In the Summer League 2021 of the National Basketball Association (NBA), two Austrians can present themselves to the scouts this year. In addition to Max Heidegger, who can be seen in the Atlanta Hawks’ jersey, the naturalized Georgian Giorgi Bezhanishvili can also be seen in the Denver Nuggest dress from Sunday at the tournament in Las Vegas.
Heidegger, the son of the former Tyrolean World Cup ski racer Klaus Heidegger and an American, who was loaned to Baskets Oldenburg by Maccabi Tel Aviv for the coming season, only played the first international matches for Austria on Friday and Saturday in St. Pölten.
The Shooting Guard scored a total of 54 points in two tests against Romania. With the Hawks’ Summer League team, the 24-year-old will kick off the Boston Celtics on Sunday (10:00 p.m. CEST). Heidegger grew up in the USA and also played in the college league for the University of California in Santa Barbara.
The USA is not unknown to Bezhanishvili either. Born in Georgia, he last worked at the University of Illinois for three years. For the 22-year-old Power Forward and Center, the first game with the Nuggets will take place on Monday (4.00 a.m. CEST) against Miami Heat.
Most recently, Jakob Pöltl from Vienna, who was drafted by the Toronto Raptors in 2016, competed for the Canadians in the Summer League in Las Vegas in the same year and in 2017. In 2013 Rasid Mahalbasic from Klagenfurt wore the Utah Jazz dress in Orlando.
