Derrick Lanorris Sharp (; born October 5, 1971) is an American-Israeli former professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

player. At a height of tall, he played at the

point guard The point guard (PG), also called the one or the point, is one of the Basketball positions, five positions in a regulation basketball game. A point guard has perhaps the most specialized role of any position and is usually the shortest player ...

and

shooting guard The shooting guard (SG), also known as the two, two guard or off guard,Shooting guards are 6'3"–6'7"BBC Sports academy URL last accessed 2006-09-09. is one of the five traditional basketball positions, positions in a regulation basketball game ...

positions. He played with the

Maccabi Tel Aviv Maccabi Tel Aviv () 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 as football, basketball, j ...

basketball club for 15 years, spending part of the time as the team's captain, and also later served as the team's assistant coach under

David Blatt David Michael Blatt (; born May 22, 1959) is an Israeli-American professional basketball executive. He is also a former coach and player. Blatt played point guard at Princeton University from 1977 to 1981 and played in the Maccabiah Games for ...

. With Maccabi, he won a record 29 club titles. In July 2011, Sharp retired from playing professional basketball. After he retired from playing, he remained with Maccabi Tel Aviv, working as an assistant coach with the club, until August 2013.

High school

Sharp, who was born in

Orlando, Florida Orlando ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Orange County, Florida, United States. The city proper had a population of 307,573 at the 2020 census, making it the fourth-most populous city in Florida behind Jacksonville, Florida, Jacksonville ...

, attended Evans High School, in Orlando. At Evans High, he played high school basketball.

College career

After high school, Sharp played

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

at Brevard Community College, from 1989 to 1991. He then played college basketball at the

University of South Florida The University of South Florida (USF) is a Public university, public research university with its main campus located in Tampa, Florida, Tampa, Florida, United States, and other campuses in St. Petersburg, Florida, St. Petersburg and Sarasota, ...

, where he played with the

South Florida Bulls The South Florida Bulls (also known as the USF Bulls) are the athletic teams that represent the University of South Florida. USF competes in NCAA Division I and is a member of the American Athletic Conference for all sports besides sailing, a n ...

, from 1991 to 1993.

Professional playing career

Sharp joined Maccabi Hadera, which was playing in the Israeli 2nd Division at the time, for the 1993–94 season. From 1994 to 1996, he played with Hapoel Migdal-HaEmek, which competed in the Israeli 2nd Division in the 1994–95 season, and in the Israeli 3rd Division, in the 1995–96 season. Sharp then made the big jump in his career, when he moved to the most well-known team in

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

–

. With Maccabi Tel Aviv, Sharp won 13 Israeli national league championships, 11 Israeli State Cups, 2 Israeli League Cups, and 3 European-wide titles (the 2001 FIBA SuproLeague, the 2004 EuroLeague, and the 2005 EuroLeague). As a member of Maccabi Tel Aviv, Sharp quickly became a crowd favorite, due to his tough defense, three-point shooting, and clutch plays. The most memorable example of the latter came on April 8, 2004, in a

EuroLeague The EuroLeague is a European men's professional basketball club competition. The league is widely recognised as the top-tier and the most prestigious men's basketball league in Europe. The league consists of 20 teams, of which 16 are given lon ...

game against the Lithuanian club Zalgiris Kaunas. With 2 seconds remaining in the game, and Maccabi Tel Aviv trailing by 3 points and facing elimination from the EuroLeague Top 16 phase, Sharp caught a long pass from Gur Shelef, turned to the basket, and fired up a game-tying

three-pointer A three-point field goal (also 3-pointer, three, or triple) is a field goal in a basketball game made from beyond the three-point line, a designated arc surrounding the basket. A successful attempt is worth three points, in contrast to the two p ...

, forcing

overtime Overtime is the amount of time someone works beyond normal working hours. The term is also used for the pay received for this time. Normal hours may be determined in several ways: *by custom (what is considered healthy or reasonable by society) ...

. Maccabi Tel Aviv won that game, and advanced to the

EuroLeague Final Four The EuroLeague Final Four is the final four format championship of the European-wide top-tier level EuroLeague professional club basketball competition. The Euroleague Basketball Company used the final four format for the first time in 2002, fo ...

, which was held in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

that year. The team eventually became the EuroLeague champions. In July 2011, Sharp retired from playing professional basketball, at the age of 39. In total, Sharp played professional basketball in Israel for 18 years, spending 15 of them with Maccabi Tel Aviv. Sharp finished his playing career ranked seventh all-time on Maccabi Tel Aviv's career scoring list in European-wide games. In the EuroLeague, he scored a total of 1,755 points, in 290 games played, for a career scoring average of 6.1 points per game, when including both the

FIBA The International Basketball Federation (FIBA ; French language, French: ) is an association of national organizations which governs the sport of basketball worldwide. FIBA defines the rules of basketball, specifies the Basketball equipment ...

and

EuroLeague Basketball Euroleague Basketball, run by Euroleague Commercial Assets (ECA), is a private company that runs and operates men's professional basketball club competitions in Europe, the first-tier level EuroLeague, and the second-tier level EuroCup. It has ...

eras of the competition. At the time of his retirement, he was ranked seventh in the EuroLeague's modern era (since 2000), in career free throw accuracy, at 88.9%.

National team playing career

Sharp became a naturalized

i citizen. He then played with the senior Israeli national team, from 2000 to 2003. With Israel, he played at the

2001 EuroBasket The 2001 FIBA European Championship, commonly called FIBA EuroBasket 2001, was the 32nd FIBA EuroBasket regional basketball championship held by FIBA Europe, which also served as Europe qualifier for the 2002 FIBA World Championship, giving a be ...

and at the 2003 EuroBasket.

Coaching career

After he retired from playing professional basketball, Sharp continued to work with

as an

assistant coach An athletic coach is a person coaching in sport, involved in the direction, instruction, and training of a sports team or athlete. History The original sense of the word ''Coach'' is that of a Coach (carriage), horse-drawn carriage, deriving ul ...

, after he had taken a coaching course at

Wingate Institute Wingate Institute (), officially Orde Wingate Institute for Physical Education and Sports (), is a sports training institute located south of Netanya, Israel. History Wingate Institute was established in 1957. It was named after Orde Wingate. ...

, in 2010. On August 2, 2013, Sharp resigned from his role as an assistant coach of Maccabi Tel-Aviv.

Career statistics

EuroLeague

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2001–02 , style="text-align:left;" rowspan="10", Maccabi , 20 , , 6 , , 20.4 , , .443 , , .382 , , .952 , , 1.1 , , .7 , , .9 , , , , 6.8 , , 4.2 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2002–03 , 20 , , 0 , , 23.2 , , .527 , , .515 , , .909 , , 1.8 , , 1.4 , , 1.4 , , , , 7.5 , , 7.4 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2003–04 , 21 , , 0 , , 17.0 , , .468 , , .459 , , .917 , , .9 , , .9 , , .9 , , , , 5.8 , , 3.8 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2004–05 , 24 , , 1 , , 19.6 , , .495 , , .431 , , .821 , , 1.6 , , 1.0 , , .8 , , .1 , , 7.0 , , 5.3 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2005–06 , 25 , , 10 , , 23.5 , , .427 , , .396 , , .878 , , 1.8 , , 1.4 , , 1.3 , , , , 7.9 , , 6.1 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2006–07 , 23 , , 4 , , 25.2 , , .465 , , .481 , , .883 , , 2.3 , , 1.3 , , 1.2 , , .0 , , 10.4 , , 10.2 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2007–08 , style="background:#CFECEC;", 25* , , 0 , , 12.9 , , .429 , , .358 , , 1.000 , , .7 , , .7 , , .5 , , , , 4.5 , , 3.0 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2008–09 , 14 , , 2 , , 9.4 , , .300 , , .313 , , .500 , , .5 , , .1 , , .3 , , .1 , , 1.3 , , 0.3 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2009–10 , 10 , , 0 , , 1.5 , , .333 , , .333 , , 1.000 , , .3 , , .1 , , .2 , , , , 0.8 , , 0.6 , - , style="text-align:left;",

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

, 13 , , 0 , , 1.6 , , .429 , , .333 , , .667 , , .2 , , , , , , , , 0.7 , , 0.3 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan=2, Career , 195 , , 23 , , 17.2 , , .457 , , .428 , , .889 , , 1.2 , , .9 , , .8 , , .0 , , 6.0 , , 4.7

Personal life

In the mid-1990s, Sharp married an Israeli woman, and thus received Israeli citizenship, by virtue of that marriage. The couple have one son, who also played basketball in Israel. In 1999, he divorced his first wife, and married Canadian basketball player Justine Ellison. They have four children together, three sons and a daughter. Sharp's son, Emanuel Sharp, currently plays for the University of Houston basketball team. Sharp lived with his family in

Herzliya Herzliya ( ; , / ) is an affluent List of Israeli cities, city in the Israeli coastal plain, central coast of Israel, at the northern part of the Tel Aviv District, known for its robust start-up and entrepreneurial culture. In it had a populatio ...

, Israel, until August 2013, when they moved to

Orlando Orlando commonly refers to: * Orlando, Florida, a city in the United States Orlando may also refer to: People * Orlando (given name), a masculine name, includes a list of people with the name * Orlando (surname), includes a list of people wit ...

, Florida. His son from his first marriage later returned to Israel to pursue a basketball playing career. Sharp later moved to

Tampa Tampa ( ) is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. Tampa's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and t ...

, Florida, where he worked as the

head coach A head coach, senior coach, or manager is a professional responsible for training and developing athletes within a sports team. This role often has a higher public profile and salary than other coaching positions. In some sports, such as associat ...

of the Blake High School boys' basketball team. Sharp is currently the Varsity Boys' Head Basketball Coach at Bishop McLaughlin Catholic High School in Pasco County, Florida.

Honors and awards

: ** 13× Israeli League Champion: (1997–2007, 2009, 2011) ** 11× Israeli State Cup Winner: (1998–2006, 2010, 2011) **

FIBA SuproLeague The International Basketball Federation (FIBA ; French: ) is an association of national organizations which governs the sport of basketball worldwide. FIBA defines the rules of basketball, specifies the equipment and facilities required, o ...

Champion: (

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

) ** 3× Triple Crown Winner: (2001, 2004, 2005) ** 2×

Champion: (

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

) ** 2× Israeli League Cup Winner: (2007, 2010)

References

External links

EuroLeague profile

Israeli League profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sharp, Derrick 1971 births Living people ABA League players American emigrants to Israel American expatriate basketball people in Israel American men's basketball players Basketball players from Orlando, Florida Eastern Florida State College people Israeli basketball coaches Israeli men's basketball players Israeli Basketball Premier League players Junior college men's basketball players in the United States Hapoel Migdal HaEmek B.C. players Maccabi Tel Aviv B.C. players Naturalized citizens of Israel Point guards Shooting guards South Florida Bulls men's basketball players Wingate Institute alumni Naturalised basketball players Maynard Evans High School alumni 20th-century American sportsmen