Norbert Thimm (born August 21, 1949 in

Dortmund Dortmund (; Westphalian nds, Düörpm ; la, Tremonia) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the eighth-largest city of Germany, with a population of 588,250 inhabitants as of 2021. It is th ...

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

) is a retired German professional

basketball player Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

. He is 2.05 m (6 ft 9 in) tall and played the

center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

position. He currently works for the sports management company T.E.A.M. Consulting and is president of the

Basketball Bundesliga for Women The Damen-Basketball-Bundesligen GmbH (DBBL) is a company founded in June 2001, which manages the first and the two second federal leagues of women's basketball in Germany. The shareholders of the GmbH are AG 1. DBBL, AG 2. DBBL and DBB. DBBL is ...

Professional career

Thimm played professional basketball for the

West German West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

Basketball Bundesliga The Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) (English language: ''Federal Basketball League''), for sponsorship reasons named easyCredit BBL, is the highest level league of professional club basketball in Germany. The league comprises 18 teams. A BBL seaso ...

teams

SSV Hagen Brandt Hagen Hagen is a professional basketball club from Hagen in Germany. History It is the successor of Brandt Hagen, a professional club that had considerable success in the German Basketball Bundesliga in the 90s. In April 1990, the club was ...

TuS Bayer 04 Leverkusen Bayer Giants Leverkusen is a professional basketball club, part of the TSV Bayer 04 Leverkusen sports club based in Leverkusen, Germany. It currently plays in ProA, the second division of German basketball. Based on the number of titles, Leverku ...

and the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: ** Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Ca ...

ACB team

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...

. In 1972 Thimm became the first German basketball player to ever play professional basketball for an international team. Even though Thimm constantly was among

’s top performers, he never consistently made it into the starting lineup. Besides winning two Spanish Championships and two Spanish Cups, Thimm has won five German Championships and five German Cups and remains one of the most successful German basketball players in history.

West German national team

As a member of the

West German national basketball team The Germany men's national basketball team (german: Deutsche Basketballnationalmannschaft or ''Die Mannschaft'') represents Germany in international basketball competition. The team is directed by the German Basketball Federation (''Deutsche ...

, Thimm competed at the

EuroBasket 1971 The 1971 FIBA European Championship, commonly called FIBA EuroBasket 1971, was the seventeenth FIBA EuroBasket regional basketball championship, held by FIBA Europe. Venues First round Group A – Essen Group B – Böblingen Knoc ...

and the

1972 Summer Olympics The 1972 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad () and commonly known as Munich 1972 (german: München 1972), was an international multi-sport event held in Munich, West Germany, from 26 August to 11 September 1972 ...

. At both tournaments he was the top-scorer of the West German team. His most noteworthy performance were 21 points at a surprising victory against

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is divided into Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 mill ...

at the 1972 Summer Olympics.

References

1949 births Living people Basketball players at the 1972 Summer Olympics Bayer Giants Leverkusen players German men's basketball players West German expatriate sportspeople in Spain Olympic basketball players for Germany Real Madrid Baloncesto players Sportspeople from Dortmund Centers (basketball) German expatriate basketball people in Spain West German sportsmen {{Germany-basketball-bio-stub