Playing the game, overseas

Jack Eggleston, the recently graduated 6-foot-8 forward from Noblesville, Ind., walked into coach Jerome Allen’s office last summer and said, perhaps in a few more words, “Look, I’m interested in playing overseas. What are your thoughts, is that realistic, and what do I need to improve?”

The place overseas Eggleston was referring to is Europe, where the sport of basketball has made rapid gains in popularity with strong professional leagues springing up within the last few decades.

Eggleston and fellow class of 2011 Quaker Andreas Schreiber are done playing basketball for free and hope that within a couple of months, they will be getting paid for their services.

That said, a fair amount of uncertainty looms for both men.

At least up front, the path across the Atlantic will be somewhat easier for the 6-foot-9 Schreiber who hopes to “take his talents and his Swedish passport” — his words — to Spain, where he’ll likely play in the LEB Oro or LEB Plata, the second and third division, respectively. His Swedish citizenship will be an advantage, as many European leagues have rules limiting the number of Americans that can suit up for a team.

Unfortunately, Eggleston does not have that luxury. The forward actually looked into obtaining citizenship in a European country, but when he was able to trace the Eggleston name all the way back to 1640 in Rhode Island, he realized that claiming citizenship in another country wouldn’t be feasible.

For now, the two are working out here in the States, staying in playing shape and making the final tune-ups to their Europe-bound skill sets. While the Swedish big man is mostly set on playing in Spain next year, his frontcourt teammate is simply looking to punch his ticket to “somewhere in Western Europe.”

“The plan is to play professional basketball overseas next year,” Eggleston said matter-of-factly.

These former teammates both realized early on that playing professionally would be an option.

“As a 16-year-old, I was told I would be able to play professionally even [at that age],” Schreiber reported. “So I knew I could play overseas. It just depended on what kind of league I wanted to play in, how high I wanted to go.”

Schreiber’s illustrious high school career included an MVP award and two all-star selections for the Swedish National Champions.

For Eggleston, the realization that playing professionally was a legitimate option came the summer after his sophomore year when he was attending workouts run by the late trainer John Hartnett.

“There would be about 30 to 40 guys there on a given day,” Eggleston said. “Big time players, some guys who played professionally overseas, and some NBA guys. This guy Noah Savage from Princeton went over and played in Switzerland for a little bit and I was like, ‘Man, if he can play over there I can play over there.’”

The world of foreign professional basketball is understandably somewhat opaque to American college players. Fortunately for these two former Quakers, they were able to turn to none other than Jerome Allen, their head coach and former NBA player who also played in some of Europe’s top leagues.

Allen advised both players extensively, mainly on agent selection, and even vetted certain agents to make sure they would represent the best interests of his two big men.

“Coach Allen was probably one of the bigger factors because I trust him so much,” Schreiber said.

Assuming that both men successfully make the jump, the question remains as to whether basketball will be a career or just a life experience.

“I’d play basketball for the sake of playing basketball,” Schreiber said. “I’ll worry about money once I get a family or something like that but right now, I’m happy to make any kind of money playing overseas. I’ll try [to play] as long as my body holds up.”

Eggleston, on the other hand, is a little more ambivalent.

“If I’m really enjoying it and I’m having a great time and I find a good fit, then maybe I stay for an extended period of time,” he said. “But if not, I still think that wherever, it’s going to be a good experience ... and maybe I come back in two to three years and get started with this whole ‘real world’ thing.”

In any case, the “real world” might have to wait at least a few years for the talents of Jack Eggleston and Andreas Schreiber. They may be overseas, playing the sport they love.

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