Barry Leibowitz

Barry Leibowitz (בארי לייבוביץ; born September 10, 1945) is an American-Israeli former professional basketball player who played point guard and shooting guard. He graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School ('63) in the Bronx. 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. He was the first white basketball player to play in the Rucker Tournament in Harlem in Manhattan.

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. Leibowitz played alongside, among others, Mark Turenshine and future NBA players Dave Newmark and Rick Weitzman. He chose to play for Pittsburgh in the new American Basketball Association.

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." 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. 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). The Buccaneers then traded him with that contract to the Utah Jazz. He later said that he stayed in Israel because of its sea, hummus, and tahini with olive oil. He played for the team from 1968 until 1982, with a short break from playing. He coached the team to the Israeli Basketball Premier League and Israeli Basketball State Cup double in 1968–69. 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. He also played for it in the 1973, 1975, 1977, and 1981 European championships.

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

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

Personal While in Israel, Leibowitz married an Israeli woman, and made aliyah by immigrating to Israel. 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. 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.