By Ryan McNeill

Last week I had the chance to interview Pascal Roller who is a professional basketball player in Europe. He started his pro career at 17 and has played for the German National team in two World Championships as the starting point guard alongside Dirk Nowitzki.

Some of the topics that we discussed were;

* He started his pro career at 17 which is the norm for European Leagues, however in North America there is an age limit of 19. We talked about his thoughts on teenagers benefiting from playing in pro leagues.
* Pascal has enjoyed a lot of success in his playing career. He has played for the German National team in 2 World Championships (Indianapolis 3rd place) and Japan) and his former team, Opel Skyliners, have been both German Cup and Pro League Champions. He talked about some of the highlights of his playing career.
* He’s had the chance to play with Dirk Nowitzki in two World Championships and he talked about what kind of teammate Dirk has been.
* Pascal has played the point guard position most of his career. He talks about what he thinks makes a successful point guard and what steps a coach should take when molding a young point guard into a mature leader of the team.
* He explains why international players are better shooters than NBA players.

You can listen to a five minute preview of this interview by clicking here or the full Podcast over at 5 Star Hoops.