Motta Says Schrempf Has All-Star Qualities

Last winter when University of Washington coach Marv Harshman needed someone to bang inside, he called on Detlef Schrempf. When the Huskies needed a clutch basket, Harshman looked to Schrempf. And when Washington point guard Gary Gardner became ineligible in early January, it was Schrempf who brought the ball upcourt in a season filled with full-court presses.

“My answer to everything the past four years,” Harshman said, “has been Detlef Schrempf.”

Next winter, coach Dick Motta hopes the 6-7 West German will be the answer for the Mavericks.

“We have three all-star quality players in Rolando Blackman, Mark Aguirre and Sam Perkins,” Motta said. “If things work out, we’ll have four quality players now.”

Things should indeed work out if Schrempf lives up to his advance billing. “He’s an exceptionally fine pro prospect,” Golden State talent consultant Pete Newell said of Schrempf, who led Washington to two straight Pac-10 conference championships.

The genius of Schrempf’s basketball ability cannot be found in any one skill. He is not, by his own admission, a great scorer, although Newell says he could be. The brilliance of Schrempf is in the total sum of his parts, his all-round game.

“He probably understands the game better than any non-American I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been around the game a few years,” said Newell, who coached the United States to the gold medal in the 1960 Olympics and California to the NCAA championship in 1959.

“Never has a non-American had such an innate grasp for the game of basketball, understood the game of basketball,” Newell said. “The game comes easy to him.

“He’s about as well-rounded as you can ask a player to be coming out of college. He does anything you ask of him. He rebounds, he’s a good passer, a fine passer, a very opportunistic player. He can go to the basket. He does so many things, like bringing the ball up for example.”

“I like what he does with is body. He plays the game the way it should be played,” Motta said. “I think he’s a natural.”

The success and development of Schrempf’s overall game has been no accident; rather, the result of lecture after lecture on fundamentals by the admittedly old-fashioned Harshman and long, hard, solitary hours of work by the player.

“With Detlef it is not work,” says Schrempf’s girlfriend, Mary Wagner, a world-class hurdler for West Germany. “It is not punishment for him, it is pleasure. It is his nature, like eating. It is his life.”

“I’ve always tried to work on all parts of my game, to keep improving,” Schrempf said. “I think that’s really important. If you want to be a good player you just can’t shoot the ball, you have to pass, rebound and play good defense. It’s all important.”

The hardwork has paid big dividends. “Schrempf is a scary player,” said Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski after a 30-point (11 for 14 from the field) effort by Schrempf knocked the Blue Devils out of the 1984 NCAA Tournament.

“Schrempf is the German Larry Bird,” says ESPN analyst Dick Vitale.

Oregon coach Don Monson says, “Schrempf is a white Magic (Johnson).”

“He comes out of the same kind of cookie jar, same kind of mold as those guys,” said Newell, of the comparisons to Bird and Johnson. “He’s like them: A 6-8, 6-9 guy who can put the ball down, make the big play, has great perception. Bird is a good shooter, not great. But he has a great total game. So does Detlef.”

Remembering that the work of 6-7 guard Clyde Drexler played a large part in Portland’s elimination of Dallas in the playoffs, Motta probably will use Schrempf as a back-up to Blackman at off-guard, although Schrempf could be a factor elsewhere as well.

“I think he’s going to add some real versatility to the Dallas Mavericks at several positions,” Rick Sund, Mavericks director of player personnel, said. Schrempf led Washington in scoring (15.8), rebounding (7.9) and assists (4.2) last year.

“I think Schrempf, because of his versatility, is going to be able to play three positions. That’s where he’s going to get his minutes.”

“I guess I’m a small forward or big guard,” Schrempf said. “I think I’m a little in between. I’m a small forward that likes to post up a little bit. There’s a lot of good small forwards who like to go inside. I like to do the same thing.

“I think I can play guard, I think it can do it. I’ll just have to prepare myself over the summer. I just have to know what they expect of me. I like to play guard.