A Career Reborn In Belgium Former Isu Hoops Star Finds Hardcourt Success, Stardom Overseas

Jim Potter spent three years as “The Man” on the Idaho State University campus.

Everyone knew him. Everyone said “Hi”.

Everyone cheered for him when he took the court. He was ISU’s next NBA player.

But somewhere along the way things didn’t work out the way Potter expected. He went into a professional basketball world where he wasn’t the star anymore - just another 6-foot-8 guy with a jump shot.

The “Can’t miss kid” struggled in an NBA pre-draft camp in Portsmouth, Va., where he didn’t just play bad - he played the worst he had ever played in his life. No one was interested.

After months of waiting for an agent to call with some kind of nibble from Europe, Potter got an offer to try out for a German team. He lasted two weeks. Even after averaging 20 points and 10 rebounds a night, the team sent him packing. He wasn’t what they were looking for.

Potter thought his basketball career was over. No one seemed to care anymore that he was one of only 13 players in conference history to be selected All-Big Sky Conference for three years.

Coming out of Bishop Kelly High School in Boise, he played a lot as a freshman for the Bengals. He is among the all-time leaders in ISU scoring, rebounds, blocks, steals and 3-pointers.

But no one cared that he was once a Converse Prep All-American. For the first time since he was a child, Jim Potter didn’t have a basketball team to play for.

“No NBA teams were even thinking about me after the way I played in Portsmouth,” Potter said. “I was scared to death there and I played awful. After that I kept playing, though, and working out, hoping for a shot in Europe somewhere, but nothing was happening.

“I thought I played pretty well in Germany, but I guess I wasn’t the 6-11, 270-pounder that they were looking for. I was ready to forget about the whole thing.”

That’s when Potter got a call from an agent in Holland who said a team in Belgium was looking for an American power forward. The American left Germany on the next train and ended up in Belgium in time to play the following night.

After ravaging the opponent for 28 points and 12 rebounds in only 20 minutes of play, the Belgacom Quaregnon/Mons team was sold. Potter was their guy.

It was a career reborn. Now two years later, Potter has established himself as one of the premier players in the Belgium league. In the 1996-97 campaign, the Boise native finished fourth in the league in scoring (23.0) and led the nation in rebounding (10.0 per game). His 79 percent free-throw percentage was higher than it’s ever been in his basketball career.

“Playing in Belgium turned a lot of things around. It’s more like ISU again - everyone knows us and says ‘Hi’. People are treating us good. They put the Americans on a pedestal a little bit in Belgium, and basketball is really growing in the country.”

Potter went to Belgium with his wife, Lori, and despite neither of them speaking French, they adjusted quickly. He tries not to think too much about home, friends and life in Idaho. And there isn’t much time to, either.

Playing 10 months of the year, Potter is only one of two Americans on a Belgacom Quaregnon/Mons team that finished third in a 14-team league this past season.

European rules restrict the number of Americans to two per team, but Potter plans to play across “the pond” for the long haul and anticipates becoming a dual-citizen of the U.S. and Belgium in the next five years. Dual-citizenship would allow Potter to play with European Player status, freeing up another spot on his team for an American. The power forward is already locked up with the league for another four years after signing a recent contract extension.

“I don’t think there would be any way I could make as much money playing in the U.S. as I could here,” said Potter, who was drafted by the CBA Shreveport franchise as well. “The contract and player status will probably allow me to play in Europe for as long as I want, or until my body gives out.”

Potter averaged 20 points and nine rebounds a night in his first season in Belgium, but adjusting to the culture and league have helped him make additional strides on the hardwood.

“I feel a lot more comfortable now,” Potter said. “I had to get used to the way they call traveling violations here than the way they do it in college, but the talent level of the league is a lot like the Big Sky.”

Former Idaho standout Orlando Lightfoot was one of the Belgium league’s most prolific scorers last year, and Americans dominate the individual leaderboards as well.

The biggest difference is the facilities. Potter said most of the arenas have trouble comparing favorably to U.S. college locales, and some are downright scary.

“There are a couple that are really bad places to play,” Potter said. “This one place has cafeteria floors like an elementary school would have and some have old, rundown locker rooms. We play in an old remodeled warehouse that seats about 3,000.”

While soccer is still the dominant sport in Belgium, Belgacom Quaregnon/Mons sells out the “Warehouse” nearly every night and plays at times to standing-room only crowds. Of course, the European crowds come equipped with long, exasperated soccer chants, and a never-ending supply of beer.

The team made it to the Belgium semifinals in 1996-97 , and Potter thinks they have a chance to become one of the premier teams in the nation.

“I just have to go out and keep improving,” Potter said. “I need to work on the little things with my game, and my goal is to win. It doesn’t matter where you are playing - professionally, in the Big Sky or high school - the feeling of winning is still the same.”