Grande Prairie's Lee Danderfer playing in a Polish league game. Photo Credit: Ośrodek Sportu i Rekreacji Tarnowo Podgórne

By Shane Clausing

danderfer finding success in poland

Local basketball player Lee Danderfer finding success in Poland

Dec 1, 2021 | 12:30 PM

Grande Prairie’s Lee Danderfer is finding success playing professional basketball in Poland.

Danderfer grew up playing basketball in Grande Prairie, before moving on to play college basketball at the University of Alberta Augustana and Grant MacEwan University.

After his college playing career was complete in 2015, Danderfer served from 2016-19 as a Graduate Assistant for the MacEwan men’s basketball team. During that time frame, he would also spend time playing in FIBA 3×3 tournaments in Canada.

In 2019, Danderfer decided he would go on a backpacking trip to Europe. After stops in Berlin and Prague, he headed to Poland to continue his excursion and meet a friend of his.

During that excursion, Danderfer says he got the itch to get back onto the basketball court, so he joined a Facebook group of basketball players in Poland, showed up at a local gymnasium, and jumped into a pickup game.

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While he did not speak any Polish and was a complete foreigner, he tells EverythingGP, his play stood out on the court.

“I went to play some random pickup basketball with some old guys and somehow, word got out that there was a Canadian basketball player in Poland,” he said.

“A few days later I had a message on my phone on Facebook asking me to come and practice for the professional team (Tarnovia Basket).”

While he did not get into how well he played in the pickup games, Danderfer’s college stats can likely give you an idea as to why his play stood out.

When he played at MacEwan, he was second in the country for minutes played and led the nation in made three-point shots, during his final season.

He tells EverythingGP, playing professional basketball has always been a goal of his.

“I wanted to play professional basketball my whole life. In 2019 I was still training and prepared for an opportunity, but I was going on this trip for fun,” he explained.

“I thought it was fake at first when they first messaged me, but he (the coach) sent me the address for the gym. I went, I practiced and my whole Europe backpacking experience was (basically) me practicing in Poland for two to three weeks.”

After practicing with Tarnovia Basket for three weeks, the coaches were impressed and offered him a spot on the team. Danderfer then returned back to Grande Prairie, sold everything he had in his apartment, and moved to Poland on January 1, 2020.

Danderfer was only able to appear in six games for his new club in 2019-20 before the COVID-19 pandemic forced the Polish league to shut down its season. In his first season, Danderfer was averaging 7.2 points per game and shot 29 per cent from the three-point range.

In 2020-21, Danderfer has appeared in nine games for Tarnovia Basket and is making himself known in the Polish league.

After starting on the bench early this season, the club picked up some injuries, paving the way for Danderfer to get into the lineup. Currently, he is averaging 12.3 points per game and is shooting 55.6 per cent from three.

“The first four or five games I didn’t get a lot of minutes, but then we had some injury troubles. The last four or five games I’ve been lighting it up, to be honest,” explained Danderfer.

“I’m shooting 55.6 per cent from three on the season, which is pretty bananas, to be honest. Stephan Curry shoots 42 per cent from three and I’m shooting 55. It would be ridiculous if I could keep this up (for) the year.”

In his last four games alone, Danderfer says he is shooting 24 for 36 from the three-point line, which is around 66 per cent.

Tarnovia Basket holds a record of 8-3 on the season and will head into their Christmas break after December 18.

Danderfer says he will get to return home for the Christmas break, as well as help operate a basketball camp in Edmonton with former NCAA three-point sharpshooter, Steve Sir.

As he furthers his playing career, Danderfer says he wants to continue playing professional ball and even try to make a 3×3 team. The sport of 3×3, he says, has grown significantly and is something he wants to pursuit.

“When I come back to Canada in the summers I really want to play a lot of 3×3 because it’s a great opportunity.”

He also hopes, he can continue playing professional basketball for several years down the road.

“I’m trying to stay in the moment as much as I can. I’m having some success right now, but I have a long way to go to get to where I want to be. I’m just trying to take it one game at a time and play as good as I can for this season. I’ve already talked to a couple of agents over here because I want to keep playing as long as I can,” he said.

“If I can move up to maybe another team or league, I would love to do something like that or continue to pursuit 3×3. I just want to play as good as I can for this season and see where it goes from there.”

You can follow Danderfer and Tarnovia Basket’s progress throughout the season by following the club on Facebook.