Norbert Thimm (born August 21, 1949 in Dortmund,

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 eccentrici ...

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

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 teams SSV Hagen, TuS Bayer 04 Leverkusen 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, Can ...

ACB team Real Madrid. In 1972 Thimm became the first German basketball player to ever play professional basketball for an international team. Even though Thimm constantly was among Real Madrid’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, 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 Knock ...

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. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

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