Detlef Schrempf, born January 21, 1963, played college basketball for the University of Washington Huskies from 1981–1985. He played in the NBA for sixteen seasons, including stints with the Indiana Pacers, the Seattle SuperSonics, and the Portland Trail Blazers. He played for the West German, and later German, national team in the 1984 and 1992 Summer Olympics and the 1983 and 1985 European Basketball Championships.
Originally selected eighth overall by the Dallas Mavericks in the 1985 NBA Draft, Schrempf became a regular in NBA rotations after being traded to the Indiana Pacers in exchange for veteran center Herb Williams. With the Pacers, he won consecutive NBA Sixth Man Awards in 1991 and 1992. He finished second in the NBA with a .478 three-point percentage in 1987, and eventually worked his way into the starting lineup. In the 1992-93 season, he was selected to the first of his three National Basketball Association All-Star Games with the others being in 1995 and 1997. He was the only player in the NBA in 1992-93 to finish in the top 25 in scoring (19.1 ppg), rebounding (9.5 rpg) and assists (6.0 apg).
Following the 1992-93 NBA season, Schrempf was traded to the Seattle SuperSonics for forward Derrick McKey and guard/forward Gerald Paddio. He ranked second in the NBA in three-point accuracy during the 1994-95 season with a 51.4 three-point field goal percentage. On a Sonics team that also featured Gary Payton, Shawn Kemp, Sam Perkins, and Hersey Hawkins, Schrempf reached the NBA Finals in 1996, where they lost to Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls in six games. Schrempf became the first (and one of only two, to date, along with Dirk Nowitzki) German-born NBA player to reach the NBA Finals. While with the Sonics, Schrempf played in his final two NBA All-Star games.
Schrempf was released by the Sonics in 1999 and signed the same day by the Portland Trail Blazers, with whom he played until his retirement from professional basketball in 2001, playing in a total of 1136 regular season games and 114 playoff games. On January 24, 2006, the Seattle SuperSonics hired Schrempf as an assistant coach under Bob Hill, who coached Schrempf with the Indiana Pacers.
