Yiftach Ziv (; born July 9, 1995) is an 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 for

Hapoel Holon Hapoel Holon Basketball Club (), is a professional basketball club based in Holon, Israel. The team plays in the Israeli Basketball Premier League (the top tier of Israeli basketball), and internationally in the Basketball Champions League. The ...

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 ...

. Standing at , he plays at the

point guard The point guard (PG), also called the one or the point, is one of the Basketball positions, five positions in a regulation basketball game. A point guard has perhaps the most specialized role of any position and is usually the shortest player ...

position.

Early life

Ziv was born in

Haifa Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...

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 ...

, and began playing basketball for the youth team of Maccabi Haifa. In his last season with Haifa's youth team, Ziv averaged 20 points, 8 assists, 8 rebounds, and 4 steals per game. Ziv led Haifa to the Youth League Semifinals and was named the Youth League MVP.

Professional career

Early career (2013–2015)

On September 10, 2013, Ziv started his professional career with Ironi Kiryat Ata, signing a two-year contract. Ziv played 9 games with the team, but didn't fit in with the

Liga Leumit The Israeli Liga Leumit (, HaLiga HaLeumit, ) is the second division of the professional Israeli association football (soccer) league system. This second-tier league is placed directly below the Israeli Premier League. Structure There are 16 ...

team and was released by request. Few days following his release, Ziv signed with another

club, Hapoel Kiryat Tiv'on, where he completed 2013-14 season with 5.6 points, 2.7 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.4 steals per game. On September 9, 2014, Ziv returned to his former club Maccabi Haifa and signed a one-year contract. Ziv didn't get a lot of chances and played only 3.3 minutes per game. In January 2015, Ziv was loaned to Elitzur Ramle in order to gain additional experience. In his debut, Ziv recorded 15 points, took 5 rebounds and gave 5 assists in 32 minutes. He finished the season in Elitzur Ramle averaging 10.6 points, 1.0 rebounds and 0.7 assists per game.

Bnei Herzliya (2015–2016)

On December 22, 2015, Ziv parted ways with Maccabi Haifa and joined

Bnei Herzliya Bnei Herzliya Basket (, lit. ''Sons of Herzliya''), is a professional basketball club that is based in Herzliya, in central Israel. The club plays in the Israeli Basketball Premier League, the top division of Israeli basketball. History The club w ...

for the rest of the season. On April 16, 2016, Ziv recorded a then career-high 17 points, along with five assists and five steals in an 88–79 win over his former team Maccabi Haifa. He was subsequently named Israeli League Round 28 MVP. Ziv helped Herzliya to reach the 2016 Israeli League Playoffs as the seventh seed, but they eventually lost to

Maccabi Tel Aviv Maccabi Tel Aviv () is one of the largest sports clubs in Israel, and a part of the Maccabi association. Many sports clubs and teams in Tel Aviv are in association with Maccabi and compete in a variety of sports, such as football, basketball, j ...

in the Quarterfinals.

Maccabi Ashdod (2016–2017)

On July 5, 2016, Ziv signed a one-year deal with Maccabi Ashdod under head coach Meir Tapiro. On October 17, 2016, Ziv recorded a career-high 23 points, shooting 5-of-7 from 3-point range, along with three assists and four steals in a 77–75 win over

Hapoel Gilboa Galil Hapoel Gilboa Galil () is a professional basketball club that is based in north-east Israel. The club plays its home game in the Israeli Basketball Premier League (the top tier of Israeli basketball) in a 2,250-seat arena in Gan Ner. History T ...

. Ziv made a breakthrough season with Ashdod averaging 7.9 points, 3.5 rebounds and 3.9 assists in 24.9 minutes per game.

Ironi Nahariya (2017–2019)

On July 21, 2017, Ziv signed on a one-year contract with

Ironi Nahariya Ironi Nahariya Basketball Club () known for sponsorship reasons as Ironi Rain Nahariya () is a professional basketball club based in city of Nahariya in northern Israel. The team plays in the Liga Leumit (the second tier of Israeli basketball) and ...

as a replacement for Niv Berkowitz. On March 2, 2018, Ziv participated in the Israeli League All-Star Game. On March 25, 2018, Ziv tied his career-high 23 points, shooting 8-of-14 from the field, along with five rebounds, three assists and three steals in an 86–95 loss to

. On July 9, 2018, Ziv signed a one-year contract extension with Nahariya. In 33 games played during the 2018–19 season, he averaged 10.7 points, 4.4 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 1.6 steals per game.

Hapoel Gilboa Galil (2019–2021)

On August 14, 2019, Ziv signed with

for the 2019–20 season. In 2020-21 he was third in the Israel Basketball Premier League in steals per game (2.0).

Maccabi Tel Aviv (2021–2023)

On July 4, 2021, Ziv signed a three-year (2+1) deal with

Granada (2023)

On July 11, 2023, Ziv moved to Spanish club Fundación CB Granada, his first team outside of Israel.

Saint Quentin (2023–2024)

On December 26, 2023, he signed with Saint-Quentin Basket-Ball of the

LNB Pro A LNB may refer to: Sport * Liga Nacional de Baloncesto, a professional basketball league in the Dominican Republic * Liga Nacional de Básquetbol, an Argentine basketball league * Liga Nacional de Básquetbol (Paraguay), Liga Nacional de Básquetb ...

Saint Quentin (2024–present)

During summer of 2024, he signed with

of the

National team career

Ziv is a member of the

Israel national basketball team The Israel men's national basketball team () represents Israel in international basketball tournaments. They are administered by the Israeli Basketball Association. Israel is currently ranked 39th in the FIBA Men's World Ranking, FIBA World Ran ...

. On September 13, 2018, he made his first appearance for the Israeli team in an 80–85 loss against

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

. Ziv was also a member of the Israeli Under-18 and Under-20 national teams and participated at the

2017 Summer Universiade The 2017 Summer Universiade (), officially known as the XXIX Summer Universiade ( zh, t=第二十九屆夏季世界大學運動會, p=Dì èrshíjiǔ jiè xiàjì shìjiè dàxué yùndònghuì) and commonly called Taipei 2017 ( zh, t=台北201 ...

References

External links

RealGM.com profile

Basket.co.il profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ziv, Yiftach 1995 births Living people Bnei Herzliya basketball players Fundación CB Granada players Hapoel Gilboa Galil players Ironi Kiryat Ata players Ironi Nahariya players Israeli Basketball Premier League players Israeli expatriate basketball people in Spain Israeli men's basketball players Maccabi Ashdod B.C. players Maccabi Haifa B.C. players Maccabi Tel Aviv B.C. players Point guards Saint-Quentin Basket-Ball players Sportspeople from Haifa 21st-century Israeli sportsmen