Who Is That Man On the “German Wheel” At Halftime Of Wolves Games?

Have you ever been sitting at a Minnesota Timberwolves game and during the halftime show thought to yourself How on earth is this person so good at such a specific thing?

Acrobats like Grace Good specialize in balancing on a ball while spinning flaming hula hoops. The Amazing Sladek, who at age 67 stacks chairs to the heavens and balances doing a handstand at center court. Then there is the Red Panda, a Chinese unicyclist who launches bowls onto her head from her feet.

I often wonder in amazement, How on earth did they get to where they are with such a specific art form?

Luckily, about four years ago, I got to ask one of these performers that exact question in an interview. I asked Cornell Freeney, the gentleman who dresses in white and performs in the German Wheel.

Freeney grew up on the South and West Side of Chicago before moving to the North Side.

“It was an underserved community,” Freeney reminisced. “We had a basketball hoop and there was grass for people to play soccer who wanted to, and football, but I was too short for basketball, too small for football, and not coordinated enough for soccer.”

Freeney’s mom worked at the community center. To get him more active, his mother suggested Freeny check out a circus program there when he was 12.

“One day, I just stumbled into a room,” Freeney said, “and hey, there’s a circus program that would change the trajectory of my life.”

At the time, Freeney didn’t realize how much that program would change his life. However, he recalls his initial reaction was, “Nope, I don’t want to be a clown.”

Despite his hesitancy, Freeney would eventually talk himself into trying tumbling, with hopes of learning how to do flips. He would start by tumbling and doing forward and backwards rolls. Eventually, he would join competitions in tumbling, but he still wasn’t doing the cool flips and tricks he wanted to do.

After the tumbling experience, it “clicked” for Freeney that in the circus, people do tricks and flips. They’re not necessarily clowns. He took his mom up on her proposal and checked out the circus program.

“I opened up the door and going in there, it was mind-blowing,” Freeney explained. “I remember going in and seeing this five-year-old spinning a plate on a stick, and my mind was blown, like this kid is a wizard.”

Freeney found his home in the circus (called CircEsteem), and he did more than just tumbling. He would grow up performing in the circus from the age of 12 to 18, and he fell in love with the idea of giving back and potentially starting his own circus someday. In 2005, when he was 15, he watched his future coach perform on the German Wheel.

“My thoughts were,” Freeney recalled, “Wow, that looks dangerous, I want to try it.”

His coach was Wolfgang Bientzle, an eight-time world champion competitive German Wheel acrobat, who had just happened to move to Chicago and start working in the local circus community. Beintzle and the founder of the local circus, Paul Miller, would further convince Freeney to focus on the German Wheel by selling him on the ability to compete internationally in a truly unique art form.

Freeney bought in. The training would be strenuous, with sessions starting as early as 5:00 AM and lasting until 7:15 AM. He would then head to school before joining the circus program from 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM after school. In 2007, after two years of training, he performed in his first competition at age 17 and eventually became the first American to compete internationally in German Wheel acrobatics.

“My circus is saying I get to miss school because I’m going overseas,” Freeney recalled, “and not just going to miss days… so that I can represent the country in this international competition.”

He would do two world competitions and multiple national tournaments. However, in 2013, he stepped away from the competitive side of German Wheel acrobatics due to wrist and knee problems. After a tournament in Chicago, Freeney realized what he truly loved about performing was the travel, not the competitions, which would lead him down the path of entertainment.

“I was like, Wow, I’m spending so much time on competition, and that isn’t really fueling me,” Freeney said.

When Freeney turned 18 in 2008, Miller floated the idea of performing on cruise ships to Freeney. The opportunity intrigued Freeney, which dovetailed with his love for travel. However, the catch was that performing on cruise ships involves doing his German Wheel routine on ice.

“(Bientzle is) like there’s spikes all around it, just don’t touch the spikes,” Freeney remembers,  “…and so what did I do other than the first rule that he told me, just don’t touch the spikes.” … I grabbed the top of the spikes and sliced my four fingers on my right hand.”

Despite the painful lesson, Freeney stuck with his craft because of his dream of traveling the Caribbean. He graduated from high school and did his first contract with Royal Caribbean the summer after his senior year. Freeney would then go to college, while performing on cruise ships during his winter and summer breaks.

As the years went on, Freeney got involved in the NBA halftime shows thanks largely to his college roommate and friend Christian, and his dog Scooby, who also perform at halftime shows across the NBA. Interestingly, Bientzle had also done halftime shows for sporting events.

“I talked to Wolfgang [Bientzle] and was like, “Hey, Wolfgang, I really want to do halftime shows.”

Bientzle had given Christian and Scooby advice and would give Freeney the same advice, but wouldn’t do the booking for him. Christian was already performing and would introduce Freeney to some of his contacts who book halftime shows for the team.

In 2015, Freeney officially began performing halftime shows. He proudly noted that the Timberwolves have booked him every year since his debut.

As for his halftime performance, Bientzle naturally had some influence, but Freeney has made it his own, from the white attire to the LEDs on the wheel. Even the music, which blends classical music and hip-hop, is Freeney’s creation, with some help from Christian.

“Christian, one day we were in our dorm room and he was like, You should try out this song,” Freeney said, “and it’s still the song I currently use called ‘Broken Sorrow’ by Nuttin’ But Stringz. I listened to it and was like, This is exactly what I needed.”

Freeney still does cruise ship contracts during the NBA offseason, but mainly performs at basketball arenas across the country in the NBA, WNBA, and NCAA basketball. He still coaches when he has the time. Freeney also has a stand-up gymnastics routine called Gramps, in which he puts on makeup and ages his appearance before surprising people with handstands on his walker.

He will likely perform at a Lynx or Wolves game at the Target Center soon. From a circus in Chicago to traveling the world, Freeney’s story is far more compelling than can be answered by asking, How on earth did someone get so good at a specific halftime performance?

If there are any lessons I learned from Freeney, it’s that the circus is far more than just clowns, and don’t touch the spikes.