Christian Ansgar Welp (January 2, 1964 - March 1, 2015) was a German professional basketball player. Welp, a 213 centimetres (7 ft 0 in), 111 kilograms (245 lb) center, became the leading scorer in Washington Huskies history as a college basketball player. He scored 2,073 points for the Huskies and was a three-time all-Pac-10 selection. Welp was the Pac-10 player of the year in 1986 and helped lead the Huskies to consecutive conference regular-season titles. He also played three seasons in the NBA.

NBA

Welp was selected 16th overall in the National Basketball Association's (NBA) 1987 Draft by the Philadelphia 76ers and he played three seasons in the NBA. He was traded by the 76ers, along with Maurice Cheeks and David Wingate to the San Antonio Spurs in exchange for Johnny Dawkins and Jay Vincent, during the off-season of 1989.

He was used sparingly by the Spurs before being traded to the Golden State Warriors in exchange for Uwe Blab (another German-born NBA center) at the trade deadline during the 1989-90 NBA season. After a handful of games with the Warriors, his NBA career ended.

Europe

From 1990 to 1996, Welp played in Germany for Bayer Leverkusen, with which he won six national championships and three cups. During that time, he also won the title at the Eurobasket 1993 as a player of the Germany national team, scoring the decisive last points in the final. He was voted MVP of that tournament.

For the 1996-97 season, Welp played with the Greek League club Olympiacos, winning the Euroleague title with them. In the 1997-98 season he played with the German league club ALBA Berlin. He also played with the Italian league club Viola Reggio Calabria during the 1998-99 season. Welp worked as an assistant coach for the national team of Germany until 2006.

Honors

Welp was inducted into the Husky Hall of Fame in 2001.

Personal

After Welp retired in 1999, he lived in Seattle, Washington, with his wife and three children. Welp died on March 1, 2015 of heart failure.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]