David Blu

David Blu
Player information
birthday	July 18, 1980
place of birth	Los Angeles (CA), USA
size	201 cm
position	Small forward / power forward
college	Southern California
Clubs as active
1998–2002 USC Trojans ( NCAA ) 2002–2004 Maccabi Tel Aviv 2004 Dynamo St. Petersburg 2005 Benetton Treviso 2005–2006 VidiVici Bologna 2006–2007 Climamio Bologna 2007–2008 Maccabi Tel Aviv 2008–2009 Le Mans Sarthe Basket 2009–2012 Maccabi Tel Aviv 2013–2014 Maccabi Tel Aviv 00000 00000
National team
000002011	Israel

David Blu ( Hebrew דוד בלו; * July 18, 1980 as David Bluthenthal in Los Angeles , California ) is an American - Israeli former basketball player . After studying in his native country, Blu became a professional in Europe and played there in addition to stations in Russia , Italy and France , especially for Maccabi Tel Aviv in Israel . In addition to national championships with Maccabi and numerous titles in national cup competitions, Blu won the ULEB Euroleague 2003/04 and the ABA League 2011/12 with Maccabi . After a year's break Blu won with Maccabi in 2014 next to the National Double again ULEB Euro League 2013/14 and ten-year break for the second time a Triple Crown .

Career

Blu was born to a Jewish mother, last name Bluthenthal, and an Afro-American father who later converted to Judaism. After Blu lost his mother at the age of 14 after her cancer , it was also his father who sent him to the 1997 Maccabiade as a student . After graduating from school, Blu went to study at the University of Southern California , where Blus, an ancestor of German origin, Isaias Hellman, had made a significant contribution to founding the university in 1880. There he played from 1998 on for the university team Trojans in the Pacific-10 Conference (Pac-10) of the NCAA Division I. With the Trojans, Blu reached the national NCAA finals twice , in which one with Brian Scalabrine 2001 to the quarter-finals Elite Eight moved in. This was the furthest advance of the Trojans since the Final Four participation in 1954. In the "Regional Final" they lost to the top seeded team Blue Devils of Duke University , which later also won the title. A year later, in 2002, they surprisingly lost to the Seahawks of UNC Wilmington in the first round after extra time . This also ended Blu's NCAA career after four years; he was then not selected in the NBA Draft 2002 of the highest endowed professional league National Basketball Association .

After completing his studies, Blu began a professional career in Europe in 2002 and moved to Israel, as he was able to obtain citizenship there without any problems because of his Jewish descent and was not exposed to any restrictions as a foreigner. With the Israeli record champions Maccabi from Tel Aviv , he was able to defend twice the national double from the championship and cup win in 2003 and 2004, as expected . After failing in the intermediate round of the ULEB Euroleague 2002/03 at Benetton Treviso, in 2004 they won the title for the first time in the recent history of the highest European club competition. Blu was instrumental in the 118: 74 final success over Fortitudo Skipper Bologna with individually 20 points.

After Blu had then played in the pre-season for the NBA club Sacramento Kings , but there was no contract for the regular season, he moved to the 2004/05 season to the Russian club BK Dynamo, relocated to Saint Petersburg , of Maccabi's former assistant David Sheet has been trained. Here, however, in December 2004 he sought the early end of his contract and in January 2005 he moved to the Italian Lega Basket Serie A for Benetton from Treviso . With this club he won the Italian cup competition, but failed in the quarter-final play-offs of the ULEB Euroleague 2004/05 at the later finalist TAU Cerámica . As the main round first one was eliminated in five games of the semi-final series of the Italian championship play-offs against the Italian record champions Armani Jeans Milan . For the 2005/06 season, Blu moved to the league competitor and first division returnee VidiVici from Bologna , who, however, narrowly missed entry into the Italian championship play-offs in ninth place. In the following season 2006/07 Blu was among other things together with the German national player Steffen Hamann then active for the local rival and runner-up Fortitudo Climamio. However, the team was eliminated in the preliminary round of the ULEB Euroleague 2006/07 and clearly missed the 13th place in the play-offs of the national championship, instead the club was only separated by a victory from a relegation zone.

For the 2007/08 season, Blu returned to Maccabi in Tel Aviv. At the beginning of the season you could still win the league cup, in which Blu was named Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the competition. While in the ULEB Euroleague 2007/08 they made it to the final, which was lost to PBK CSKA Moscow , they surprisingly lost the Israeli cup final against Hapoel Jerusalem and the championship final against Hapoel Holon , in which the later Bundesliga and NBA professional PJ Tucker stood out. It was the first time since 1993 that one could not win a title in one of the two national competitions. In the 2008/09 season Blu was then active for MSB from Le Mans in the French LNB Pro A , which after being eliminated in the preliminary round of the ULEB Euroleague 2008/09, the French league cup "Semaine des As", in which Blu was again MVP , and won the French Cup competition. In the play-off semi-final series of the French championship, however, they were eliminated against Entente Orléans , which could thus partially reciprocate for the final defeat in the league cup.

For the 2009/10 season, Blu returned again to Maccabi Tel Aviv. In the quarter-final play-offs of the ULEB Euroleague 2009/10 they surprisingly lost to KK Partizan Belgrade . After winning the national cup competition, they failed again to defend their title in the national championship in the final against Hapoel Gilboa Galil . While Blu stayed with Maccabi this time, coach Pini Gershon , who had won the Euroleague twice with Maccabi in 2004 and 2005, resigned from his position and was replaced by his former assistant David Blatt. Under leaf they won the national double twice in a row, but in the Euroleague they failed twice in a row at Panathinaikos Athens . After the final defeat in the ULEB Euroleague 2010/11 , they lost in the ULEB Euroleague 2011/12 already in the quarter-final play-offs against the defending champion. As a visiting team in the Adriatic ABA League , however, you could win this competition in the 2011/12 season. At the 2011 European Championship finals , Blu was also represented in a final squad of the Israeli national team for the first time, but after three initial defeats against Germany, among others, they still missed the intermediate round despite two subsequent wins and finished in 13th place. After Blu had already filed his old family name Bluthenthal, which was unusual for an African-American Jew, in 2010 and shortened it to Blu in order to spare his children the ridicule he had personally suffered in his childhood, Blu ended his career in 2012 in favor of his children in order to return to California. After a season break, however, he changed his mind and was persuaded by coach Blatt to return. After defending the title in the national cup competition, they moved somewhat surprisingly into the Final Four tournament of the ULEB Euroleague 2013/14 . Here they beat the favored CSKA Moscow in the semifinals with one point difference and the high favorites Real Madrid after extra time with 98:86 in the final. After winning the championship back in the final of the national championship against defending champion Maccabi Haifa at the end of the season , Blu won a triple crown with Maccabi for the second time with a ten-year break . After the success, Blatt moved to the NBA as head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Blu ended his professional career for good.

Web links

Commons : David Blu  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• BLU, David - Player profile on the website of the ULEB ( English )
• David Blu - Overview of participation in international FIBA tournaments on archive.fiba.com (English)
• Legabasket: David Bluthenthal - player profile on the websites of the Serie A ( Italian )
• David Bluthenthal Bio - Profile on the sports websites of the USC (English)
• David Bluthenthal Stats - USC Trojans - NCAA stats on statsheet.com

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} David Caspi: LA return is true Blu. (No longer available online.) JewishJournal.com, August 14, 2013, archived from the original on June 13, 2014 ; accessed on May 18, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ USC 80, Kentucky 76. CNNSI.com, March 23, 2001, archived from the original March 11, 2005 ; accessed on May 18, 2014 (English, detailed match report). 
3. ↑ Maccabi Elite vs. Skipper Bologna. ULEB , May 1, 2004, accessed on May 18, 2014 (English, match report). 
4. ↑ Russia: Bluthenthal Joins Benetton. FIBA Europe , January 29, 2005, accessed May 18, 2014 . 
5. ^ Amy Samin: Take a Number: Maccabi Players Get Their New Jersey Numbers. Maccabi Tel Aviv , September 19, 2010, accessed on May 18, 2014 (English, media information). 
6. ^ Amy Samin: It's Official: David Blu Signs with Maccabi Electra. Maccabi Tel Aviv , October 15, 2013, accessed on May 18, 2014 (English, media information). 
7. ^ Igor Petrinović: Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv is the new king of Europe! ULEB , May 18, 2014, accessed June 12, 2014 (English, match report).