CHRISTIAN WELP - 101 Greats of European Basketball

Christian
Welp
391

A double
Euro-champ
Every player dreams of an important game
with a close score being decided by his basket
in the last seconds. Many dream about
it, but few can say they actually lived that
kind of experience. Christian Welp – who
was born on January 2, 1964, in Delmenhorst,
Germany and passed away on March 1, 2015, in
Seattle, Washington – was one of them. He scored the
most important points of his career during EuroBasket
1993 in his native Germany.
The opponent in the title game was Russia, the big
favorite against a German team that had already made
a surprise run by reaching that final. However, the
hosts wanted more. Down the stretch, the Russians led
63-68, but soon the score was tied at 68-68. A foul by
Michael Jackel over Sergei Babkov allowed the Russians
to jump ahead again, 68-70. German coach Svetislav
Pesic called for a play for Welp. Kai Nurnberger crossed
the halfcourt line, held on to the ball for a few more
seconds and passed to Welp. He was rather far away
from the rim for a player of his size, 2.13 meters, but
Welp was one of those big men who could connect from
anywhere. He hit a perfect shot worth two points, but
it came with a bonus as Mikhail Mikhailov fouled him.
It was a possible three-point play, but the free throw
had to go in first. More than 12,000 fans who packed
the Olympic Pavillion in Munich – which had been the
stage of the infamous three final seconds of the 1972
Olympics final between the USA and the USSR – were
on the brink of a nervous breakdown two decades later.
The score was now 70-70 and three seconds were left
in this game, as well, and their best player was on the
foul line. Keeping a cool head, Welp downed the shot
that made Germany the European champ.
It was one of the biggest upsets ever at EuroBasket.
Pesic, the German national head coach then, told me a
few stories about Welp.
“He was, without a doubt, one of the best centers I
ever coached in my career”, Pesic said. “He had everything
a big man should have: a steady hand, rebounds,
good passing, a sense for the game. He was the complete
package and I am sure he was among the best
pure centers in the world.”
About that famous last play against Russia:
“You don’t have to be a great coach to know that the
decisive shot must be taken by your best man. And our
best man was Christian, a game winner. The plan was
simple: getting the ball to the other side and wait for the
right moment to give him the ball. The rest is history...”
That wasn’t the only masterpiece by Welp at that
tournament. In the quarterfinals against Spain, with a
few minutes to go, the Spaniards were dominating 64-
70, but the hosts came back to tie 72-72 on a bucket
by Welp. When overtime was almost over, the score
showed 77-77, but Welp buried Spain’s hopes with a
basket at the buzzer that sent Germany into euphoria
– and the semifinals.
Sabonis, Petrovic, Welp...
Most biographies about Christian Welp start with
his studies in the United States. First at East Bremerton
high school and later at Washington University, but it
is also true that when Welp landed in the States at 17
years old, most of his talent was already in plain sight.
101 greats of european basketball
Christian Welp
W

Vladimir Stankovic
At the European Championship for Cadets in Greece in
1981, he was already part of a great generation of 1964
which would give so much to the game of basketball,
with names like Arvydas Sabonis and Valery Tikhonenko
(USSR); Drazen Petrovic, Stojko Vrankovic and Velimir
Perasovic (Yugoslavia); Jose Montero (Spain)... A
great year.
In the final, the USSR defeated Italy by 72-57 while
in the bronze medal game, Germany topped Finland
78-64. One Christian Welp scored 32 points. Against
Turkey, he bagged 28; against Sweden 24. His average
was 18.4 plus many rebounds, even if there is no data
about that number. Drazen Petrovic led the tourney
with 32.4 points per game, but Yugoslavia finished fifth,
while Germany, who until then never had any success in
youth categories, won the bronze.
One year later, at the 1982 European Championships
for Junior Men in Bulgaria, Germany managed
to have together three of its diamonds: Detlef
Schrempf, Gunther Behnke and Welp. Germany
finished fifth, but the three of them had main roles.
Schrempf averaged 18.3 points, followed by Behnke
(14.3) and Welp (13.9).
During the autumn of 1982, Welp took an important
step in his career and moved to the United States. After
high school, he went to Washington University, where
he coincided with Schrempf. The two Germans started
writing history in the country that invented basketball.
Welp finished his studies as the top scorer ever in the
college, with 2,073 points (average of 16.1) and 995 rebounds
(7.7). In 1986 he the player of the year in the Pacific
10 conference of the NCAA. Nobody was surprised
when he was chosen number 16 in the 1987 draft by
Philadelphia. He was to be the complement to Charles
Barkley.
However, that December, after only 10 games, he
suffered a serious knee injury when his NBA career was
just starting. He slipped on the wet floor, which was
over an ice rink. He was back for the 1988-89 season,
as a bench player, and averaged 3.4 points and 2.7
rebounds. Pesic is convinced that Welp never fully recovered
from that injury, despite having accomplished
good things after that.
After two years with the 76ers, he played one season
with the San Antonio Spurs and the Golden State
Warriors. After 109 games in the NBA averaging 3.3
points and 2.4 rebounds, he decided to travel back to
Europe. He signed for Bayer Leverkusen of his native
Germany, and by then, the best team in the country. He
stayed there for six seasons winning as many league
titles.
Triumph in Rome
For the 1996-97 season, Dusan Ivkovic was the head
coach at Olympiacos Piraeus and was looking for a tall
player who could help Panagiotis Fasoulas and Dragan
Tarlac. He signed Welp, who met expectations. When
Olympiacos reached the Rome Final Four, Welp was 33
years old. He only played 17.8 minutes per game but
contributed what was expected of him: experience plus
6.2 points and 3.5 rebounds. In semis, the Reds defeated
Olimpija Ljubljana by 74-65, and in the title game,
they beat FC Barcelona by 73-58 behind the great David
Rivers, who scored 26 points.
With his mission accomplished in Greece – where
he won the triple crown with the Euroleague, the Greek
League and the Greek Cup – Welp returned to Germany,
but this time to ALBA Berlin, where coach Pesic awaited
him with open arms. In the 1997-98 season, ALBA
reached the quarterfinals of the EuroLeague but fell to
392
393

looked the part also, but for technique, shot and sense
of the game, he was an all-around player.
The sad news reached us on March 1, 2015, from Seattle,
the city where he lived: Christian Welp had dead.
A heart attack put an end to his life at just 51 years old.
However, we could be able to hear the Welp name on
the basketball courts again, as Collin, one of his sons,
is a young player now, too. Welp, a name to remember.
Christian Welp
AEK Athens. For German basketball, however, being
among the best eight teams was quite a feat. His seventh
German League title was a consolation prize. He
tried to play one more season, signing for Reggio Calabria
in Italy, but after 12 games, and being aware that
he could not deliver at the level he wanted, he decided
to put an end to his career.
I was fortunate to see Welp many times, the first
time at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, and the last
at the 1995 EuroBasket in Athens. In January of 1996, I
interviewed him before a game between FC Barcelona
and Bayer Leverkusen. A photo of that interview, published
in El Mundo Deportivo newspaper, is the souvenir
I had from that interview with a great player. He
was not your typical center. He was tall alright, and he
101 greats of european basketball
W