Michael Stockton settling into basketball life overseas

NUREMBERG, Germany — It's fitting the one person wearing a crisp, white Utah Jazz T-shirt on a snowy Saturday night in Germany is Michael Stockton.

After years of answering questions about his Hall of Fame father and jazz">Utah Jazz great, John Stockton, the younger Stockton is nearly 5,300 miles from Salt Lake City playing professional basketball for BG Karlsruhe in Germany's Pro-A second division — a 15-team league also known as the "AG 2, Bundesliga."

Now, the former Westminster College point guard is making his own basketball career and finding his way in Deutschland.

"I really have no complaints aside from a few losses here and there," says Stockton with a smile.

"I do miss college, but at the same time this has been great. This is what I was looking forward to and expected, and at the end of the day you still expect it's going to be basketball."

Before signing to play in Germany last July, Stockton (who signed a one-year contract with a team option for the second year) and his dad talked about Michael's last four seasons at Westminster and how he went from playing seven minutes a game as a freshman to averaging 18.2 points, 4 rebounds, and 4.2 assists per game as a senior.

"I just wanted the chance," he says. "It didn't matter where or what league. I said I would go anywhere."

Stockton's "anywhere" became Karlsruhe, a quaint city in Southwest, Germany. And now, six months after moving abroad and submerging himself in a new culture, Stockton is adjusting daily to the realities off and on the court overseas.

"The toughest part — I still don't know how to speak German and that bothers me to some extent," Stockton says. "I want to know what people are saying. All the guys on the team and the coaches speak English, but you go around town and people don't speak English. So when I do, people look at me like I'm an alien.

"The transition off the court has been a little difficult. You don't have those go-to friends like you do throughout college. Here, you earn that respect with your team. On the court, everyone wants the same thing."

Stockton, 22, is one of five American import players on a roster that includes Martin Samarco (Bowling Green), Domonic Jones (VCU), Justin Howard (Mercer) and Jonathan Moore (N.C. Central).

Mired in an 8-12 losing season, Karlsruhe ranks 13th in the 15-team league and although Stockton is averaging 11 points, 3.1 rebounds, 3.7 assists per game in 20 games this season, he believes "there is room for improvement."