Wayne Brabender

Wayne Donald Brabender Cole ( born October 6, 1945 in Montevideo ( Minnesota)), is a former Spanish- American professional basketball player and coach. The 1.93m shooting guard spent most of his career at Real Madrid and was from the late 1960s to the early 1980s as one of the best players in Europe. He was famous especially for his distance throws.

Career

Player

Association

Brabender began his career in the University of Minnesota Morris, for their basketball team, the Cougars, he played two seasons long in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference of NCAA Division II. Over forty years after his graduation, he holds an average of 23.6 points in his career, 24.3 points in a season, 303 rebounds and 23 total rebounds in a game still many university records. In the summer of 1967, the 21 -year-old was discovered by the former Real Madrid coach Pedro Ferrandiz and committed immediately. When the Spaniards he rose to one of the leading players on the European basketball. He won four times the European Champions Cup and 13 Spanish league titles and seven national trophies. In 1983 he left Real Madrid and let finish his career at local rivals Caja Madrid Baloncesto, where he spent two seasons. Due to his successful career, he is led by the Euro League as one of the 50 most important personalities of European basketball.

National

Brabender, who is married to a Spanish woman, took in 1968 to the Spanish citizenship. With the national team of the Iberians, he played 190 games and picked at the European Championships in 1973, where he finished as the MVP of the tournament, the silver medal.

Coach

Brabender took over in the 1990/91 season for the first time the post of head coach at Real Madrid. Another year he spent in Tenerife at CB Canarias. Between 1994 and 1997 he supervised forum Valladolid. His last position was as a coach in the small Madrid Vorotklub CB Illescas, where he serves to this day as sporting director.

Achievements

Club

National

• European Basketball Championship (1973 ): Silver medal ( with Spain)
• MVP of European Championship 1973