Eric Minkin (אריק מנקין; born November 28, 1950) is an American-Israeli former basketball player. He played the center position. He played in the

Israeli Basketball Premier League Ligat HaAl ( he, ליגת העל, lit., ''Supreme League or Premier League''), or the Israeli Basketball Premier League, is the top-tier level league of professional sports, professional competition in Israeli sports club, club basketball, making ...

, and for the Israeli national basketball team.

Biography

Minkin is 6' 7" (201 cm) tall, and is Jewish. He attended

Germantown Academy Germantown Academy, informally known as GA and originally known as the Union School, is the oldest nonsectarian day school in the United States. The school was founded on December 6, 1759, by a group of prominent Germantown citizens in the Gree ...

('68), where in basketball Minkin was a three-time Philadelphia High School

Inter-Academic League The Inter-Academic League (officially the Inter-Academic Association of Philadelphia and Vicinity, commonly known as the Inter-Ac) is an inter-scholastic athletic conference. The high school sports league consists of selective private schools in th ...

First-Teamer, from 1966-68. Minkin scored 1,358 career points for the school—at the time, the school record. Minkin played basketball for Team USA in the

1969 Maccabiah Games At the 8th Maccabiah Games from July 29 to August 7, 1969, 1,450 athletes from 27 countries competed in 22 sports in Israel. The final gold medal count was the United States in first place (64), Israel second (48; though it won the greatest numbe ...

in Israel. Others playing on the team included Andrew Hill, Steve Kaplan, and Neal Walk. He attended

Davidson College Davidson College is a private liberal arts college in Davidson, North Carolina. It was established in 1837 by the Concord Presbytery and named after Revolutionary War general William Lee Davidson, who was killed at the nearby Battle of Cowan� ...

(BA, Political Science and Government, '72), and played for the Davidson Wildcats from 1969 to 1972. In 1970-71 and 1971-72 Minkin was Second Team All- Southern Conference. He graduated as a First Team Jewish All-American. Minkin played in the

for Maccabi Tel Aviv and Hapoel Galil Elyon. He was part of the Maccabi Tel Aviv Israeli team that in the

1976–77 FIBA European Champions Cup The 1976–77 FIBA European Champions Cup was the 20th edition of the European top-tier level professional basketball club competition FIBA European Champions Cup (now called EuroLeague). The Final was held at the Pionir Hall, in Belgrade, Yugos ...

(EuroLeague) semifinals defeated CSKA Moscow — the Red Army team—in a dramatic upset. He recalled: “I drove myself to play better than everybody else. I was the smallest, whitest center in Europe. What choice did I have?” He also played for the Israeli national basketball team in the 1979 FIBA European Championship for Men. Minkin lives in Sarasota, Florida, and worked for 22 years as a

registered nurse A registered nurse (RN) is a nurse who has graduated or successfully passed a nursing program from a recognized nursing school and met the requirements outlined by a country, state, province or similar government-authorized licensing body to o ...

Sarasota Memorial Hospital Sarasota Memorial Hospital (SMH) is an 839-bed health care facility located in Sarasota, Florida. The hospital was founded in 1925, and is a level II trauma center. History Early years Local residents started to raise funds for the hospital in ...

’s cardiac acute unit.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Minkin, Eric 1950 births Living people 21st-century American Jews American men's basketball players Basketball players from Pennsylvania Centers (basketball) Competitors at the 1969 Maccabiah Games Davidson Wildcats men's basketball players Germantown Academy alumni Hapoel Galil Elyon players Israeli men's basketball players Israeli people of American-Jewish descent Jewish American sportspeople Jewish Israeli sportspeople Jewish men's basketball players Maccabiah Games basketball players of the United States Maccabi Tel Aviv B.C. players Sportspeople from Sarasota, Florida