, 1994 in León , a finger of his opponent got into his left eye, which was seriously injured. Baeck threatened to go blind in the eye, but was able to play basketball again after several operations, and from then on he wore protective goggles.

After stints in Saloniki, with the Ruhr Devils and Hagen, Baeck returned to Berlin in 1999 and ended his Bundesliga career in 2000 with another German championship. He scored 5484 points in the Bundesliga during his career. He was considered an instinctive basketball player who was characterized by wit and an apparent ease in his movements and actions. In the book “50 Years of the Basketball Bundesliga” the description of his style of play was placed under the heading “The Gambler”.

Until 2009 he worked as a sports director and temporarily also as head coach (from the beginning of the 2003/04 season to November 2003) for the new Cologne Bundesliga team, which operates under different names. During this time, Cologne won the German championship (2006) and the cup wins in 2004, 2005 and 2007.

He later commented as an expert on basketball broadcasts for Sport1 and ran a training center in Cologne. In 2011 he was also one of two assistant coaches for the German national team . In addition, from 2011 to 2014 he was the coach of the NBBL team of RheinStars Cologne (until the end of the 2012/13 season Cologne 99ers ) and managing partner of RheinStars Cologne. In this role, he led RheinStars to the 2nd Bundesliga ProA in 2015 as regional league champion by  skipping the 2nd Bundesliga ProB . In the second highest German division, Baecks Kölner played in the Lanxess-Arena. Due to the resulting high costs and the lack of a suitable alternative venue, Baeck pulled the RheinStars back to the 2nd Bundesliga ProB together with his managing partner Marc-Thilo Schott after the end of the 2017/18 season.

Web links

• Stephan Baeck - player profile on Basketball-Bundesliga.de
• Interview with Stephan Baeck June 2007
• 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. ↑ ^{a b c} Jan Finken: From students and young professionals - The Bundesliga is changing . In: Basketball Bundesliga GmbH (Ed.): 50 Years of the Basketball Bundesliga . Cologne, ISBN 978-3-7307-0242-0 , pp. 61-69 .
3. ↑ Christoph Büker: Once upon a time ... bronze 25 years ago . In: Deutscher Basketball Bund (Ed.): DBB Journal . No. 41 , October 2014, p. 36, 37 .
4. ↑ Stephan Michael Baeck profile, European Championship for Men 1993. Retrieved May 25, 2020 . 
5. ↑ 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 .
6. ↑ Sebastian Gehrmann: Golden Boys. The different thinker . In: Basketball Bundesliga GmbH (Ed.): 50 Years of the Basketball Bundesliga . Cologne, ISBN 978-3-7307-0242-0 , pp. 145 .
7. ↑ http://www.aachener-zeitung.de/sport/basketball-rheinenergie-sucht-baeck-nachhaben-1.79812
8. ↑ https://www.sport1.de/basketball/2015/06/podolski-klub-rheinstars-koeln-springt-in-zweite-basketball-bundesliga
9. ↑ https://www.basketball-nrw.com/2018/05/rheinstars-nach-dem-proa-aus-eine-analyse/
10. ↑ https://www.rheinstars-koeln.de/blog/2018/05/09/rheinstars-buendeln-kraefte-und-starten-kuenftig-in-prob/