Playing sports at the semi-pro level isn't all fun and games. Athletes are usually full of stories about wild parties they couldn't go to because of the big game the next day or the voice in their head - usually their trainer's or parents' - telling them to choose between clubbing and playing. Such stories just make German basketball star Hanna Green chuckle. The 21-year-old athlete who?s running the floor with the professional team BC Universa Marburg has had no problem combining a dazzling sports career with an intensive nightlife: In fact, until recently, the 5-foot-8-inch shooting guard worked as a bouncer at one of the coolest clubs in Hamburg. Thats just a job though, Hanna says, explaining that she lives for her sport. She trains five days a week with her team and works out at another gym the other two days.
The hard workouts help develop her natural talent, which she began demonstrating while playing for the Hamburger area club SC Rist Wedel, a first division team in the national league. (German basketball, like soccer and other sports here, is organized into a national league system. Both players and teams can move up and down in the divisions, depending on how well they play.) Although she was the smallest girl on the team, she was the most talented, coach Marc Köpp remembers, and within a year, she was selected for the Hamburg regional all-star team. When she turned 16, she was invited to join Rist Wedel.
Hanna says she was drawn to basketball by the fast pace and quick decision making required by the game. »I'm fascinated with the sport and the surroundings,« she said. »I don't play for money alone, although it is helping finance my education.«
Her love of basketball doesn't distract her from the books, either, with her completing her business studies degree a semester quicker than most students. Leaving Rist Wedel for Marburg was a spontaneous decision, Hanna said. »When you've been playing in the same club for 11 years, it's time for a new challenge. This team is better, and it has a good mix of young and experienced players.«
What Green is too modest to mention is that Marburg is the secondplace team in the first division of the national league. Hanna's plans dont't stop here, though. Last year, she was invited to try out for the German national team, but before making that step, she plans on playing basketball in America. »I want to go to the States to play and study there,« she says with a big smile. »In America, everything about basketball is more professional. There are a lot more spectators at the games, and I'm really looking forward to all the hype.« She has every reason for excitement: In her pocket she's carrying around a scholarship for the University of San Diego.
1980 Hanna Green is born on June 10 in Pinneberg, near Hamburg
1990 Joined the Hamburg-area team SC Rist Wedel, a first-division team in the national league
1991 Despite being one of the smaller players on the team, Hanna is selected for the Hamburg regional all-star team
2002 Selected to play for BC Universa Marburg, the second-ranked team in the first division of the national league
2003 Plans on playing basketball at the University of San Diego, which has offered her a scholarship
Esther Bewarder, 29, challenged Hanna to a little one-on-one game, but the basketball star was obviously afraid of the 5-foot-3-inch-tall writer's dunking ability
