Omar Hassan Samhan (born November 3, 1988) is an American-Egyptian professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

player for Plateros Fresnillo of the Mexican LNBP. He played

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

for

Saint Mary's College of California Saint Mary's College of California is a private Catholic college in Moraga, California. Established in 1863, it is affiliated with the Catholic Church and administered by the De La Salle Brothers. The college offers undergraduate and graduate pr ...

where he was an honorable mention All-American in

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

. In 2011, Samhan joined the

Egypt national basketball team The Egyptian national basketball team is organized and run by the Egyptian Basketball Federation ( ar, الاتحاد المصري لكرة السلة). Winning the title of the EuroBasket 1949 is its most celebrated achievement. In addition ...

Career

College

In his freshman season with the

Saint Mary's Gaels men's basketball The Saint Mary's Gaels men's basketball team represents Saint Mary's College in Moraga, California, competing in the West Coast Conference of the NCAA. The team plays home games in the University Credit Union Pavilion, capacity 3,500; it is one o ...

, Samhan was named to the West Coast Conference All-Freshmen team and was a Freshman All-American selection by ''CollegeInsider.com''. He played in all 32 games including seven starts and was the team's third highest scorer and second highest rebounder, averaged 9.2 points and 5.6 rebounds per game. In his sophomore season, Samhan earned honorable mention All-WCC honors after starting every game and scoring in double figures 18 times. He finished third on the team in scoring (10.5 ppg) and second in rebounds (7.3 rpg). In his junior season, Samhan earned first-team All-WCC honors after finishing 10th in the conference in scoring and third in rebounds and was second on the team in scoring (14.1 ppg) and rebounds (9.4 rpg). He also ranked 29th in the country in rebounds per game and 40th in the nation with 2.0 blocks per game. In his senior season, Samhan scored 61 points in two NCAA tournament victories, including 32 points in a win over Villanova. He earned first-team All-WCC honors for the second straight year and was named the WCC Defensive Player of the Year. He also earned

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. n ...

honorable mention All-American honors after leading the WCC during the regular season in scoring (21.5 ppg), rebounds (11.1 rpg) and blocks (2.9 bpg).

Professional career

After going undrafted in the

2010 NBA draft The 2010 NBA draft was held on June 24, 2010, at the Theatre at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The draft, which started at 7:00 pm Eastern Daylight Time (2300 UTC), was broadcast in the United States on ESPN. In this draft, Nationa ...

, Samhan joined the

Dallas Mavericks The Dallas Mavericks (often referred to as the Mavs) are an American professional basketball team based in Dallas. The Mavericks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Western Conference Southwest Division. The ...

for the 2010

NBA Summer League The NBA Summer League, also known as the Las Vegas Summer League, is an off-season competition organized by the National Basketball Association. NBA teams come together to try out different summer rosters instead of their regular season line-ups ...

. On July 16, 2010, he signed a two-year deal (with the option of a third) with Žalgiris of the

Lithuanian Basketball League Lithuanian may refer to: * Lithuanians * Lithuanian language * The country of Lithuania * Grand Duchy of Lithuania * Culture of Lithuania * Lithuanian cuisine * Lithuanian Jews as often called "Lithuanians" (''Lita'im'' or ''Litvaks'') by other Je ...

. He left Žalgiris after just one season. On December 13, 2011, Samhan signed with the

Houston Rockets The Houston Rockets are an American professional basketball team based in Houston. The Rockets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member team of the league's Western Conference (NBA), Western Conference Southwest Divisio ...

. In February 2012, Samhan signed with the

Talk 'N Text Tropang Texters The TNT Tropang Giga is a professional basketball team currently owned by Smart Communications, a subsidiary of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT), playing in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) since 1990. The fra ...

of the

Philippine Basketball Association The Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) is a men's professional basketball league in the Philippines composed of twelve company-branded franchised teams. Founded in 1975, it is the first professional basketball league in Asia and is the se ...

. In February 2013, Samhan signed with

ratiopharm Ulm Ratiopharm Ulm, officially stylized as ratiopharm Ulm, is a professional basketball club based in Ulm, Germany. The club has two teams, one professional team, which plays in the Basketball Bundesliga, the major German professional league and one ...

of Germany for the rest of the 2012–13 season. I In the summer of 2013, Samhan signed with the

Alexandria Sporting Club Alexandria Sporting Club, also commonly known as Sporting Alexandria and Sporting between the locals, is an Egyptian sports club based in Alexandria, Egypt. Founded in 1890, the club is one of the oldest clubs in Egypt and Africa. The club was tak ...

for the 2013–14 Egyptian Basketball Premier League season. On July 20, 2014, Samhan signed with King Wilki Morskie of Poland for the 2014–15 season. However, On November 3, 2014, Samhan was acquired by the

Texas Legends The Texas Legends are an American professional basketball team in the NBA G League based in Frisco, Texas, and are affiliated with the Dallas Mavericks. The Legends play their home games at the Comerica Center. The team began as the Colorado 1 ...

of the

NBA Development League The NBA G League, or simply the G League, is the National Basketball Association's (NBA) official List of developmental and minor sports leagues, minor league basketball organization. The league was known as the National Basketball Development ...

. On March 13, 2015, he was waived by the Legends after appearing in 18 games.NBA D-League 2014-15 Transactions
/ref> On April 4, he was acquired by the

Los Angeles D-Fenders LOS, or Los, or LoS may refer to: Science and technology * Length of stay, the duration of a single episode of hospitalisation * Level of service, a measure used by traffic engineers * Level of significance, a measure of statistical significanc ...

, closing out the season with the team. On December 9, 2015, Samham signed with the

Townsville Crocodiles The Townsville Crocodiles were an Australian professional men's basketball team based in the North Queensland city of Townsville. They competed in the National Basketball League (NBL) and played their home games at the Townsville Entertainme ...

for the rest of the

2015–16 NBL season The 2015–16 NBL season was the 38th season of competition since its establishment in 1979. A total of eight teams contested the league. The regular season was played between 7 October 2015 and 14 February 2016, followed by a post-season featuri ...

. He made his debut for the Crocodiles the following day, recording 10 points and 6 rebounds off the bench in a 101–100 win over the

Adelaide 36ers The Adelaide 36ers, also known as the Sixers, are an Australian professional men's basketball team in the National Basketball League (NBL). The 36ers are the only team in the league representing the state of South Australia and are based in th ...

. In 12 games for the Crocodiles, he averaged 13.4 points, 8.9 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.1 blocks per game. Following the conclusion of the NBL season, he snubbed both the NW Tasmania Thunder and

Taranaki Mountainairs The Taranaki Airs are a New Zealand basketball team based in New Plymouth. The Airs compete in the National Basketball League (NBL) and play their home games at TSB Stadium. For sponsorship reasons, they are known as the Steelformers Airs. T ...

to sign in Puerto Rico with Atléticos de San Germán for the 2016 BSN season. On September 15, 2016, Samhan snubbed Trabzonspor Medical Park to sign in Belgium with

Leuven Bears Leuven Bears, for sponsorship reasons also called Stella Artois Leuven Bears, is a Belgian professional basketball club from Leuven. The club competes in the BNXT League, the highest tier in Belgian basketball. History The team has played in the ...

of Scooore League for 2016-2017 season . In March 2017, he parted ways with

Leuven Leuven (, ) or Louvain (, , ; german: link=no, Löwen ) is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. Th ...

. On April 2, 2017, Samhan signed with other Puerto rican side Santeros de Aguada. On July 23, 2017, he signed with the Japanese team

Shiga Lakestars Shiga Lakes (滋賀レイクス) is a Japanese men's basketball team playing in the Western Conference of the B.League. They are based in the Shiga Prefecture. Coaches * Bob Pierce (2008–10) * Takatoshi Ishibashi * Hirokazu Nema * Al Westov ...

. On April 22, 2018, he returned for the third time to Puerto Rico to sign with

Cariduros de Fajardo Cariduros de Fajardo is a professional basketball team of the Baloncesto Superior Nacional founded in 1973. Based in Fajardo, Puerto Rico, the team plays at the Tomás Dones Coliseum. History The team was founded in 1973 and participated in th ...

. On February 7, 2019, he signed with the Mexican team

Mineros de Zacatecas Club Deportivo Mineros de Zacatecas is a Mexican football club from Zacatecas that compete in the Mexican Liga de Expansión MX. They are currently managed by Omar Alexis Moreno. History In December 2012, Grupo Pachuca purchased the Estudia ...

. On August 24, 2019, he signed with the new Mexican team Plateros Fresnillo .

The Basketball Tournament

Omar Samhan played for Team Gael Force in the

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edition of

The Basketball Tournament The Basketball Tournament (TBT) is an open-application, single-elimination tournament played each summer in the United States. The 2022 edition features 64 teams with a $1 million winner-take-all prize, broadcast by ESPN. TBT was founded in 201 ...

. In three games, he averaged a team-high 17.7 points per game, 4.7 rebounds per game and 3.7 assists per game. Team Gael Force made it to the Super 16 before falling to eventual tournament runner-up,

Eberlein Drive Eberlein Drive is an American basketball team that participates in The Basketball Tournament (TBT), an annual winner-take-all single-elimination tournament. The team has participated in the tournament since its 2014 inaugural playing. The roster ...

. He also played for the same team in the

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

edition of the Tournament. In one game, he made the double-double as he scored 12 points, 10 rebounds and 1 steal. Team Gael Force fell to Jackson TN.

Personal life

Samhan, of Egyptian and Irish descent, is the son of Marianne and Hassan Samhan and is the youngest of four children. He has an older sister, Katie, and older brothers, Sadek and Jon. Samhan is Muslim.

References

External links

Eurobasket.com profileSaint Mary's bioSamhan wants Crocs to repay coach DennisSamhan's the man
{{DEFAULTSORT:Samhan, Omar 1988 births Living people American expatriate basketball people in Australia American expatriate basketball people in Belgium American expatriate basketball people in Germany American expatriate basketball people in Japan American expatriate basketball people in Lithuania American expatriate basketball people in Mexico American expatriate basketball people in the Philippines American men's basketball players American people of Egyptian descent Atléticos de San Germán players Basketball players from San Francisco BC Žalgiris players Centers (basketball) Egyptian men's basketball players Leuven Bears players Mineros de Zacatecas (basketball) players Philippine Basketball Association imports Plateros de Fresnillo players Ratiopharm Ulm players Saint Mary's Gaels men's basketball players Santeros de Aguada basketball players Shiga Lakes players Texas Legends players TNT Tropang Giga players Townsville Crocodiles players