What happaned to yotam halperin?

[ironwill23]

I still don't know enough about our basketball and I keep learning.
lately i got to read about a player called yotam halperin and I was amazed:
-at age of 16 he was playing in the U-18 and avarage 23 pt in 24 minutes
-together with lior led the U-20 to a silver medal in the U-20 european championship
-was picked in the 53 pick of the 2006 draft
-was in the seconed all-euroleague team

and today? playing with spartak in the eurocup...(no offence spartk fans)
so how from a great potential he became a eurocup player?

[MaccabiTA]

wrong decisions, mainly for money. the move to Oly where he chose money over developing as a player was the main mistake. he was a promising young player, Maccabi loaned him to Ljubljana where he did very well and eventually his role within Maccabi became big and he was one of the leading players in the 08 FF season, then he chose to move to Oly, decided to do that for money only (obviously) and he wasn't bad at first but his role got smaller and smaller and in his last season there he even was in a situation where sometimes he wouldn't get any playing time at all. this summer Maccabi wanted him back, there was an agreement but tax issues stopped the deal, and rumors said he had offers from Euroleague teams but he chose to go to Spartak because.. yup. money. AGAIN. I can't be sure those rumors were true but simple logic would lead to the conclusion he could play in a higher stage but chose bigger money.

[ironwill23]

wrong decisions, mainly for money. the move to Oly where he chose money over developing as a player was the main mistake. he was a promising young player, Maccabi loaned him to Ljubljana where he did very well and eventually his role within Maccabi became big and he was one of the leading players in the 08 FF season, then he chose to move to Oly, decided to do that for money only (obviously) and he wasn't bad at first but his role got smaller and smaller and in his last season there he even was in a situation where sometimes he wouldn't get any playing time at all. this summer Maccabi wanted him back, there was an agreement but tax issues stopped the deal, and rumors said he had offers from Euroleague teams but he chose to go to Spartak because.. yup. money. AGAIN. I can't be sure those rumors were true but simple logic would lead to the conclusion he could play in a higher stage but chose bigger money.

thanx for the explaining.
a big disappointment, he could be a legend, the next berkovoch of maccabi!
i also heard that once maccabi's crowd boo him, was it because he left maccabi for money?
by the way, talking about yotam: http://www.eurobasket.com/Russia/bas...?NewsID=256951

[Jazz]

ironwill, you might have already read this but here's an interesting article on Halperin from when he entered the NBA draft:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/29/sp...asketball.html

[goga78]

Well, it isn't about him suddenly becoming a Eurocup player. Whenever he choses to come back to the right Euroleague team, he will be a Euroleague starter again. He was absolutely right, having chosen Spartak SPb, as he signed quite late with them and he has chosen a good team from a good league, participating in three leagues actually. He didn't go for a bad option for him. Yes, they have offered him a big chunk of money as Olympiacos has done before. Why should he have stayed in Tel-Aviv for much less money and under constant criticism, instead of trying to try himself in different surroundings? At Olympiacos, he eventually, didn't get much playing time, as he had Spanoulis, Papalozukas (both Greeks), Teodosic and Gordon fighting for the same positions in backcourt. Ironically, he has had very good games against Olympiacos' archrival Panathinaikos.

Coming back to Maccabi after it would mean losing the additional money he has earned in Piraeus. Any other player would have done the same as he did. When he will be back, he will come back more mature, having played in good leagues with better competition than in Israel, with better big men than in Israel, where structure goes over run and gun small ball.

It's a pity, not having him playing for Maccabi now but his decisions are utterly understandable.

[maccabeo]

Well, it isn't about him suddenly becoming a Eurocup player. Whenever he choses to come back to the right Euroleague team, he will be a Euroleague starter again. He was absolutely right, having chosen Spartak SPb, as he signed quite late with them and he has chosen a good team from a good league, participating in three leagues actually. He didn't go for a bad option for him. Yes, they have offered him a big chunk of money as Olympiacos has done before. Why should he have stayed in Tel-Aviv for much less money and under constant criticism, instead of trying to try himself in different surroundings? At Olympiacos, he eventually, didn't get much playing time, as he had Spanoulis, Papalozukas (both Greeks), Teodosic and Gordon fighting for the same positions in backcourt. Ironically, he has had very good games against Olympiacos' archrival Panathinaikos.

Coming back to Maccabi after it would mean losing the additional money he has earned in Piraeus. Any other player would have done the same as he did. When he will be back, he will come back more mature, having played in good leagues with better competition than in Israel, with better big men than in Israel, where structure goes over run and gun small ball.

It's a pity, not having him playing for Maccabi now but his decisions are utterly understandable.

agree with goga this time
anyway he will come back to mta soon

[ironwill23]

ironwill, you might have already read this but here's an interesting article on Halperin from when he entered the NBA draft:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/29/sp...asketball.html

i still left few pages, but one sentence was unbeliveable:"in 20 minutes he passsd 11 asissts and score 4/7 behind the arc", amazing, he have no limits!
thanks, its very intersting.
and goga-i hope that he will come back and will be able to fulfil his potential.

[goga78]

i still left few pages, but one sentence was unbeliveable:"in 20 minutes he passsd 11 asissts and score 4/7 behind the arc", amazing, he have no limits!
thanks, its very intersting.
and goga-i hope that he will come back and will be able to fulfil his potential.

He will quite surely come back to Maccabi for the next season but as to fulfilling potential... it's too late for him now. If he would at least play adequate basketball for a player of his standards game in and game out, that would be great. Look at him playing for Spartak. As soon as it became cold, he stopped playing. He is their key player, regardless of what stats of Patrick Beverley might suggest. Beverly is killing the team play and hogging the ball. He is important though but it is Halperin who gets everyone involved. He will never be another Berkowitz, who had major cojones and never cared about any opponent. Halperin likes to disappear. He doesn't like to force things, which is good on one hand but a player of his caliber has to be able to forget about everyone else on the court and misuse his opponent to get points on the board. Halperin doesn't play like that.