Sam Iorio (; born August 31, 1998) is an American-Israeli professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

player. He currently plays forward for

Hapoel Be'er Sheva Hapoel Be'er Sheva Football Club (, ''Moadon HaKaduregel Hapoel Be'er Sheva'') is an Israeli professional association football, football club from the city of Beersheba, Be'er Sheva, that competes in the Israeli Premier League. The club was estab ...

of the

Israeli Basketball Premier League Ligat HaAl (, lit., ''Supreme League or Premier League''), or the Israeli Basketball Premier League, is a professional basketball league in Israel and the highest level of basketball in the country. The league's name is abbreviated as either BSL ...

."Sam Iorio,"
''EuroBasket''. At Parkland High School in

Allentown, Pennsylvania Allentown (Pennsylvania Dutch language, Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Allenschteddel'', ''Allenschtadt'', or ''Ellsdaun'') is a city in eastern Pennsylvania, United States. The county seat of Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, Lehigh County, it is the List o ...

, where he graduated in 2017, he was the school's all-time leading career scorer. In college, he played for

American University The American University (AU or American) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Its main campus spans 90-acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, in the Spri ...

for two seasons, for the

University of South Alabama The University of South Alabama (USA) is a public research university in Mobile, Alabama, United States. It was created by the Alabama Legislature in May 1963 and replaced existing extension programs operated in Mobile by the University of Alaba ...

for one season, and for

Niagara University Niagara University (NU) is a private Catholic university in the Vincentian tradition in the census-designated place Niagara University, New York, in the town of Lewiston near Niagara Falls. It is run by the Congregation of the Mission and ...

for two seasons. He won a

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have b ...

with

Team USA The United States national team or Team USA may refer to any of a number of sports team representing the United States in international competitions. Olympic teams Additionally, these teams may compete in other international competitions such as ...

at the

2022 Maccabiah Games The 2022 Maccabiah Games () took place in Israel from July 14–25, 2022, and are also referred to as the 21st Maccabiah Games (). The Maccabiah Games are open to Jewish athletes from around the world, and to all Israeli citizens regardless of ...

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

. In 2023, he signed a three-year contract with Hapoel Be'er Sheva.

Early life and education

Iorio was born in

, on August 31, 1998. His parents are Mike, a former basketball player at

Philadelphia University Thomas Jefferson University is a private research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Established in its earliest form in 1824, the university officially combined with Philadelphia University in 2017. The university is ...

, and Donna Iorio. His grandfather is former

Villanova University Villanova University is a Private university, private Catholic Church, Catholic research university in Villanova, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded by the Order of Saint Augustine in 1842 and named after Thomas of Villanova, Saint Thom ...

basketball player Sam Iorio."Sam Iorio,"
USA Jaguars. At seven years of age, with his mother making the decision for him, he converted from

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

Judaism Judaism () is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic, Monotheism, monotheistic, ethnic religion that comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jews, Jewish people. Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of o ...

.Dylan Manfre (August 2022)
"Sam Iorio Gets in Touch With Jewish Faith While Winning Gold at 21st Maccabiah,"
Maccabi USA. He had a ''

bar mitzvah A ''bar mitzvah'' () or ''bat mitzvah'' () is a coming of age ritual in Judaism. According to Halakha, Jewish law, before children reach a certain age, the parents are responsible for their child's actions. Once Jewish children reach that age ...

'', and a tattoo on his left wrist that with the inscription “'' Baruch Hashem'',” which translates from

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

to "Blessed Is The Name", his mother's favorite saying. In 2022, he said, "If you would’ve told me when I was seven years old, where converting to Judaism would take me, I would have never believed you. It’s just been one of the biggest blessings of my life, and I owe my mom a lot of credit for having the faith and courage to do that." American-born, he also obtained dual Israeli citizenship. Iorio attended for Parkland High School in Allentown, playing guard and forward for its Trojans basketball team. He graduated in 2017 as the school's all-time leading career scorer with 1,892 points as he averaged 16.5 points and 6.5 rebounds per game."Sam Iorio,"
American University Eagles. He was named Class 6A Player of the Year and First Team All-Pennsylvania, and was named Player of the Year in both 2015 and 2016 by ''

The Morning Call ''The Morning Call'' is a daily newspaper in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1883, it is the second-longest continuously published newspaper in the Lehigh Valley, after '' The Express-Times''. The newspaper is owned by Alden Global Capital ...

''. He is tall, and weighs .

College

Iorio attended three different colleges in seven years, playing parts of six different college seasons, and scoring 1,459 career points.Nick Sabato (November 13, 2023)
"Ex-Niagara forward Sam Iorio processing past, future as pro career in Israel is halted by war,"
''Niagra Gazette''.

American University

Iorio attended

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, where he played for the American Eagles men's basketball team for two seasons."Sam Iorio,"
Purple Eagles.Anthony Dabbundo (September 20, 2016)
"American nabs Parkland wing Sam Iorio,"
City of Basketball. In 2017–18 in his freshman year, Iorio averaged 14.9 points (8th in the

Patriot League The Patriot League is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference comprising primarily leading Private university, private institutions of higher education and two United States service academies based in the Northeastern United ...

), 6.5 rebounds (5th), 0.9 blocks (5th), and 1.4 steals (9th) per game, as he shot 47.7% from the floor (7th) and 43.7% from three point range. He was named to the Patriot League All-Rookie Team. In 2018–19 in his sophomore year, he started 27 games and averaged 13.3 points, 6.5 rebounds (5th in the Patriot League), and 0.9 blocks (8th) per game, as Iorio shot 80.3% from the free throw line."Sam Iorio,"
sports-reference.com.

South Alabama

Iorio transferred to the

Mobile, Alabama Mobile ( , ) is a city and the county seat of Mobile County, Alabama, United States. The population was 187,041 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. After a successful vote to annex areas west of the city limits in July 2023, Mobil ...

, where he played for the South Alabama Jaguars basketball team in the

Sun Belt Conference The Sun Belt Conference (SBC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference that has been affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA's NCAA Division I, Division I since 1976. Originally a non-football confe ...

from 2019 to 2021. He did not play in 2019–20, sitting out his first year at the school to comply with

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

transfer rules. In 2020–21, he played in 25 games (11 starts) and averaged 7.6 points and 3.8 rebounds per game, as Iorio shot 80.6% from the free throw line.

Niagara University

From 2021 to 2023, Iorio started 55 of 60 games playing for

's Purple Eagles basketball team in

Lewiston, New York Lewiston is a Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in Niagara County, New York, Niagara County, New York (state), New York, United States. The population was 15,944 at the 2020 census. The town and its contained village are named aft ...

, which competes in the

Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC, ) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I. Its current 13 full members are located in five Northeastern states: Connecticut, Maryland, Massachuse ...

. He started immediately for the team as a graduate transfer as he studied for his

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular a ...

.Noah Friedman (June 30, 2022)
"Maccabi USA Men’s Open Basketball Team To Embark on Variety of Journeys,"
Maccabi USA. In 2021–22, as a graduate student at Niagara University, he played in 30 games (25 starts), and averaged 8.4 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 0.8 blocks (7th in the conference) per game. In 2022–23, Iorio played in 30 games (25 starts), and averaged 8.0 points and 5.5 rebounds per game. He graduated from Niagara University in 2023.

Maccabiah Games

In 2019, Iorio played for Team USA in the 2019 European Maccabi Games in

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

, Hungary, and the team won the

, defeating Team Russia in the final.Keith Groller (July 21, 2023)
"Former Parkland star signs pro basketball contract in Israel,"
''The Morning Call''. Three years later, Iorio won a gold medal as part of Team USA's men's basketball team at the

in Israel, defeating Team France in the final. His head coach was Doug Gottlieb. He played in all six games during the tournament and averaged 5.5 points and 3.8 rebounds per game.

Professional career

Hapoel Be'er Sheva

In July 2023 Iorio signed a three-year contract with, and he now plays forward for,

of the

.Keith Groller (December 20, 2023)
"Sam Iorio was set to begin a pro career in Israel when war struck on October 7,"
''The Morning Call''. His jersey is number 22."Sam Iorio,"
''365 Scores''.

Career Statistics

College

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2017–18 , style="text-align:left;",

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

, 28 , , 28 , , 33.4 , , .477 , , .437 , , .791 , , 6.5 , , 1.3 , , 1.4 , , .9 , , 14.9 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2018–19 , style="text-align:left;",

, 27 , , 27 , , 37.3 , , .421 , , .348 , , .821 , , 6.5 , , 2.0 , , 1.0 , , .9 , , 13.3 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2019–20 , style="text-align:left;", South Alabama , style="text-align:center;" colspan="11", Transfer , - , style="text-align:left;",

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

, style="text-align:left;", South Alabama , 25 , , 11 , , 23.4 , , .412 , , .329 , , .806 , , 3.8 , , 1.0 , , .6 , , .6 , , 7.6 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2021–22 , style="text-align:left;", Niagara , 30 , , 25 , , 25.2 , , .407 , , .270 , , .684 , , 6.1 , , 1.0 , , .8 , , .8 , , 8.4 , - , style="text-align:left;",

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

, style="text-align:left;", Niagara , 30 , , 30 , , 26.5 , , .476 , , .360 , , .770 , , 5.5 , , 1.3 , , .7 , , .6 , , 8.0 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 140 , , 121 , , 29.1 , , .440 , , .357 , , .773 , , 5.7 , , 1.3 , , .9 , , .8 , , 10.4

References

External links

Sam Iorio
at

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

Sam Iorio
at

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

"Sam Iorio Niagara Forward Senior Season Highlight 6’7 Dual Passport Holder,"
One Motive Sports, 2021 video'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Iorio, Sam 1998 births Living people 21st-century American Jews 21st-century Israeli sportsmen American Eagles men's basketball players American expatriate basketball people in Israel American men's basketball players Basketball players from Pennsylvania Competitors at the 2022 Maccabiah Games Converts to Judaism from Christianity Hapoel Be'er Sheva B.C. players Forwards (basketball) Israeli men's basketball players Israeli people of American-Jewish descent Jews from Pennsylvania Maccabiah Games basketball players for the United States Maccabiah Games gold medalists for the United States Maccabiah Games medalists in basketball Niagara Purple Eagles men's basketball players Parkland High School (Pennsylvania) alumni South Alabama Jaguars men's basketball players Sportspeople from Allentown, Pennsylvania