Derrick Sharp

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Derrick Sharp (born October 5, 1971 in Orlando, Florida, USA) is a professional basketball player. Currently plays for Maccabi Tel-Aviv basketball club. As of 2006, he is the team's most senior member with 11 seasons with the club.

• Height: 183 cm.
• Position: Shooting guard/Point guard.

Sharp went to Israel in 1993 after playing for the University of South Florida and joined Maccabi Hadera from Leumit Bet League. From 1994 to 1996 he played for Hapoel Migdal-HaEmek, also a Leumit Bet team, and then made the big jump to the best team in Israel - Maccabi Tel-Aviv.

With Maccabi, Sharp won 10 national championships, 9 national cups and 3 European titles (2001 Suproleague, 2004 and 2005 Euroleague). He quickly became crowd favorite for his tough defence, three-point shooting and clutch plays. The most memorable example of the latter came on April 7, 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 series (held in Tel Aviv that year) and became Euroleague Champion. In the past, Sharp has been criticized for lacking playmaking skills making unnecessary fouls trying to steal a ball, although he is currently (2007 ) the team captain.

Derrick was married to an Israeli citizen, by whom he had a son. The marriage ended in divorce, and Derrick has remarried, and has three children with his current wife.

Derrick is a naturalized Israeli citizen, and has played for Israeli national team (2000-2003), including appearances at Eurobasket 2001 and 2003.

[edit] External links

• Derrick Sharp's profile on Euroleague site