Skip to main content

Famous Dutch People - Sports

By
I'm BACK! Allow me to extend my sincere apologies to my one reader (wink) but I have been very very bad in keeping this updated like I said I would. I've been going to lots of basketball games and many new happenings have kept me from my promise to keep the world updated to all things Dutch.....

Today, since I'm in a basketball mood and I saw a video of him on my favorite teams website; I thought I would introduce to you,

Rik Smits - (picture) otherwise known as the Dunkin' Dutchman. Measuring in at 7 foot 4 inches tall he was born August 1966 in Eindhoven, Netherlands. Rik attended Marist college (located near Poughkeepsie NY I had to look it up) and was drafted by the Indiana Pacers with the 2nd pick in the 1988 draft. He spent his whole career (12 seasons) at Indiana. He retired due to foot problems that had plagued him throughout his career after the Pacers lost in the Finals to the Lakers in 2000.

Rik likes to collect and race vintage cars and motorcycles. In the recent interview Rik stated that both his children are playing basketball and have inherited his height genes. His daughter is 6'2" while his son at the age of 14 is already 6'3". He wears a size 20 shoe and currently lives in Zionsville IN; northwest of Indianapolis.

One of my biggest memories of Rik was during the 2000 playoff run where the whole team shaved their heads to "glide" through the playoffs (Baldy). Then again, Chris Mullin looked worse.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Holland is just a step away

By
When life gives you lemons make green tea lemonade. So, when one lives in the midwest why not make the best of it and explore the sites in this area? You don't need a lot of money or even a passport. That brings us to Holland, Michigan a Dutch settlement in America. Obviously the city is very proud of its Dutch heritage, as shown in the klompen picture at the top. Klompen is the name of the Dutch wooden clog dance. There are many dutch settlements in Michigan but what makes Holland so distinctly Dutch are its two festivals: the tulip time festival in the spring and the winter festival. The tulip festival is held in mid-May and lasts for 8 days. The festival includes tours at the local windmills, tulip farms, local dutch houses, as well as dances, concerts, street scrubing, and a dutch marketplace. One interesting thing about the Dutch costumes that are presented during the festival is that they are from the 8 out of 12 different provinces of the Netherlands. Here is...
2 comments
Read more

Ohhh the red, white, and blue

By
If you were given the job of creating a flag to represent your country, how would you design it?  Myself, I would probably think of some symbols of your country then hand over the design portion to an artist, with the plan of choosing colors that aptly represent where you live.  What have most countries of the world done?  Three bars filled in with color.  Lets talk about the Netherlands flag.  This "orange" country has a drab flag, but not only is it drab it's deceiving.  So many countries use red, white, and blue that it is confusing. + A little sun bleaching,  Luxembourg +Sea sickness       France + Dyslexia ,  Russia                                                                             ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Skating the Canals

By
Check out this great MSN video - Skating The Canals Of Amsterdam Check out this video above. First glance you may think," OH, their skating down the frozen street...." Ehhhh. Wrong. That is the frozen canals. And why not. Looks like fun. Even more amazing is the amount of people on it. The city I live in has a ice skating rink that opens in the winter. It's covered but still the amount of people who come out to it is nothing compared to the shear numbers you see in that minute long video. Pay attention to their skates. Most people have the speed skates we see during the Olympics. Makes me wonder why Holland isn't more of a Hockey country than it is.
Post a Comment
Read more