By Stefan Djordjevic/ sdjordjevic@eurohoops.net
TaShawn Thomas joined Hapoel Bank Yahav Jerusalem back in the summer of 2018 and has become an invaluable part of the team during the past two and a half years.
He was a big part of the squad’s success, helping them win two Israeli State Cups (he was the MVP in 2019) and an Israeli League Cup. He was also the 2019 Israeli League Defender of the Year.
While the team didn’t reach the top of the Basketball Champions League, Thomas has been among the MVP candidates each year and was named to the BCL Star Lineup in 2019.
He’s made a name for himself as an all-around player, doing everything necessary for the squad and often putting on double-double performances, if not flirting with a triple-double.
It shouldn’t come as a big surprise that Thomas grabbed his 297th rebound in the competition on December 22 against Igokea and has taken over the number one spot on the all-time rebounding list.
He logged six rebounds in the loss to the Bosnian team but will have soon enough (December 24) the chance for revenge and to further increase his status as the top rebounder in BCL.
This has been Thomas’s fourth season in the Basketball Champions League with his first being in the Hapoel Holon jersey and it took him a total of 49 games (six rebounds on average) to become the best rebounder in the competition’s short history.
His chase for the first spot required him to get past Jerai Grant who accumulated 296 rebounds over 48 games with Neptunas, Strasbourg, and AEK.
The two are followed by Petr Benda (291) – who is the only real ‘threat’ to steal the No. 1 this season – and Gasper Vidmar (285) while Tim Abromaitis fills out the top five spots with 281 rebounds.
Basketball Champions League features changes to its team lineup yearly and the club themselves change up the roster so it can be hard for a single player to accumulate a lot of numbers in the competition.
The current all-time rebounding list features only four players currently active in BCL – Thomas, Benda, Vojtech Hruban and Yanick Moreira.
Top 10 rebounders in the Basketball Champions League
- TaShawn Thomas – 297
- Jerai Grant – 296
- Petr Benda – 291
- Gasper Vidmar – 285
- Tim Abromaitis – 281
- Vladimir Dragicevic – 266
- Vojtech Hruban – 262
- Damian Kulig – 243
- Josh Owens – 238
- Yanick Moreira – 236
Photo Credit: Basketball Champions League