Barry Leibowitz

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Barry Leibowitz
בארי לייבוביץ
Personal information
Born (1945-09-10) September 10, 1945 (age 79)
The Bronx, New York, U.S.
NationalityAmerican-Israeli
Listed height6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Listed weight180 lb (82 kg)
Career information
High schoolDeWitt Clinton
(The Bronx, New York)
CollegeLIU Brooklyn (1964–1967)
NBA draft1967: 5th round, 48th overall pick
Drafted byNew York Knicks
Playing career1967–1982
PositionPoint guard / shooting guard
Number25, 20, 40, 12
Career history
As a player:
1967Pittsburgh Pipers
1967–1968New Jersey Americans
1968Oakland Oaks
1968–1982Hapoel Tel Aviv
1982–1985Hapoel Haifa
As a coach:
1968–1969Hapoel Tel Aviv
Career highlights and awards
As player:

As head coach:

Stats at Basketball Reference Edit this at Wikidata
Medals
Representing  Israel
Men's Basketball
European Championships
Silver medal – second place 1979 Italy Israel
Maccabiah Games
Silver medal – second place 1977 Tel Aviv Israel
Gold medal – first place 1973 Tel Aviv Israel

Barry Leibowitz (בארי לייבוביץ; born September 10, 1945) is an American-Israeli former professional basketball player who played point guard and shooting guard.[1] He played college basketball at Long Island University (LIU).

Chosen by the New York Knicks with the 48th overall pick of the 1967 NBA Draft, he instead played in the American Basketball Association for one season for the Pittsburgh Pipers, New Jersey Americans, and Oakland Oaks. Subsequently, he moved to Israel and played for Hapoel Tel Aviv and Hapoel Haifa of the Israeli Basketball Premier League for 17 seasons. In addition he coached Hapoel Tel Aviv to an Israeli Basketball Premier League championship, and to an Israeli Basketball State Cup, both in the same season. He also played for the Israeli national team, of which he was captain, winning a silver medal at EuroBasket 1979 in Italy, a gold medal in the 1973 Maccabiah Games, and a silver medal in the 1977 Maccabiah Games. He was inducted into the LIU Athletics Hall of Fame in 2002.

Early life

Leibowitz was born and raised in the Bronx in New York City, New York, and is Jewish.[1][2][3] He graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School ('63) in the Bronx.[4][5] There, he was a standout basketball player alongside future Hall of Famer Nate "Tiny" Archibald, and their team won the New York City PSAL championship in 1962–63.[6][7][8] He was the first white basketball player to play in the Rucker Tournament in Harlem in Manhattan.[7]

College and Pan Am Maccabiah Games career

As a 6' 2" guard on scholarship at Long Island University in the Metropolitan Collegiate Conference, from 1964–67 Leibowitz scored a total of 1,032 points.[9][7] He helped lead the LIU Blackbirds to a 60–18 record, three consecutive Tri-State League championships, and three straight NCAA College Division appearances.[9] He was All-Met and All-Tri-State in 1966, co-captain of the team in 1966–67, and was named an All-American in 1967.[10][11][12]

He played for the United States in the 1966 Pan American Maccabiah Games in São Paulo, Brazil, at which Team USA won a gold medal.[13][14] Leibowitz played alongside, among others, Mark Turenshine and future NBA players Dave Newmark and Rick Weitzman.[14][7]

American Basketball Association career

After graduating from LIU in 1967, Leibowitz was selected by the New York Knicks in the fifth round (48th overall) of the 1967 NBA Draft, and by the Pittsburgh Pipers with the 12th pick in the ABA Draft (directly ahead of Clem Haskins).[5][15] He chose to play for Pittsburgh in the new American Basketball Association.[5]

Leibowitz played one season (1967–68) in the American Basketball Association (ABA) as a member of the Pittsburgh Pipers, New Jersey Americans, and Oakland Oaks.[1] He was traded twice and played for three teams in the first four months of the season.[5] Playing first for the Pipers alongside Connie Hawkins, who had played for the Harlem Globetrotters and asserted that in their travels he had become fluent in 50 to 60 languages, Leibowitz quipped: "He learned one word in every country, so he thought he was fluent in fifty to sixty languages. And nobody was going to argue with him."[16] [17]

Leibowitz was traded by the Pittsburgh Pipers to the New Jersey Americans (now the Brooklyn Nets in the NBA) for Art Heyman (the first overall pick in the first round of the 1963 NBA draft) in December 1967; the Miami News called it "one of the few straight-Jewish-player trades in sports history."[5][18][19] Two months later, Leibowitz was traded again, this time to the Oakland Oaks (for Levern "Jelly" Tart, who was leading the league in scoring at the time), with whom he finished the year.[5][20][21] In 82 games, he averaged 10.9 points and 3.7 assists per game, while shooting 80.5% from the free throw line (11th in the ABA).[1] He was 5th in the ABA in assists (301).[1]

Israeli professional career

Hapoel Tel Aviv and Hapoel Haifa

In June 1968 before the start of the 1968–69 season, the Oakland Oaks sought to send Leibowitz to the New Orleans Buccaneers in a trade for point guard Larry Brown and small forward Doug Moe, and he was signed to a two-year contract for $11,000 ($99,000 in current dollar terms) a season.[22][23][24] The Buccaneers then traded him with that contract to the Utah Jazz.[13]

During that off-season, however, Leibowitz decided against playing for a fourth team in the ABA. During his summer vacation he took a trip to the Greek islands, after which he dropped by for a three-day visit with his college teammate Ivan Leshinsky and his friend Mark Turenshine who were playing basketball in Israel.[13][25][23] Unexpectedly, he ended up signing to play in Israel as well, instead of returning to the U.S.[13][25][23] He spoke to his new coach in the U.S., who told him that it was a shame, but that if Israel did not work out for him "then come, you have a place."[13] So he said to himself: "What do I have to lose? I'll try it for a year and if it doesn't work out, I'll come back."[13][26] He later said that he stayed in Israel because of its sea, hummus, and tahini with olive oil.[13]

Leibowitz played professionally in Israel for Hapoel Tel Aviv of the Israeli Basketball Premier League, with whom his first salary was 600 Israeli pounds ($170 ($1,500 in current dollar terms)) per month.[22] He played for the team from 1968 until 1982, with a short break from playing.[22] He was temporarily banned by FIBA from playing because he was not an amateur, having played one season in the ABA, and he instead became the team’s coach for a time.[25][22][27] He coached the team to the Israeli Basketball Premier League and Israeli Basketball State Cup double in 1968–69.[27] He then returned strictly as a player.[27] In 1976, Leibowitz scored 51 points in a Korac Cup game against Spain's FC Barcelona Bàsquet, although Hapoel Tel Aviv lost 117–126.[27][23] His high-scoring season was 1979, when he averaged 22.6 points per game.[28] He was named the Israeli Basketball Premier League Player of the Year in 1975, and a Premier League All Star in 1973 and 1975, 1976, and 1977.[25] From 1982 to 1985 he played for Hapoel Haifa.[26][22] In 1985, at 40 years of age, he retired from basketball.[23]

Israeli national team and Maccabiah Games career

Leibowitz was the captain of Israeli national team that won the silver medal at EuroBasket 1979 in Italy.[13][29] He also played for it in the 1973, 1975, 1977, and 1981 European championships.[30][31][32]

He played basketball in the 1973 Maccabiah Games. There, he won a gold medal with Team Israel alongside Tal Brody and Mickey Berkowitz.[33] He also played for Team Israel in the 1977 Maccabiah Games, winning a silver medal.[34][35]

Hall of Fame

In 2002, Leibowitz was inducted into the LIU Athletics Hall of Fame.[9]

Personal

While in Israel, Leibowitz married an Israeli woman, and made aliyah.[25][36] In 2002, he was working as a children's basketball coach, but his main profession was as a high school teacher of physiology and anatomy.[22] He later lived in Plantation, Florida, and Fort Lauderdale, Florida.[13][23] He has a daughter, Alona, who lives in Israel, is married to Israeli coach and former basketball player Yehu Orland, and has a son named Omri.[37][13]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e "Barry Leibowitz," Basketball Reference.
  2. ^ Martin Harry Greenberg (1979). The Jewish Lists; Physicists and Generals, Actors and Writers, and Hundreds of Other Lists of Accomplished Jews, Schocken Books.
  3. ^ "The Bronx Basketball Hall of Fame"
  4. ^ "DeWitt Clinton High School, Bronx (NY) Players," RealGM.
  5. ^ a b c d e f "Leibowitz, Barry," Jews in Sports.
  6. ^ "Blackbirds fly back to LIU for alumni basketball game ," The New York Daily News, January 11, 2019.
  7. ^ a b c d Charley Rosen (2014). Perfectly Awful; The Philadelphia 76ers' Horrendous and Hilarious 1972–1973 Season, University of Nebraska Press.
  8. ^ "PSAL Hall of Fame Basketball Inductee, Nate "Tiny" Archibald, DeWitt Clinton, 1962–1966," hofinny.
  9. ^ a b c "Barry Leibowitz," LIU Athletics.
  10. ^ "Men's Basketball Record Book 2018–19," LIU Blackbirds.
  11. ^ Jesse Silver (July 1, 1966). "Athletes in a Variety of Sports," The Detroit Jewish News.
  12. ^ "College previews; Top 20 teams," 1966–67 Complete Sports Basketball.
  13. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Irad Tzafrir (November 14, 2017). "Barry Leibovitz: "What did I stay in Israel for? Sea, hummus and tahini with olive oil," Haaretz.
  14. ^ a b "Maccabiah Games in Brazil Aug. 23". The Detroit Jewish News. August 12, 1966.
  15. ^ "American Basketball Association; 1966–67 ABA Season Overview," Retroseasons.com.
  16. ^ Mike Sielski (2025). Magic in the Air; The Myth, the Mystery, and the Soul of the Slam Dunk St. Martin's Publishing Group.
  17. ^ Chuck Curti (May 7, 2018). "Quotes, anecdotes from Pittsburgh Pipers' 50th reunion," Trib Live.
  18. ^ Mark Whited (May 2, 2019). "Author commemorates Pittsburgh’s forgotten championship," Observer-Reporter.
  19. ^ "Miami’s First Pro Basketball Team: Remembering the Floridians 1968–1972," Terry Crowley, September 25, 2019.
  20. ^ Terry Pluto (2011). Loose Balls.
  21. ^ "New Jersey Americans," Remember the ABA.
  22. ^ a b c d e f Ron Ornan and Avi Amikam (February 22, 2002). "The guys line up for a photo shoot and Barry demands: "Losers on one side, winners on the other," Makor Rishon.
  23. ^ a b c d e f Udi Hirsch (April 3, 2004). "Barry's Disasters," Makor Rishon.
  24. ^ Ron Smith, John Gardella (2003). Official NBA Register, Sporting News Publishing Company.
  25. ^ a b c d e Rafael Na'eh (June 19, 2023). "The tourist who became a star / making history," Ynet.
  26. ^ a b Jess Silver (December 6, 1968). "Israel Readies its Maccabia Games," The Detroit Jewish News.
  27. ^ a b c d "The Club Scene: Hapoel Tel Aviv," Euroleague Basketball, November 18, 2022.
  28. ^ "All-time scorers," basket-co-il.
  29. ^ "101 Greats: Lou Silver," Kos, August 17, 2020.
  30. ^ "Barry Leibowitz," FIBA Basketball.
  31. ^ "Men Basketball XX European Championship 1977 Liege, Oostende (BEL)," Todor 66.
  32. ^ Lianne Merkur (September 4, 2008). "Legendary TA Ussishkin arena may be rebuilt," The Jerusalem Post.
  33. ^ "Ninth Maccabiah 1973 | July 9–19," Maccabiah.com.
  34. ^ "Tenth Maccabiah – Maccabiah 21". maccabiah.com.
  35. ^ "U.S. Quintet Captures Gold At Maccabiahs". The New York Times. July 21, 1977.
  36. ^ Harvey Rosen (May 4, 1979). "Prospects For Ball Players Not Encouraging," The Jewish Post and Opinion.
  37. ^ Gidi Lipkin (November 18, 2013). "Leibovich: Hapoel can win the derby if they stay strong," One.