Aulcie Perry ( he, אולסי פרי) (born July 3, 1950) is a retired American-Israeli professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

player. He helped

Maccabi Tel Aviv Maccabi Tel Aviv ( he, מכבי תל אביב) is one of the largest sports clubs in Israel, and a part of the Maccabi association. Many sports clubs and teams in Tel Aviv are in association with Maccabi and compete in a variety of sports, such ...

win two EuroLeague championships, during his nine seasons with the team. During his playing career, he was listed at 2.08 m (6'10") tall, and 98 kg (215 lbs.) in weight, and he played at the

center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentrici ...

position. In 1987, Perry was convicted of drug-smuggling. He was sentenced to ten years in prison. He was released in January 1992.

High school

Perry was born in

Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.West Side High School, where he played high school basketball.

College career

Perry graduated from Bethune-Cookman University in Florida, where he played

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

with the

Wildcats The wildcat is a species complex comprising two small wild cat species: the European wildcat (''Felis silvestris'') and the African wildcat (''F. lybica''). The European wildcat inhabits forests in Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus, while the ...

Professional career

United States

Perry was signed to the

Virginia Squires The Virginia Squires were a basketball team based in Norfolk, Virginia, and playing in several other Virginia cities. They were members of the American Basketball Association from 1970 to 1976. The team originated in 1967 as the Oakland Oaks, ...

of the American Basketball Association (ABA) in 1974. Perry was cut from the team during the 1974–75 season, however, and spent the balance of the season with the Allentown Jets, of the Eastern Professional Basketball League (the predecessor to the Continental Basketball Association (CBA)). The following season, he was signed by the New York Knicks, but he never played for the team. After being released by the Knicks, Perry returned to the Jets.

Israel

During the summer of 1976, Perry was spotted by a scout for

, while playing at the Rucker courts in

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater Ha ...

. Maccabi Tel Aviv signed Perry for

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

6,000 a month, a small sum by American standards, but at the time, one of the highest salaries in the

Israeli Super League The Israeli Premier League ( he, ליגת העל, ''Ligat Ha`Al'', ), is a professional association football league which operates as the highest division of the Israeli Football League – the state's league of Israel. The league is contested b ...

, in which Maccabi Tel Aviv competed. The other players on the team responded to his leadership and the team had what ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twi ...

'' writer

Alexander Wolff Alexander Wolff is a writer for ''Sports Illustrated'' and former owner of the Vermont Frost Heaves of the Premier Basketball League (PBL). He has written several books about basketball, among them ''Big Game, Small World'' (), a look at basketb ...

described as "the most extraordinary season in its remarkable history" and what Perry called "the best nine months of islife". In 1977, Perry helped to lead the team to its first FIBA European Champions Cup ( EuroLeague) championship, a prize they took again four years later. Perry played a total of nine seasons with Maccabi Tel Aviv, during which the team won eight Israeli Cups and nine Israeli League championships. Perry became a celebrity in Israel. He was congratulated by Prime Ministers

Yitzhak Rabin Yitzhak Rabin (; he, יִצְחָק רַבִּין, ; 1 March 1922 – 4 November 1995) was an Israeli politician, statesman and general. He was the fifth Prime Minister of Israel, serving two terms in office, 1974–77, and from 1992 until h ...

and Menachem Begin, who said he helped bring "honor to the people of Israel". He began dating Israeli model Tami Ben-Ami, and the couple were the darlings of the press. Everywhere Perry went, he was besieged by fans seeking his autograph. In Israel, his name became a generic phrase for a tall person; one Israeli might remark to another that her child had grown into a real Aulcie Perry, and a children's song by

Arik Einstein Arieh Lieb "Arik" Einstein ( he, אָרִיק אַייְנְשְׁטֵייְן, ; 3 January 1939 – 26 November 2013) was an Israeli singer, actor, comedian and screenwriter. He was a pioneer of Israeli rock music and was named "the voice of Is ...

included the lyrics "If only I were tall like Aulcie Perry". After the 1977–78 season, Perry

converted to Judaism Conversion to Judaism ( he, גיור, ''giyur'') is the process by which non-Jews adopt the Jewish religion and become members of the Jewish ethnoreligious community. It thus resembles both conversion to other religions and naturalization. " ...

. He adopted the

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

name Elisha ben Avraham (). Shortly thereafter, Perry became an Israeli citizen.

Drug possession and prison

In December 1982, Perry missed a game against Real Madrid. The team told reporters that he was sick with the flu, but in fact a worsening drug problem had kept him from the game. In March 1983, Perry was arrested and charged with buying heroin; he pleaded guilty and was given a fine of $150,000 and a suspended sentence. Perry and his cousin, Kenneth Johnson, were detained in September 1985, when they flew from

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

to New York. Johnson was arrested when customs officials found that the portable stereo he was carrying contained 3.5 pounds (1.6 kg) of 89 percent pure heroin, with an estimated street value of $1.8 million. The U.S.

Drug Enforcement Administration The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA; ) is a United States federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Justice tasked with combating drug trafficking and distribution within the U.S. It is the lead agency for domestic en ...

spent the next several months accumulating evidence against Perry, who they suspected was involved with the drug smuggling. In January 1986, a warrant was issued for his arrest. After nine months of fighting

extradition Extradition is an action wherein one jurisdiction delivers a person accused or convicted of committing a crime in another jurisdiction, over to the other's law enforcement. It is a cooperative law enforcement procedure between the two jurisdi ...

, Perry returned to New York for trial. At the trial, prosecutors portrayed Perry as the mastermind behind the smuggling scheme. Johnson had never been abroad before, but Perry was an experienced traveler. Perry had paid for airline tickets in cash, and he was seen traveling with a bagful of cash. Finally, a flight attendant recognized him from the airplane, where Perry had been holding the portable stereo. In February 1987, Perry was convicted of conspiracy to import heroin, importation of heroin, and possession of heroin with intent to distribute. Two months later, he was sentenced to ten years in prison. He was released in January 1992.

After prison

After his release from prison in January 1992, Perry returned to Israel, where he managed a

Burger Ranch Burgeranch, also known as Burger Ranch, ( he, בורגראנץ') is an Israeli fast-food chain. In 2010, the Burgeranch chain included 107 restaurants with over 1500 employees, competing primarily with McDonald's Israel and Burger King Israel ...

restaurant. He sponsors a basketball camp for children in Israel. Perry also coaches one of Maccabi Tel Aviv's youth teams.

References

External links

Basketball for Stars
Perry's basketball camp {{DEFAULTSORT:Perry, Aulcie 1950 births Living people African-American basketball players African-American Jews Allentown Jets players American emigrants to Israel American men's basketball players Basketball coaches from New Jersey Basketball players from Newark, New Jersey Bethune–Cookman Wildcats men's basketball players Centers (basketball) Converts to Judaism Israeli American Israeli Jews Israeli men's basketball players Israeli people of African-American descent Jewish men's basketball players Maccabi Tel Aviv B.C. players Sportspeople from Newark, New Jersey Virginia Squires players West Side High School (New Jersey) alumni 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American sportspeople American people convicted of drug offenses Israeli people imprisoned abroad