Alec Kobre is a sharp shooter who represented the United States on their Maccabiah Gold Medal winning team under the tutelage of coach Doug Gottlieb. The former Pacific guard spoke about his experiences in the Holy Land, “It has been great. It was my first time in Israel and it’s been great to see all the things we have been able to see it. Maccabi Israel has done a great job taking is around Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. We only had a short amount of time to practice and it’s been really cool to meet all of my teammates and get to know so many different people.”

Kobre’s connection to Judaism has also grown since his arrival in the Holy Land: “It means a lot more since I got here. I’m from Santa Rose where there are hardly any other Jews, so playing against other Jewish athletes is really cool. I’m also really excited that Omri Casspi is going to play for the Warriors as I’m from that area. It’s made it even more exciting to be in Israel.”

Growing up Kobre was a always a big sports aficionado: “I was really into baseball and I played my whole life. Along the way I met Ned Averbuck who taught me discipline and I worked hard at refining my game. I went to Montgomery High School where I was a standout playing with my best friends and then played junior college ball close to home at Santa Rosa.”

From Santa Rosa, Kobre transferred to Pacific where he continued to refine his game, leading the team in scoring during his senior season, “I have been fortunate enough to play for a lot of winning programs and I had an amazing experience in college. I played under Craig McMillan at Santa Rosa who played for Lute Olson in the 1980’s at University of Arizona and he prepared me to go to Pacific where I played in the Western Conference which is one of the he’s 10 conferences in the country. I loved playing there and we were always competitive.”

From Pacific the 6”3 shooting guard headed to Spain where he began his professional career, “Playing pro ball is a lot different as the players are much more physical, the speed of the game is definitely faster and you have to really work on your game and make sure you are in the gym working out as well as practicing hard on the court.”

Many basketball players dream about playing in the NBA and Kobre is no different, “My dream is to play in the NBA, but just to play pro ball is an amazing feat in itself as less than 1% that come out of college eventually play professional basketball. That is an accomplishment in itself. I would love to play at some point in the NBA Summer League just to get the opportunity to try it out, but if it doesn’t happen that’s okay too.”

Kobre wants to stay in the game as long as he looks to play in Israel, “People always tell me that once you stop playing you stop. So my goal is to find a way to continue playing in Israel. Once my playing career is over I will go into coaching and give over all of the experiences that I had to help others improve.”