Yotam Halperin
Yotam Halperin (; born January 24, 1984) is an Israeli former professional basketball player. He is currently the interim head coach for Hapoel Jerusalem of the Israeli Premier League and the Champions League. He is a 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in) tall combo guard. He was named to the 2007–08 All-EuroLeague Second Team. Early life. Halperin is Jewish, and was born in Tel Aviv, Israel. He played in the Maccabi Tel Aviv youth team and won two Israeli Youth League titles (2000–01, 2001–02). Simultaneously, He led his high school basketball team into winning the national title. Professional  career. Maccabi Tel Aviv. Halperin debuted in Maccabi senior team at the age of 17 in a EuroLeague game against Alba Berlin. In his first years with Maccabi, Yotam barely recorded minutes, coming off the bench for stars such as Ariel McDonald and Šarūnas Jasikevičius. In his first three seasons he averaged 12.3 minutes per game in the Israeli BSL. Halperin has won the 2003–04 Euroleague title with Maccabi. He scored 7 points and passed 4 assists in the final against Skipper Bologna. The team were able to win the 2004–05 Euroleague as well, but Halperin didn't have a  major part in the success. Union Olimpija. On August 31, 2005 Yotam signed a one-year contract with Slovenian League Champions Union Olimpija. Maccabi agreed to release Halperin, in order for him to gain experience at the EuroLeague level. Halperin immediately took a leading role in the team, averaging 13.9 points in 36 minutes per game during the 2005–06 Euroleague, but the team failed to reach the Top 16. At the domestic level, he won the Slovenian National Cup and the Slovenian Championship, after winning 3–2 in the final series against Geoplin Slovan. NBA draft. After his breakout season with  Union Olimpija, Halperin declared himself as available for the 2006 NBA draft. The NBA Mock draft websites did not project him to be drafted at all. Despite the earlier predictions, Halperin was selected in the second round (53rd pick overall) by the Seattle SuperSonics. Return To Maccabi Tel Aviv. After failing to gain a guaranteed contract in the NBA, Yotam signed a three-year deal with his former club Maccabi Tel Aviv. He fulfilled a bigger role in the team‘s rotation compared to his first term with the Maccabi, averaging more than 24 minutes per game and starting in 13  out of 19 games during the 2006–07 Euroleague Season. In the 2007–08 Euroleague season Halperin helped Maccabi reach the EuroLeague final. His good performance had earned him a place in the All-EuroLeague 2nd Team. Olympiacos Piraeus. On June 25, 2008 Yotam signed a deal with EuroLeague team Olympiacos Piraeus. The contract was worth 4.5 million USD spread over three years. The buy-out from Maccabi, in which he had a contract in, had cost Olympiacos 950,000USD. In Olympiacos Halperin joined his former teammate Nikola Vujcic, and former EuroLeague MVP Theodoros Papaloukas. The team has reached 2008–09 Euroleague final four  losing to Arch enemies Panathinaikos in the semis. a year later they reached the 2009–10 Euroleague final but lost to FC Barcelona. Before the 2010–11 season Olympiacos has placed Yotam in the inactive list, and ordered his agent to find him a new team. After his agent wasn't able to locate a team that agreed to carry Halperin's heavy contract, Olympiacos head coach Dušan Ivković agreed to give the player a second chance at the roster. eventually, he stayed in Olympiacos for the rest of the season. Spartak Saint Petersburg. On June 20, 2011 Maccabi Tel Aviv announced  the return of Halperin, who signed a contract for three years. Almost a month later, Maccabi has announced cancellation of the contract due to taxation problems. After the fiasco with Maccabi, Halperin signed a 2-years contract with Russian team Spartak Saint Petersburg. Yotam had good season in the 2011–12 Eurocup, where his team reached the semi-finals. Yotam has awarded a place in the All-Eurocup 2nd Team, with his teammate Patrick Beverley gaining the MVP award. Yotam was released from Spartak at the end of the season. Bayern Munich. On July 17, 2012 Yotam signed a one-year  contract with Bayern Munich of the Basketball Bundesliga (BBL). He finished a disappointing season with Bayern, averaging only 6.3 point per game. Hapoel Jerusalem. Despite rumors of being close to Maccabi Tel Aviv, Yotam made a shock signing with their rIvals Hapoel Jerusalem for three years. From his first season he became the team captain. In 2013–14 Halperin averaged 11.7 points in EuroCup and reached with his team the quarterfinals of the competition. In 2014–15 season he led Hapoel Jerusalem to its first Israeli League championship. In his fourth season with Jerusalem, he helped the team to win the 2016  Israeli League Cup and the 2017 Israeli League Championship, as well as reaching the 2017 EuroCup Semifinals, where they eventually were eliminated by Valencia. On August 21, 2018, Halperin announced his retirement from playing professional basketball. Israeli national team. Halperin was a member of the Israel national U-21 team leading the team to the second place of the 2004 FIBA Europe Under-20 Championship. Yotam finished as the 2nd best scorer with an average of 20.4 points per game. He was also selected to the All-Tournament Team. At the 2005 FIBA Under-21 World Championship Halperin finished as the top scorer , averaging 23.5 points per game as Israel finished at 10th place. Halperin served as the captain of the Israeli national basketball team. He competed in 6 European Championships:2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013. Coaching career. Hapoel Jerusalem. After retiring as a player, Halperin was hired as the Sporting Director for Hapoel Jerusalem in 2018. He served in this post until he was hired as the team's new interim head coach following the firing of Oren Amiel in 2021.