The 05/06 Champion Hapoel Tel Aviv is alive and kicking. After months of speculations and rumors regarding the team's future, the team announced its 07/08 roster. The big news - Vicky Hall is back in Israel, Chandi Jones is coming, along with 2 Europeans and Liran Buchris.
Hapoel Tel Aviv has a team, and it just might turn out to be a pretty good one. The team announced the signing of 11 players, four of them staying from last year. The team's home court this year will be Hadar Yosef gym.
Vicky Hall is returning to Israel after playing in Ramat Hen, Holon and Ramat Hasharon between 2000 and 2004. In 00/01 she won the Championship with Ramat Hasharon.
Hall is 38 years old but played for French power house Bourges, and averaged 9.7 points and 4.8 rebounds in 28.2 minutes per game in the EuroLeague as Bourges made it to the Final Four. In the French league Hall averaged 10.7 points and 6.1 rebounds in 26.9 minutes per game as Bourges made the finals. Before last season, Hall played in Italy following her time in Israel.
Hall retired from the WNBA in 2002 after playing for Cleveland, Indiana and Los Angeles. Her career averages stand at 10.4 points and 2.3 rebounds per game in 62 games.
On the Israeli front, Hapoel re-signed Shira Haelyon, Lena Fedulova and Shachar Alterman. The team also added point guard Liran Buchris, who spent the last four years in Pace University (D2). As a senior Buchris averaged 10.4 points, 6.1 assists and 1.5 steals in 33.9 minutes per game for the Setters.
Hapoel's 2nd American player is Chandi Jones (25, 5'9), a gifted player who will forever be remembered in Minnesota Lynx history as the player the team traded Katie Smith for. Jones is definitely no Katie Smith, but she is a talented scorer who graduated from Houston University as conference USA's all time leading scorer. Jones was the 8th overall pick in 2004, she was traded to Detroit and averaged 5.0 points per game. After being traded to the Lynx she played in just six games in 2006 due to injury, and was released.
Jones spent the 05/06 season playing for Parma, Italy. She averaged 13.7 points, 4.3 rebounds and 2.3 steals per game in Italian league play, and 16.2 points per game in the Europe cup. She didn't play in Europe in 06/07.
Bozena Erceg (25, 5'11) is a starting forward on Croatia's national team, who participated in the EuroBasket this year. Last season she played in Croatia for Jolly Sibenik and averaged 8.3 points and 4.0 rebounds per game in the Europe cup. Erceg has spent most of her career in Sibenik, except for the 04/05 season in Austria and the 05/06 season in Italy.
The other European player for Hapoel this season is Serbian Mirjana Velisavljevic (29, 6'2), who played last season in Sarajevo, Bosnia. She averaged 9.0 points and 1.0 rebound per game in the Baltic League, her team made it to the semi finals.
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Liran Buchris
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