Former German international Lischka retires two years after return

HEIDELBERG (German Beko BBL) - Former German international Johannes Lischka has decided to retire from professional basketball, ending his career exactly two years after having a brain tumor removed and two comeback attempts.

The 28-year-old Lischka played nine games for the German second division ProA team MLP Academics Heidelberg this season before calling it quits.

"I noticed in the last weeks that I couldn’t handle any longer the mental strain of being a professional basketball player," Lischka said on the Heidelberg club’s website. 

Lischka signed with the second division team looking to make a comeback after stepping away from the game early on in the 2014-15 season. The power forward started this season well with 12.2 points, 9.6 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 2.0 steals over the first five games. But his numbers dropped to 4.8 points, 4.5 rebounds, 1.5 steals and 0.8 assists in the next four for season averages of 8.9 points, 7.3 rebounds, 1.8 steals and 1.6 assists.

"After a good start, I completely lost the fun and passion of basketball in the last few weeks."

Lischka decided he had gone through enough.

"After two tough years, I don’t have the mental strength anymore to fight through a season and I can say now, ‘That's it.’ There are other things in life than basketball, and I am looking forward to starting something new."

Lischka was shockingly diagnosed with a two-centimetre large brain tumor on November 11, 2013 and successfully had it removed. The German basketball community threw its support behind him. But it was unclear if and when he could come back.

The Giessen native had worked himself on the verge of the German national team for EuroBasket 2013, but head coach Frank Menz decided against bringing Lischka to Slovenia. 

And now Lischka was laying in a hospital bed, posting a picture of himself on social media giving a thumbs up to reassure everyone he was okay.

Lischka added between 10-12 kilos due to the hormone treatment he was undergoing, but still he returned to the court for Walter Tigers Tubingen just 34 days after surgery.

He played limited minutes in four games before deciding to step away from the game to get his fitness level back up. He came back for Tübingen’s final seven games of the season in the final two months of the 2013-14 season. 

Lischka failed to make the first division Mitteldeutscher BC club in 2014-15, playing three pre-season games before landing with second division side Giessen 46ers. 

After a strong start of the 2014-15 season with 12.2 points and 9.6 rebounds in the first five games, Lischka saw a drop in production starting in late October. He played just four games the rest of the season, stepping away from the game after a game on November 8. 

After taking off the rest of the 2014-15 season, Lischka moved to the second division team Heidelberg this off-season to try to make another comeback. But he called it quits after nine games. 

Lischka played 13 games for the German national team in 2009 and 2013, averaging 4.1 points in those games. He also played for Germany at the 2009 and 2011 Universiade tournaments.

Lischka was in his seventh season in the Beko BBL when the tumor was discovered. He played in the first division for Giessen, Ludwigsburg and Tubingen.

FIBA