Steve Kaplan | |
Height Ft: | 6 |
Height In: | 6 |
League: | Israel Basketball Premier League |
Nationality: | American / Israeli |
High School: | Collingswood (Collingswood, New Jersey) |
College: | Rutgers (1969–1972) |
Draft Year: | 1972 |
Career Position: | Small forward |
Years1: | ?–? |
Team1: | Hapoel Ramat Gan |
Highlights: | As player:
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Steven Mark Kaplan (סטיב קפלן) is an American-Israeli former basketball player and coach. Kaplan played 14 seasons in the Israel Basketball Premier League.[1] He played the forward position.[2] He is 8th all-time in career points in the league.
Kaplan is Jewish, and has dual American-Israeli citizenship.[3] [1] He grew up in Collingswood, New Jersey[4] and played prep basketball at Collingswood High School.[5] He is 6' 6" (198 cm) tall.[2] He served in the Israel Defense Forces, moved to Ramat Gan, Israel, and is married to Israeli-born Irit Kaplan.[6] [4] [7] [8] His son Tom Kaplan played for the Israel 17-under national basketball team, and attended Monmouth University.[8]
Kaplan played basketball for Team USA in the 1969 Maccabiah Games winning a silver medal alongside Ronald Green, Jack Langer, and Neal Walk, and for Team Israel in the 1977 Maccabiah Games.[9] [10]
He attended Rutgers University-New Brunswick ('72).[1] Kaplan was captain of the Rutgers basketball team in his senior year.[1] In his Rutgers career, he averaged 16.4 points and 7.6 rebounds per game, with a 48.2 field goal percentage and an 88.8 free throw percentage (the second-highest in school history).[2] [11] His .927 free throw percentage in 1989–90 is the highest in Rutgers history.[11]
Kaplan played 14 seasons of professional basketball in Israel with Hapoel Ramat Gan, in the Israel Basketball Premier League.[4] [12] He is 8th all-time in career points in the league, with 5,913.[12]
He also played on the Israeli national basketball team, and competed in EuroBasket 1979, in which the Israeli national team won the silver medal, its greatest achievement of all time.[13]
After his basketball career, Kaplan became the director of logistics for a chemical company.[4]