MUNICH (Germany) - Hannes Steinbach has been one of the fastest-rising prospects in European basketball. Just two years ago, the 20-year-old center was playing in Germany's U19 league.
Since then, Steinbach has gone from a standout on Germany's youth national teams and a solid contributor in the Bundesliga to a freshman sensation at the University of Washington and a potential first-round pick in the 2026 NBA Draft.
While Steinbach was born in Moos, a small village in Germany that many people may never have heard of, the first steps of his basketball story took place in a city that should ring a bell with most basketball fans: Wurzburg.
"Dirk Nowitzki and Maxi Kleber are huge examples," Steinbach said of his fellow Wurzburgers in an interview with RTL Sport. “Dirk completely revolutionized the game for big men, so there's a lot to learn from him."
"Steinbach is the best center in this draft class."
As close as the examples of Nowitzki and Kleber might have been to Steinbach, there was no greater basketball influence than his father, Burkhard.
Standing at 2.12m tall, the older Steinbach was a tough and prolific rebounder who played in more than 100 Basketball Bundesliga games for the city's top team, Wurzburg Baskets, some of them alongside a young Nowitzki.
When he was not busy running a horse farm in Moos, Burkhard worked as an assistant coach for the youth teams of Wurzburg, which gave him the opportunity to train a young Hannes who, at 15 years old, was already one of the top players in the club's youth ranks.
"We've always had a very close relationship because we used to drive to and from practice every day," Hannes said to RTL Sport about his father. “We spent a lot of time together at training."
Hannes soon moved up to the NBBL, Germany's U19 league, where he had a strong 2022-23 campaign, averaging 17.2 points and 12.1 rebounds per game.
Jonathan Gotting, a basketball scout for the scouting service Eurohopes, caught an early glimpse of Steinbach in one of those U19 games.
"His profile certainly was intriguing, but it did not necessarily scream 'NBA upside'. He was still growing into his frame and was less powerful," says Gotting, who also notes that some of the key aspects of his game were already there. “Particularly his consistent play-finishing and his ability to rebound outside his area."
As the season progressed, however, it became clear that Steinbach was developing quickly and had outgrown that initial impression. "He added something new to his toolbox every time I saw him play," Gotting says.
The national team soon came calling. Steinbach saw limited minutes in Germany's bronze-medal run at the FIBA U18 EuroBasket 2023, but that tournament was just the beginning of what would be a breakout 2023-24 season.
In his final year in the NBBL, Steinbach was named MVP after averaging 28.9 points and 15.2 rebounds per game while shooting 62.6 percent from the field.
His domestic performance put Steinbach on the map as a name to follow at the FIBA U18 EuroBasket 2024 - and he exceeded every expectation - leading the tournament in rebounds, earning an All-Star Five selection and, most importantly, Germany's first-ever U18 EuroBasket title.
Those performances in Tampere had scouts raving.
"His positioning and feel for the game immediately popped," says Ersin Demir, a basketball scout based in Türkiye. "His touch around the basket amazed me. He played with so much composure, and the combination of advanced footwork and positioning allowed him to create advantages."
With Steinbach's name now firmly on the radar as one of the top prospects in the world, Wurzburg signed him to his first professional contract ahead of the 2024-25 season.
The bet paid off in a big way for the team, as Steinbach quickly established himself as a key part of the rotation on the way to a Semifinals appearance in the German Bundesliga.
As the season went on, Steinbach's play continued to improve, as he averaged 14.8 points and 10.3 rebounds in 10 playoff games.
"Getting rotation minutes against pros at an early age was certainly vital to his steep development curve," says Gotting, a sentiment that seems to be echoed by Steinbach himself.
"Over the last few years, Germany has really been the place where young players were allowed to play," Steinbach said in an interview with Eurohoops' Cesare Milanti. "That's the sign of a really good basketball movement."
After two years and multiple elite performances at both the youth and professional levels, the NCAA came calling, and in April 2025, Steinbach committed to the University of Washington, a program that had previously been the basketball home of fellow countrymen such as Detlef Schrempf and Christian Welp.
"That definitely makes me feel even more comfortable," Steinbach said to RTL Sport in 2025. “Knowing that other Germans have succeeded there gives me confidence."
Before heading to the USA, Steinbach had one more stint with the youth national team, this time at the FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup 2025, where he once again earned All-Star Five honors while leading Germany to a silver medal.
It was his performance in Switzerland that left no doubt among scouts that Steinbach had developed into a clear NBA prospect.
"I was blown away by how much more physically gifted he was compared to other players in the competition," says Nathan Grubel, a basketball scout for No Ceilings. "Steinbach rebounded like a pure center, finished plays at an extraordinarily high level, and was one of the best second-chance prospects I had scouted in that type of setting."
Steinbach entered the 2025-26 season as a potential one-and-done prospect and, from an individual standpoint, he did not disappoint. He was statistically dominant, leading his team in scoring and the entire NCAA in rebounding, averaging 11.8 boards per game — a rare feat for a freshman.
His individual impact, however, came in the midst of a disappointing season in which the Huskies finished 16-17, their second losing season in a row. Despite the team falling short of expectations, Steinbach left a strong impression on his head coach, both on and off the court.
"He's a worker. He's not once complained about getting shots. He's never complained about getting the ball. He's an elite teammate," coach Danny Sprinkle told reporters after Washington's final game of the season.
"His character and just the type of person he is… Once you meet his parents, you understand the stock that he comes from," Sprinkle said before concluding. "He's going to be a tremendous pro for a long time."
Steinbach sees this year as a valuable experience and a springboard to the next step in his career.
"I went to college with the intention of becoming more visible to American media and scouts. For me, the dream has always been to go to the NBA," Steinbach said in a recent interview with Sport Bild's Ralf Schmitt.
"After playing a very good individual season, that opportunity came up right away. So going back to college was not really something I considered."
Steinbach's combination of age and productivity has put him firmly on NBA radars, with most projections for the upcoming draft placing him somewhere in the top 20.
"For me, Steinbach is the best individual center in this class. He'll impact the game with his screening, rebounding and finishing early in his career," says Demir, who has ranked the German center in his top 15 since the beginning of the 2026 draft cycle.
His potential to provide value from day one at the NBA level is something that scouts mention not only as one of his main strengths as a prospect, but also as an avenue for future growth at the NBA level.
"His ability to create extra possessions while also doubling as a reliable finisher offers him a pathway to consistently get on the floor, which is exactly how one develops ancillary skills at the next level," says Grubel.
While his proficiency in the 'big man' skills is what makes him a fairly high-floor prospect, it's the flashes he has shown outside the paint that make scouts project a potential development for him as an even more valuable archetype than the one he already offers.
"What makes him so interesting is how he projects as a forward who could put the ball on the deck a little bit, and even space the floor from three-point range," Grubel says.
"He wasn't a volume shooter in the settings I've seen him in, but I think there's enough there mechanically for him to develop at the next level. And as his freshman season went on in college, Steinbach showed a bit more than I expected as a driver."
"If Steinbach were to make those types of leaps as a driver and ball-handler, while also showing some more passing promise, we could be looking at a Domantas Sabonis-type outcome, even if more of the defense doesn't come around," Grubel explains.
"There's a lot that would need to happen for that type of ceiling to come into play for Steinbach. Given how excellent he's been already at his age, I won't rule out the highest-level outcomes for a player like him."
While Sabonis is, as Grubel mentions, a rather optimistic outcome, there's one player currently on the German national team who could serve as a more realistic blueprint for NBA success.
"Isaiah Hartenstein might be a player who could be a valuable example for Steinbach's development," says Gotting. "Besides the obvious similarities as impactful rebounders, Steinbach could also take his play-finishing to another level if he can leverage his touch to become a threat with his push shot, similar to his fellow countryman."
Germany is in the midst of a historic run in international play as the reigning EuroBasket and FIBA Basketball World Cup champions, and Steinbach's emergence comes at the best possible time for a team that will soon need to start making succession plans for veteran center Daniel Theis.
"That team needs a big man like Steinbach to play off guys like Franz Wagner and Christian Anderson as it moves into its next phase," says Grubel about the future of the German national team.
"Any player who can rebound, provide physicality around the basket on defense, cut and shoot is a great match for the skills of Wagner and Anderson. He's a sure-fire bet to help Germany in future competitions."
However, Steinbach will certainly face competition, as the center position for Germany looks like one of the strongest position groups in all of Europe. As Gotting notes: “Germany has the luxury of a deep big-man rotation, with guys like Moritz Wagner, Isaiah Hartenstein and Ariel Hukporti just entering the prime of their careers.
That being said, it would be a surprise if a player with Steinbach's qualities and overall skill set did not turn into a valued contributor for the German national team sooner rather than later."
The outcome of that position battle might depend on the areas of improvement that some scouts mention for Steinbach, namely his defense.
"Becoming more of a shot-blocker and deterrent at the rim is where he has the most to gain," says Demir, and Grubel agrees: "Steinbach isn't a plodder by any means, but he doesn't have the quickest feet laterally and hasn't exactly contested shots or racked up blocks at a high level."
“If Steinbach can shore up his technique in both areas while adding to his foundation offensively, we could be talking about a borderline All-Star-level player in the NBA," Grubel concludes.
His coaches trust that Steinbach has the right mentality and work ethic to make the necessary adjustments to his game.
"Honestly, I can't say a bad thing about him. I really can't," said Sprinkle in his final press conference of the season. "Any deficiency he has in his game, he's going to work, and he'll be tremendous at it."
Over the course of just two seasons, Steinbach has gone from a youth-league standout to a projected NBA first-round pick. Looking back, Steinbach is well aware of how dramatically his career trajectory has changed in a short period of time. "The goal is definitely the NBA. As a kid you immediately dream of the biggest stage: the NBA,” Steinbach said to RTL Sport. "Maybe my path didn't start directly toward it, but things have developed really well over the last few years, so I think it's fair to call that my goal." Given how quickly he has developed at every stop of his basketball journey, few would bet against him reaching that goal.
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