Western alumnus Ira Graham during a Vikings game last season. Graham looks to move up through the European basketball leagues with the Weissenhorn Panthers, which he signed on to during the last week of September.
After finishing college, a select few graduates take the opportunity to travel for a while. Fewer try their hand at professional sports. Ira Graham is doing both.
Graham, who was a standout basketball player at Western, is now playing professionally in Germany. He has already played for two German teams since his arrival in early September.
The 6-foot-2-inch guard signed a contract with the Saar-Pfalz Braves and practiced briefly with the team, but during the last week of September he switched to the B.C. Weissenhorn Panthers, a team in southern Germany.
Graham said adjusting to life in Europe was difficult at first.
Josipovic Nenad, Graham’s coach with the Braves, hardly spoke any English. About half of the players were from the United States, so Nenad had to communicate with the team mostly through hand signals.
“Most of the time I don’t understand him, but he does an awesome job,” Graham said. “He is really intense and in your face all of the time, and I have never seen him smile.”
Some of the other Americans on the team had lived in Europe for a while already, so they helped mentor Graham as he got used to the differences in style between American and European basketball.
The game is played with subtle variations in Germany—often to the frustration of the American players.
“They call more traveling violations than the U.S. Border Patrol!” Graham said.
But now that he has had time to settle in, Graham said he is good to go. And hopefully that’s true, because to him, playing basketball in Europe is a major stepping stone to achieving his dream of playing in the NBA—a dream that barely slipped through his fingers in August, when he got a chance to try out for the Washington Wizards.
Western basketball coach Brad Jackson said Graham also had several chances to practice with the Los Angeles Lakers, but because the competition is always world class, it is hard to expect too much from tryouts.
Former Western guard Ira Graham performs a layup against Seattle Pacific University during the 2008-2009 season, in which he was named Western's Male Athlete of the Year. Photos by Alex Roberts
“Your chances of being an astronaut are better than being in the NBA,” Jackson said. “Unless you’re being drafted, it’s a long hard road.”
When he did not make the Wizards, Graham found himself exploring other ways to pursue a career as a professional basketball player.
Those options started to wear thin by the end of the summer, so a month after the tryout, his agent convinced him to sign with the Braves.
“I always envisioned myself [playing] in Europe,” Graham said. “But Spain was my first preference.”
Graham said he hopes to rise quickly through the ranks of the European basketball leagues. He said he wants to continue the success he had at Western, where he won the 2008-2009 Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) Player of the Year award.
Graham led Western in scoring with 19.1 points per game during his senior year.
A two-time GNAC all-star, he was the only player in school history to have two 500-point seasons. His strong performance helped the team win its first outright GNAC championship in 2009.
“He was an excellent scorer and you could count on him almost every night,” Jackson said. “He was at his best in the toughest situations. And to me, that’s a great mark of leadership.”
After the conclusion of Western’s March postseason run, Graham got his first taste of professional basketball with the Bellingham Slam. He was the only rookie on the team to be named an International Basketball League all-star. The Slam finished 17-5 in 2009.
Despite his experience playing for successful teams, Graham said he does not know how he will measure up with his opponents—he just wants to do his job and have a productive season.
“It’s a very competitive scenario, and there are lots of guys out there,” Jackson said. “But if everything falls into place, I think he could be playing for a while.”
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