Derrick Sharp - Pro Career

Pro Career

Sharp joined Maccabi Hadera from Leumit Bet (the second league at the time) in 1993. From 1994 to 1996 he played for Hapoel Migdal-HaEmek, also a Leumit Bet team, and then made the big jump to the most well-known team in Israel – Maccabi Tel Aviv.

With Maccabi, Sharp won 13 national championships, 11 national cups, 2 league cups, and 3 European titles (2001 FIBA SuproLeague, 2004 and 2005 Euroleague). He quickly became a crowd favorite for his tough defense, three-point shooting, and clutch plays. The most memorable example of the latter came on April 8, 2004, against Zalgiris Kaunas. With 2 seconds remaining and Maccabi trailing by 3 points and facing elimination from the finals series, Sharp caught a long pass from Gur Shelef, turned to the basket and fired a game-tying three-pointer, forcing overtime. Maccabi won that game, advanced to the Final Four (held in Tel Aviv that year) and became Euroleague Champion.

He played basketball in Israel for 18 years, 15 of them with Maccabi Tel Aviv. His 195 games played were the fifth-most in the league since the turn of the century, and he was seventh in the league all-time in free throw accuracy at 88.9%. He finished his career seventh all-time on the team's scoring list, with 1,749 points.

In July 2011, Sharp retired as a player at the age of 39. He will continue with the team as an assistant coach, and had taken a coaching course at Wingate Institute in 2010.

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