Arvid Kramer

Arvid Kramer was born on 2 October 1956 in Fulda, a small town in Murray County, Minnesota. He grew to 6 feet 9 inches (2.06 m) and played as a centre. He played college basketball at Augustana in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and was selected by the Utah Jazz with the first pick of the third round, 45th overall, in the 1979 NBA draft.

After the 1979 draft the Jazz made a trade involving Bernard King that left no room for Kramer on their roster, and he was waived. He spent the 1979-80 season with the Anchorage Northern Knights in the Continental Basketball Association before the Denver Nuggets signed him to a 10-day contract on 28 February 1980 and then for the rest of the season; he played eight NBA games for Denver.

The Dallas Mavericks selected him in the 1980 expansion draft, but he moved to Europe instead, playing for Siena in the Italian Serie A in 1980-81 and then in France with Lyon. In 1982-83 he played for the German champions TuS Bayer 04 Leverkusen, averaging about 20 points over 27 Bundesliga games. In 1988 the Miami Heat used the first overall pick of their expansion draft on him, at the age of 31, because Dallas still held his NBA rights and had offered his rights and a first-round pick to keep other players unprotected; he is the only player chosen in two expansion drafts who never played for either team.

After two years back in the United States he returned to the Rhineland, playing for TuS 1882 Opladen in the second division until a long injury in 1987-88. In 1988 he joined Godesberger TV, which reached the Bundesliga in 1990 but went straight back down. Kramer was involved in the merger with the basketball department of SC Fortuna Bonn that formed BG Bonn 92, later the Telekom Baskets Bonn. The Baskets won promotion unbeaten in 1995-96, and in his last season as a player, aged 40, the promoted side reached the final of the German championship.

From 1996 to 2004 he was the club's sports manager, and in that period the Baskets almost always reached the play-off semi-finals. With president Wolfgang Wiedlich and coach Bruno Soce he is regarded as one of the three men who shaped the club's early Bundesliga years. In 2004 he returned to the United States, where he ran a basketball school in San Diego and later worked in schools in Fallbrook.

Kramer was married to a German and took German citizenship in 1993. His children spent much of their school years in San Diego. His son Josh played college basketball, his daughter Lisa, born in Bergisch Gladbach in 1994, played volleyball at the University of San Diego, and his son Dennis Kramer became a professional basketball player; father and son played together in Bonn's 2015 legends game marking the club's 20th anniversary. Dennis was killed in a road accident in 2023. Kramer was survived by his wife JoAnne and three children from earlier relationships.

Arvid Kramer died on 22 October 2026, about two weeks after his 70th birthday, suddenly and unexpectedly from sepsis. He had been living with cancer for some time but, according to a friend quoted by the General-Anzeiger, had recently been in good spirits. German Wikipedia records that he died in Fulda, Minnesota, the town where he was born.

The Telekom Baskets Bonn announced his death after news reached the club from the United States overnight. Managing director Simon Pallmann said the Baskets were mourning "a dear friend, a passionate sportsman and a true pioneer" who had shaped basketball in Bonn since the late 1980s and whose name would remain inseparable from the club's history. Former president Wolfgang Wiedlich wrote an obituary for the club.

Kramer is remembered in Bonn as one of the founders of the modern Telekom Baskets, the player who led the club into the Bundesliga and the manager who helped make it a regular contender. In the wider game he is a lasting piece of NBA trivia, the only player taken in two expansion drafts who never played for either team, and the first pick in the history of the Miami Heat.