NBA player Isaiah Hartenstein becomes an investor in the Ulm basketball program.

Isaiah Hartenstein is currently impressing with outstanding performances in the North American professional league. The German center contributed another double-double with 12 points and 15 rebounds in the Oklahoma City Thunder’s recent 106:94 away win at the Charlotte Hornets. The news that the 26-year-old would become an Ulm native, as the club happily announced, came as a bit of a surprise. Of course, the Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) cannot be happy about another top player; Hartenstein is joining the current fourth-place team as an investor.

This makes Hartenstein the second NBA professional to invest in the Bundesliga alongside Dennis Schröder, who is the sole shareholder of his hometown club Basketball Löwen Braunschweig. However, not to the same extent as his NBA colleague, the 26-year-old is taking over up to ten percent of the shares in the Ulm basketball program with the “Hartenstein Group”. In contrast to Schröder, Hartenstein is not joining his hometown club; the German-American, who was born in Eugene, Oregon, was trained in Quakenbrück at the Artland Dragons before he signed on in Houston and started his NBA career. “I decided to do this because I was looking for a German team that I could be a part of,” said Hartenstein. “A team that, if I was younger and wanted to take the next step, would take me there. I feel like they are doing a great job of developing young talent and I want to help them advance in their careers.”

The Hartenstein Group includes several people from Hartenstein’s environment, but in addition to the NBA professional, the main people are his father and the former Ulm professional Adam Hess, who played for the Swabians from 2013 to 2015. Hess has now made a name for himself in Florida as a financial and investment advisor, particularly for top athletes. Hess was particularly impressed by the Ulm junior academy Orange-Campus; he told Isaiah Hartenstein first-hand. The NBA professional is planning a first visit in the summer after the season, then he will also keep fit on the Orange campus. Just like Dirk Nowitzki always did in his hometown of Würzburg.