{"id":61390,"date":"2022-08-15T09:59:16","date_gmt":"2022-08-15T09:59:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/?p=61390"},"modified":"2022-08-15T09:59:16","modified_gmt":"2022-08-15T09:59:16","slug":"amazing-teammate-and-even-more-amazing-talent-who-are-you-hapoel-haifa-big-man-devonte-upson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/amazing-teammate-and-even-more-amazing-talent-who-are-you-hapoel-haifa-big-man-devonte-upson\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Amazing teammate and even more amazing talent&#8221; &#8211; Who are you Hapoel Haifa big man Devonte Upson?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Hapoel Haifa inked center <strong>Devonte Upson<\/strong> for the 2022\/23 season as the big man arrives in Israel after a successful campaign with Merkezefendi Belediyesi Denizli Basket. This past season in Turkey Upson averaged 8.8 points and 6.8 rebounds while shooting 68% from the field and 64% from the free throw line. <\/p>\n<p>The Amarillo, Texas native played his junior and senior seasons at Louisiana State where he scored 9.8 points and grabbed 6.8 rebounds before heading to his first professional year abroad in Switzerland. After stops in Finland, Estonia, Poland and Argentina, Upson played in Italy and then this past season in Turkey. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are very happy to welcome Devonte to the club,\u201d head coach Sharon Drucker said. \u201cHe is an experienced athletic player that will help us reach our goals this season.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>To get to know Upson a bit better, The Sports Rabbi was in touch with a number of his former teammates:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Onochie Ochie<\/strong> who played with Upson in college said: \u201cDevonte was a great teammate that always played with joy. Devonte always had smile on his face every single day. He is definitely one of the most talented teammates that I have had. He will continue to have a dominant pro career.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Andrew Guillory<\/strong> played with the big man at Louisiana State as well: \u201cHe is a GREAT TEAMMATE and is one of the most genuine people I\u2019ve been around. He\u2019s always looking to help others. But he wasn\u2019t so nice on the court, he played with passion.\u201d <\/p>\n<p><strong>JaMichael Hawkins<\/strong> from Louisiana State also spoke about Upson: \u201cThere\u2019s so many great things to say about him. He is one of those guys that stays late after practice until he feels he got better at some aspect of his game. He never liked to just work on big man moves and always felt like he was an all-around basketball player that can move like a guard as well. He always had the vision of being a professional basketball player and that was always a goal he worked hard for. I\u2019m proud to see everything we talked about in college has manifested.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Remy Abell<\/strong> who played with Upson in Helsinki said: \u201cHe is a great basketball player and even a better person. He is somebody you want in your lockerroom and is very coachable. He wants to learn and get better as a player. He is a great teammate and on the court he brings toughness and a competitive drive. He is a winner and he is hungry, ready to help a team win a championship.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Raymond Cowels<\/strong> was also in Helsinki: \u201cDevonte is an amazing teammate and even more amazing talent on the court! He has a great attitude and will do what the team needs to win. He is a very exciting player to watch! He\u2019s such a good teammate we are like brothers even years later.\u201d  <\/p>\n<p><strong>Leyton Hammonds<\/strong> played with Upson at Arka Gdynia: \u201cDevonte is a very good person and teammate. He works very hard in the summer I know this because we train together. Great attitude and even better player.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Eugene German<\/strong> was with Upson in Turkey: \u201cHe is  great guy on and off the court! Very athletic and a great teammate.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hapoel Haifa inked center Devonte Upson for the 2022\/23 season as the big man arrives in Israel after a successful campaign with Merkezefendi Belediyesi Denizli Basket. This past season in Turkey Upson averaged 8.8 points and 6.8 rebounds while shooting 68% from the field and 64% from the free throw line. The Amarillo, Texas native [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":63929,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[5055,109],"class_list":["post-61390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-holy-land-hoops","tag-devonte-upson","tag-hapoel-haifa","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>&quot;Amazing teammate and even more amazing talent&quot; - Who are you Hapoel Haifa big man Devonte Upson? - Sports Rabbi<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/amazing-teammate-and-even-more-amazing-talent-who-are-you-hapoel-haifa-big-man-devonte-upson\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"&quot;Amazing teammate and even more amazing talent&quot; - Who are you Hapoel Haifa big man Devonte Upson? - Sports Rabbi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Hapoel Haifa inked center Devonte Upson for the 2022\/23 season as the big man arrives in Israel after a successful campaign with Merkezefendi Belediyesi Denizli Basket. This past season in Turkey Upson averaged 8.8 points and 6.8 rebounds while shooting 68% from the field and 64% from the free throw line. 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