Former Mr. Ohio Basketball & Buckeye Iron Man (2004-2008) Jamar Butler will take his talents to the German Bundesliga for his third season of professional basketball. Club Eisbaren Bremerhaven announced the news via their web page on August 16, 2010.
Butler (pictured left with NBA coach Mike Dunleavy - Clippers Summer League 2009) has already played in four countries in just two seasons.
Pro Timeline
- 2008/2009 - Rookie Season - Caserta - Italian Serie A (Left in Nov. 2008)
- 2009 - Rookie Season - Selcuk - Turkish Basketball League (Jan 2009 to March 2009)
- 2009/2010 - GS Olympia Larissa - Greek A1 - (Left in March 2010)
- 2010 - KK Igokea - Bosnia and Herzegovina
- 2010/2011 - Eisbaren Bremerhaven - German Bundesliga
In our opinions the German League is a good look for Jamar and just another stop in a career that is on an upward trend. He bounced back from his rookie pro season with solid work in Greece (top 5 European league) before rounding the season out in the Bosnian League.Butler was able to get some of that experience lost in his first season (only played a total of 11 official games) back during his 18 game stint with Larissa in Greece; he then participated in his first european post-season tournament with Igokea in the Bosnian Playoffs later that season.
The iceman will now take his cerebral game to the German Bundesliga, a very competitive league with lots of recognizable European & American talent. Jamar will be the lead guard for Bremerhaven, one of the league's better squads down the stretch last season (made it the semis of the playoffs).
More video coverage of Butler's games? - That is what we are thinking with Jamar heading to top 10 German League team. Larissa was a newly promoted team to the Greek League last season. It was hard to get video of their games aside from the contests vs the big teams like Olympiacos & PAO (as you will see in the vid)..and the Bosnian is so obscure that there were no clips to speak of. With Bremerhaven Butler should be a lot more visible than last season (German league gets decent to good coverage..plus he's on a good squad)
-New Video! - Jamar Butler 2009/2010 Short - GS Olympia Larissa - Greek A1 League
Buckeyes In Germany - Deutschland has been a frequent destination for OSU hoopsters in the last decade. Je'Kel Foster has played three of his four pro seasons in the Bundesliga; he appeared in two All-Star games & won the German Title in 2009 with Oldenburg. Foster's opponent in the 09 finals was Telekom Baskets Bonn which included former Buckeye Center Ken Johnson. KJ played with Frankfurt in the 2007/2008 season before moving to Bonn (2008/2009). Johnson's former Ohio State teammate George Reese was with the Skyliners of Frankfurt just one season earlier (2006/2007) before his super stint in Poland with AZS Koszalin.
2010 Swiss Champion Brian Brown has also put in major work in Germany. He first played there in 2002/2003 for Baskets Bonn. After a season in the NBDL Brown returned to the Bundesliga for the next two seasons (2004-2006) with TBB Trier. The NY baller then got some buckets in France for a year before playing for Jamar's new team Bremerhaven in 2007/2008.
Furthermore, Brian started the 2008/2009 season with Polish club Anwil, but after five games he left and returned to TBB Trier where he played until January 2010 (Moved to the Lugano Tigers of Switzerland where he won a league title.) If the pattern of the last four seasons holds true Brown should be starting this season in Germany :) -- He appeared in two Germany League All-Star games and won the 2006 BBL All-Star MVP Award.
George Reese & Ken Johnson missed a Buckeye reunion in Frankfurt by one season. But that was not the case in late 2009 when Terence Dials signed with Matt Terwilliger's Paderborn Baskets for a brief stint. Twig played with Paderborn in his first two professional seasons (Dials left Paderborn in Jan. 2010)
Another OSU big man Velimir Radinovic played in the BBL last season for a club called MBC. Matt Marinchick currently plays in the German minor leagues with TSVE Bielefeld..Matt has been video documenting his experiences his Germany.
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