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 June, 2010        

    DeAndre's Byrd's Career Takes Flight Overseas

Even while averaging 15.3 points per game in last year’s Deveroes Summer League, DeAndre Byrd had an important decision hanging over him.

Byrd, the former two-time all-state player at Taft, had just helped Central Missouri reach the Division II Final Four in his senior year, and during the tournament had caught the eye of an agent who had an opportunity for him to play pro basketball. The only catch was that opportunity was in Germany.

Byrd consulted with other players who had played overseas, including fellow Summer League alum Mark Dorris, before making his final decision to go play for SVD 49 Dortmund of the Regionalliga West group.

“They just told me to stay focused, because you get so homesick over there,” Byrd said.

A mid-season trip home for Christmas helped Byrd fight off homesickness during his stay in the west German city of Dortmund, but there was plenty else to get used to for the 6-foot-2 guard who grew up downtown.

“It was completely different,” Byrd said, noting, “They ride bikes everywhere. I saw women with skirts and heels riding bikes.”

Byrd didn’t need to worry about biking, however, since the team set him up with a car and housing on top of his salary. His roommate was the other import player the team was allowed to have, forward Joey Henley of Seattle, and their German teammates helped the two settle in to Germany’s seventh-largest city with a population of just under 600,000.

“Our teammates came out and showed us around a lot,” Byrd said. “We were two hours from Amsterdam and an hour from Dusseldorf.”
Byrd also said there was not much of a language barrier.

“I speak a little. I learned a lot when I was over there,” Byrd said. “Mostly everybody in Germany speaks English. It’s very diverse.”

Byrd had an adjustment to make on the court, as well, where he says some rules are enforced more strictly than they are here in the United States.

“They call travelling a lot,” Byrd said. “The first four games I averaged about three turnovers a game because of the way they call that.”

In addition, the games start at about six in the evening in Germany, which is around midnight here in Cincinnati.

Byrd says he averaged 20 points, eight rebounds, and eight assists per game, helping his team draw crowds of up to two or three thousand per game, unless Dortmund’s soccer team was also playing.

“When they’ve got a big time soccer game there wasn’t anybody going to our games,” said Byrd, who got to attend one of the soccer games himself.

“It was crazy,” he said of the experience. “I was one sober guy with 90,000 drunk Germans.”

With Byrd’s help, SVD 49 Dortmund overcame a slow start to finish 18-10, fourth in its league, just missing a chance to move up to a higher division next season.

“The top three teams move up to a different division,” Byrd said. “It was disappointing. We lost three close games we should have won.”

The team was also hampered by a late-season injury to Byrd.

“It was tough. It was my first injury ever,” Byrd said. “I came down on somebody’s foot wrong.”

The injury caused Byrd to miss the last few games of the regular season, and he has been rehabbing since. His appearance at the Deveroes Summer League will be his first action on the basketball court since coming home from Germany after the season ended in March.

Byrd says playing the Summer League helped prepare him to play in Germany, but he has not yet decided whether he will return to Germany this fall.

“I’m still weighing my options,” Byrd said. “I’m willing.”