Maccabi Haifa signs Sean Williams to a two-year contract

The Maccabi Haifa professional basketball team of the Israeli Basketball Super League today announced they have signed former NBA center and NBA D-League All-Star Sean Williams to a two-year contract through the 2012-13 season. Williams, 24, played last season for the NBA D-League’s Texas Legends, posting averages of 14.4 points, 9.4 rebounds and 2.9 blocks in 33.4 minutes over 49 regular season games. In two playoff games, Williams averaged 12.0 points, 15.5 rebounds, and 4.0 blocked shots in 38.5 minutes. The 6-foot-10-inch, 235-pound center was selected to the D-League All-Star game last season and finished runner-up in the D-League Defensive Player of the Year voting. As the 17th overall pick in the 2007 NBA Draft by the New Jersey Nets, Williams played three seasons with the Nets from 2007-2010 with intermittent assignments in the D-League. Williams has a career average of 4.3 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.2 blocks in 14.9 minutes in 126 career NBA games with the New Jersey Nets. In February 2010, Williams played in China’s top division for Fujia SBS XunXin, averaging 16.4 points, 11.1 rebounds, 1.2 assists and 4.2 blocked shots in 16 games played. Williams signed last season to play for Hapoel Jerusalem in Israel, but parted ways with the team before the beginning of the season. “Sean Williams is going to make Maccabi Haifa a tough team to match up against as he is an impressive NBA talent with incredible athleticism and shot blocking ability,” said Maccabi Haifa head coach Mickey Gorka. “The addition of an NBA player like Sean Williams for two seasons is a statement that Maccabi Haifa is building a strong foundation to contend amongst the top teams in Israel year in and year out,” said Maccabi Haifa owner and American businessman Jeffrey Rosen. A native of Houston, Texas, Williams played three seasons at Boston College from 2004-2007, averaging 12.1 points, 6.9 rebounds, 1.2 assists, 1.4 steals and 5.0 blocks in 15 games played during his junior season. Williams led the team in blocked shots each of his three seasons, setting a school single-season record with 75 blocked shots in 2006-07 (in 15 games) as well as a single-game record with 13 blocks becoming one of 17 players in NCAA history to block 13 or more shots in a single game. Williams solidifies a Maccabi Haifa roster that features former University of Virginia guard Sylven Landesberg, former Marshall University forward Tyler Wilkerson, former Southern Miss guard Jeremy Wise, former University of South Carolina forward Carlos Powell, former Dalhouse University guard Simon Farine, Israeli guard Avi Ben-Chimol as well as Israeli National Olympic team members forward Daniel Aidan and guard Tamir Arieli.