David Aliu (born 13 March 1981) is a British retired professional basketball player. He last played for Cheshire Phoenix in the British Basketball League. Aliu was part of the

Mersey Tigers The Mersey Tigers were a professional basketball team based in the city of Liverpool, England. The club was established in 2007 as a start-up franchise of the British Basketball League, the country's elite competition. The Tigers started compe ...

' treble-winning 2010/11 team, and in November 2011, became the Tigers' record points scorer in the BBL.

Early life and career

Born in Liverpool, England, Aliu started playing basketball at the age of 14 in his home town of Liverpool, playing for local side Toxteth Tigers. He landed a scholarship in the US, playing at the Notre Dame Academy in Virginia, before moving on to and graduating from Morehead State University, Kentucky in 2004.

Professional career

The power forward made his British Basketball League debut on 01/10/2004 playing for Scottish Rocks against Newcastle Eagles, and he went on to make 11 appearances for the Rocks, averaging 6.27 PPG. He then moved on to play for three teams in the Icelandic Úrvalsdeild karla - Tindastóll (15.7 ppg and 5.0 rpg), Hamar/Selfoss (20.7 ppg and 8.9 rpg) and Þór Þorlákshöfn (23.6 ppg and 9.5 rpg) - from 2005 to 2007, with a short spell at Leicester Riders in the BBL in the middle. After a brief spell with Celso Míguez Procolor in Spain, Aliu returned to his home city to play for the new professional franchise, Everton Tigers. He averaged 15.8 points per game in 33 appearances for the Tigers, before leaving to play for BBC Lausanne in Switzerland. He took a year out of the sport following the birth of his daughter, but returned to the re-branded Mersey Tigers for the 2010/11 season. Aliu won the BBL Championship, BBL Trophy and BBL play-off titles, playing alongside Great Britain players

Andrew Sullivan Andrew Michael Sullivan (born 10 August 1963) is a British-American author, editor, and blogger. Sullivan is a political commentator, a former editor of ''The New Republic'', and the author or editor of six books. He started a political blog, ' ...

and Nate Reinking, in a very successful season. In August 2011, Aliu signed a new two-year deal with the Tigers to keep him at the club until the end of the 2012/13 season. In September 2012, Aliu signed with a contract with the Manchester Giants. In June 2014, Aliu signed a two-year contract with the Cheshire Phoenix. On 20 July 2016 Aliu retired from basketball.

Other Notes

Aliu was the first person to score a basket at the

ECHO Arena Liverpool Arena, known for sponsorship reasons as the M&S Bank Arena, and previously Echo Arena, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the city centre of Liverpool, England. The venue hosts live music, comedy performances and sporting events, and ...

in Liverpool.

References

External links

*
David Aliu Column on BBL Fans

Úrvalsdeild statistics
at Icelandic Basketball Association
College statistics
at

Sports Reference Sports Reference, LLC, is an American company which operates several sports-related websites, including Sports-Reference.com, Baseball-Reference.com for baseball, Basketball-Reference.com for basketball, Hockey-Reference.com for ice hockey, Pro- ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aliu, David 1981 births Living people Cheshire Phoenix players English men's basketball players Hamar men's basketball players Leicester Riders players Manchester Giants players Mersey Tigers players Minnesota State–Moorhead Dragons men's basketball players Power forwards (basketball) Sportspeople from Liverpool Ungmennafélagið Tindastóll men's basketball players Úrvalsdeild karla (basketball) players Þór Þorlákshöfn (basketball club) players British expatriate basketball people in the United States British expatriate basketball people in Iceland Black British sportsmen British expatriate basketball people in Spain British expatriate basketball people in Switzerland English expatriate sportspeople in the United States English expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland English expatriate sportspeople in Spain English expatriate sportspeople in Iceland