Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv is proud to announce that it has signed Jewish-American guard Jon Scheyer (23, 1.96) to a two-year contract.
Scheyer, an intelligent, talented and competitive player, was born in Illinois. As a stand-out high school player, Scheyer led the Glenbrook North Spartans to an Illinois High School Association Class AA championship. In his senior year, Scheyer once scored 21 points in the final 75 seconds of a game, earning national recognition for what was called at the time one of the best high school performances ever. In his final year of high school Scheyer averaged 32 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, and 3 steals per game. In addition to his nickname, the “Jewish Jordan,” Scheyer earned the title of Illinois Mr. Basketball in 2006.
Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv’s head coach, David Blatt, talked about his latest acquisition. “I’m extremely pleased that we were able to sign Jon Scheyer. I already wanted him on the team last summer, so I’m very happy that we’ve got him. Jon is an extremely talented and intelligent player with a team mentality, who has the ability to step up at the crucial moment. He’s a real winner who, in spite of his young age, has proven himself everywhere he has been. He’s a player with a strong sense of responsibility for the team on which he plays. Those are exactly the things we like to see in our players. He brings us another dimension of outside shooting that we’ve needed, along with his team spirit and enormous heart. No less important is the fact that Jon is a Jew who is coming to Israel, and I hope he will stay here with us for many years
A telling example of Scheyer’s determination to excel and succeed can be found in the story of one of his practices while still in high school. He decided not to leave the practice court until he had made 50 consecutive free throws. After making 49, he missed the final shot. Instead of going home, Scheyer started all over again, and stayed until he had made 50 in a row.
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Scheyer scored a total of 3,034 points in his high school career, which ranked him fourth highest scorer of all time in Illinois. His high school performances led ESPN to name Scheyer to the Illinois First-Team for the decade (another player so honored was Derrick Rose). Maccabi fans might be interested to know that former player Will Bynum was named to the Second-Team for the decade.
After being wooed by all of the leading basketball colleges in America, Scheyer choose Duke University and its legendary coach, Mike Krzyzewski. In 2009 – 2010, Scheyer’s senior year at Duke, he led the team to the NCAA Championship, and posted averages of 18.2 points, 4.9 assists, and 3.6 rebounds. Scheyer led the ACC in percentages for free throws (87.8%), three-pointers (2.8 per game) and assist to turnover ratio (3 to 1). In the championship final against Butler University, Scheyer scored 15 points, pulled down 6 rebounds, and delivered 5 assists. He was named to ESPN’s Second-Team All-American team for 2009 – 2010.
Scheyer’s impressive list of records and achievements is astonishing when his young age is factored in. He holds the all-time record for most consecutive games played at Duke (144); he’s ranked third in free throw percentages (86.1%), fourth place in number of three-pointers scored (297), and ninth in points (2,077) in the Duke record books. Scheyer has already been inducted into the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, where he joined such NBA legends as Red Auerbach, Larry Brown, Red Holzman, and others, as well as Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv’s own Tal Brody and Scheyer’s new teammate, David Blu.
Scheyer, who was not selected in the 2010 NBA draft, played for the Miami Heat during the 2010 Summer League, and scored the game-winning basket in his first outing. He took an elbow to the eye during his second game (in mid-July), and underwent surgery to repair damage to the retina. In September he tried his luck at the Los Angeles Clippers’ training camp, but his eye was not fully healed and he was waived. By last February he was completely healed, and joined the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, the D-League team of the Houston Rockets, with 16 games left in the season. Scheyer quickly fit himself into the team and led them to the playoff final. He finished the season with averages of 11.8 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 4 assists.
Source: www.maccabi.co.il
