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"On to the NBA:
Why the Netherlands is too small for long basketball players like Rienk Mast
Anyone who wants to achieve something in basketball has to go to the US, says Rienk Mast,
player of Dutch champion Donar. So he goes there, although he is on the small side with 2.05 meters.
He is only 17 years old and now 2.05 meters: 4 inches longer than the average NBA player.
The Groningen basketball player Rienk Mast is the growth brilliant of Dutch champion Donar.
This summer he is leaving for the US to play college basketball there. Ultimately he wants to play in the best competition in the world, the NBA.
He cut the knot at the end of January. Mast will play and study at Bradley University, a private university in a medium-sized city in Illinois.
It was a well-considered decision. He could go to numerous prestigious colleges. He consciously chose a smaller one.
Mast: 'Larger universities are big because they win a lot. If they do not, they will quickly replace you with another player.
It is very difficult to intervene as a European. '
He has mapped his way to the top competition years ago. He has already thought about his studies. Mast wants to specialize in science subjects. A lump he received from mother Willy, a chemistry teacher.
He knows exactly what he wants. 'I can be flexible in small things. But there is one line that I follow and that is now America, 'says Mast. 'If you want to achieve something in basketball, the Netherlands is too small. Then I can go better now. And in the US the level is the highest. '
"And I announced it to you well in advance," Rienk jokes. Mast has been his American dream for nearly ten years, when he as 9-year-old visited the brother of his mother in the US. The family visited during those holidays of the Arizona State University and NBA club Phoenix Suns. The young Rienk was immediately gripped by the American basketball experience.
Mast had just started playing basketball himself. The sport came on his way through a trial lesson when he was still on korfball, the sport love of his parents. Thanks to his korfball experience, he immediately had a head start in terms of ball feeling between basketball players.
He was also a long time then. On all his school photos he sticks out at least half a head above his classmates. He has never been bullied with it. Something that Rik Smits, who played at the NBA with his 2.24 meters preferably twelve seasons, did experience in the Netherlands. Mast: 'I was already early in a school for sports talents. That was where my height was appreciated. ' When he was 13 years old, he measured almost 2 meters. Father Erik says that Rienk has always been 'very good'. "That is not common for such a tall boy." Rienk adds: 'Only in the case of extreme growth spurts was the coordination a week less.'
As a tall, handy boy, he was interesting for scouts. A Spanish scout screened five years ago with an internship at top club Real Madrid. Mast stayed in Groningen. With his American dream in mind, he wanted to leave his hometown with a high school diploma.
As a 16-year-old, he made his first debut in Donar. At the end of last year he donned the suit of the Dutch team for the first time. He looks sober at those milestones. It is not all faster or slower than in his planning. "I have always played with older boys. In the beginning they do things faster and they are stronger. Then I have to adjust, but I know that I can work quickly in a new team. '
He never had to worry about his height. That will change if he starts to measure himself in the US with the tallest men in the world. Mast plays on the so-called powerforward position, after the center the biggest man on the team. He is standing near the basket, which is hanging at 3.05 meters. For his position: the longer, the better.
The magic limit in the NBA is seven feet , 2.13 meters. Of the Americans between the ages of 20 and 40, one in six men with that length plays in the competition, journalist David Epstein writes in his book The Sports Gene . It is not for nothing that the five Dutchmen who once played in the league were above or around that limit (Hank Beenders also played with 1.98 meters in the US in the predecessor of the NBA shortly after the Second World War).
The route to the NBA is a waste race, where the correct physical characteristics are important. Some 550,000 boys play basketball in secondary schools in the US. Only about 19 thousand of them kick it into college basketball, 1 percent of whom are basketball pro. Even less is the NBA, which has room for only five hundred players.
Mast knows the numbers, he knows that length is crucial. So at home Mast, the centimeter was regularly caught after a growth spurt, to see how much longer he had become again. But when he was 12 years old, Erik knew with the aid of calculation models that Rienk would not become a sevenfooter. Growth has stalled in the past two years. Of course he would have liked to be longer, Mast acknowledges. "And maybe another inch is added, but I do not get that 2,13," he says with a shrug.
If he gets the NBA, he is the smallest Dutch NBA player ever. The difference with the five Dutch NBAs is that they were all centers. For that position, length is more decisive than for power forwards, says Mast. Other things are equally relevant to them. For example, power forwards are generally more mobile and more technical than centers and they also have to be able to shoot well from a distance.
'The norm is about 2.08', he says. "With shoes on, I'm against it. I also have big hands and my wingspan is longer than my body length. That's important when shooting and building blocks. '
Nonetheless, Donar coach Erik Braal advised his pupil to mature in Europe, where less than in the US is about strength and strength and more about suppleness and technique. 'For European standards he has everything for a modern powerforward. I wonder if he is athletic enough for the NBA ', said Braal in the Dagblad van het Noorden . In the old age, Mast would still be able to make the step to America, because the NBA is opening more and more for Europeans. In October, a record number of 65 European players started the new season.
"I do understand him," says Mast about the advice of his coach. He is only of the opinion that he can better prepare himself in the US for the NBA than in Europe. 'In my playing style I am a bit more of the clevernesses and less of the high jumping or the one-on-one duels. They are very good at that in America. ' Complete player
The coach of Bradley University also gave him a good chance of playing time in a role he likes: "Coaches can only use me to block others, in a more defensive role. I do not want that. I want to become a more complete player in all areas. '
Mast knows that there is no dream path to the NBA. "A longer player might have a little easier at the beginning, but in the end it's all about what you can do. It is just a very difficult process for most people, "he says. 'You need luck and the right connections. It must all fall just right. "
Father Erik looks at it like that. 'He has the talent and the mentality. But otherwise it is waiting. Working hard is the only thing he really has in hand. '"
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