101 Greats of European Basketball

Vladimir Stankovic
He was a born shooter with excellent technique: elegant
and fast. He was also a solid rebounder. For many, and
for me too, he is one of the best Americans to have ever
played in Europe.
Thanks to his huge talent and hard work during his
youth, life gave back to Walter a part that was stolen
from him in his childhood. He was born on August 21,
1949, in Hamburg, West Germany, the city where his
parents, fleeing from Ukraine, were waiting for the migration
documents to get into the United States. Once
in New York, he fell in love with basketball. In school
tourneys and street games in the playgrounds, the
talent shown by Walter caught the attention of many
colleges. He chose George Washington University. In
his senior year there, he averaged 22.1 points. That
same year he was picked by the Phoenix Suns in the
fourth round of the draft with the 65th pick. He signed
a non-guaranteed contract and after the summer he
was off the team. Walter had a tryout with Pittsburgh
of the ABA, then the competing league to the NBA, but
at the end of the season he was without a team again.
That’s when Real Madrid entered his life. Coach Pedro
Ferrandiz – well assisted and informed by his friend
Victor de la Serna, aka Vicente Salaner, a well-known
basketball newspaper columnist in Spain – offered Walter
a five-year guaranteed contract. And that was how
his European adventure started.
Debut against Barcelona... with 47 points!
Walter made his debut with style on November
11, 1973. Real Madrid beat its archrival FC Barcelona
125-65 – by 60 points! A rookie, Walter with his unpronounceable
surname, finished the game with 47
points. Soon enough, he was the fans’ new idol. He
shined in game after game. He finished the season
with the triple crown: Spanish League, Spanish Cup
and EuroLeague titles against Ignis Varese in Nantes,
84-82. Walter, Clifford Luyk and Rullan had 14 points
each, while Brabender scored 22 and Carmelo Cabrera
16 in the championship game. The following season,
they also won the Spanish League and Spanish
Cup and stretched the team’s winning streak to 88
games over more than three years. Against Mataró,
Walter scored 53 points, but on February 8, 1976, he
outdid himself by setting a Spanish League record
that still stands today. Against Breogan, in a 140-48
blowout, Walter finished with 65 points! His numbers
were unbelievable: 25 of 27 two-point shots (most of
them from what would be three-point territory today)
and 15 of 17 free throws. His record also hides an
anecdote. After he scored “just” 16 points in the previous
game, Martin Tello, a journalist at As newspaper
in Spain, wrote that games in the morning didn’t
seem to suit Walter. The result? A record that prevails
today.
Szczerbiak won his second European crown in 1978,
again against Mobilgirgi Varese 75-67. The final was
played in Munich and Walter led all scorers with 26
points. Two of his three European crowns were won in
Germany, the country where he was born.
After seven wonderful years, Szczerbiak had to
leave. Real Madrid didn’t re-sign him. That hurt him,
but he was only 31 and he wanted to play more. Udine,
then in the Italian second division, offered him a twoyear
contract and he accepted. After that, he was back
in New York and he thought about putting an end to
his career, but a call from his great friend Carmelo
Cabrera, the Real Madrid guard in the years they
shared together, lured him into playing for Gran Canaria.
Cabrera also called Meister and Luis Miguel Prada,
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