Maccabi Tel Aviv signed Alex Poythress (6ft 9in, 28 years-old) for the upcoming two seasons after having featured for Zenit St. Petersburg this past campaign. The American power-forward, a graduate of Kentucky with NBA experience recently won the VTB Championship and joins the front line under new coach Oded Katash.

“I’m very happy to join the legendary Maccabi franchise and I’m excited to come to Tel Aviv and meet the amazing fans,” Alex Poythress said. “I want to thank the organization and the management and l had a great talk with coach Oded. Let’s go Maccabi!”

“Alex is a fantastic athlete who plays on both ends of the floor,” stated Head Coach Oded Katash. “He is an elite offensive rebounder and pick-and-roll player who also runs the floor extremely well. Alex is versatile defensively and can provide solutions with different lineups and schemes. He is also a high-level person who comes has a great athletic background.”

Over the past two years, Poythress established himself as one of the leading forwards in the EuroLeague bringing a lot of power and athleticism to the floor. He is an excellent finisher, great at spotting miss-matches and brings tough defense every night to the court. 

Last season Poythress recorded 23 games in Europe’s top competition and averaged 7.7 points going 64% from 2-point range, along with grabbing 4.2 rebounds in 20 minutes per game. In the challenging VTB League he provided 12.9 points (70% from the field) and collected 5.3 rebounds in 24.9 minutes per evening.

Poythress was born in Savannah, Georgia and starred at Northeast High School in Tennessee where he was considered one of the top players in his class in the United States. He received offers from several prominent colleges and chose to play for Kentucky’s excellent basketball program under head coach John Calipari. Poythress stayed for the full four years between 2012-2016 which included overcoming a difficult injury when he tore the ACL in his left knee. During his time with the Wildcats, Poythress reached two Final Fours and one final appearance when they fell to UCONN in 2013.

The forward was not selected in the 2016 draft but played with Orlando in the Summer League, participated in two preseason games with Indiana and then played in the G-League. In April 2017 Poythress was signed by Philadelphia until the end of the season and displayed excellent abilities with 10.7 points and 4.8 rebounds. 

The following season he appeared in 25 games with the Pacers and spent some time in the G-League, before signing with Atlanta in the summer of 2018. He played 21 games for the Hawks, while in their G-League affiliate he averaged 23.7 points, 9.7 rebounds and 2.7 assists.

In the summer of 2019, Poythress decided it was time to try his luck overseas and signed with Jilin Northeast Tigers from the Chinese league and in December of that year moved to Galatasaray where he contributed 12.3 points and 5.9 rebounds per game.

Two seasons at Zenit was up next for Poythress as he became one of the important anchors for the team that won a historic VTB championship, which broke CSKA’s 9-year streak. In his last game against Maccabi in the EuroLeague he scored 14 points going 5 /5 for two and 4/5 from the line in just shy of 15 minutes of action.