Dan Grunfeld

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Dan Grunfeld
Personal information
Born (1984-02-07) February 7, 1984 (age 40)
Bnei Herzliya
Career highlights and awards
  • First-team
    All-Pac-10
    (2005)
Medals
Representing  United States
Basketball
Maccabiah Games
Gold medal – first place 2009 Maccabiah Basketball

Daniel Leslie Grunfeld (

Hapoel Holon
, but left the team due to its financial problems, and signed a two-year contract with Hapoel Jerusalem starting at the beginning of November 2011.

He is the son of former

Bnei Hasharon
.

Early life

Grunfeld is Jewish.[2][3] His grandmother is a Holocaust survivor whose life was saved twice by Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg―once as a beneficiary of the false citizenship documents that Wallenberg issued to Jews in Hungary, and later when he convinced Nazi guards not to gun down the 80,000 Jews left in the Budapest Ghetto at the end of World War II.

"My grandma was hiding in a burnt-out building, crammed into a small attic space with her fellow prisoners. She was 17. Her parents and five of her siblings never came home," he writes.[1]

Basketball career

High school

Grunfeld grew up in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, while his father was the GM of the New York Knicks. Due to this, Grunfeld grew up a die-hard Knicks fan, but was just an average player on his middle school team during the late 1990s. When his father became the Milwaukee Bucks GM, Grunfeld moved to Wisconsin. It was there that he developed his game and shot up in height.

In high school, he averaged 23.9 points, 7.1 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game during his senior season at Nicolet High School.[4] He shot 61% from the floor.[4] That season, he was conference MVP, all-league first team, first team all-area (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel), first team all-state (Associated Press), CNI Suburban Player of the Year, and WCBA first team all-state.[4] He was also named by The Sporting News as the Best Shooter, out of more than 3,000 players.[4]

College

Grunfeld went on to play at

Pac-10), in February 2005 he tore his right knee anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), forcing him to sit out the team's final nine games. He took the time on the sidelines to "observe what certain people do to be successful," and improve his basketball awareness.[5] As a junior in 2004–05, he was named first team All-Pacific-10 Conference, to the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) District-14 first team, and to the 2005 ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American University Division Second Team, to the District-8 ESPN The Magazine University Division All-Academic First Team, and to the Pac-10 Academic first team.[4] In his senior year in 2005–06, he was a first-team Pac-10 All-Academic selection, and a first-team ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American selection.[4]

Professional career

After going undrafted out of Stanford in 2006, he played his first two professional seasons with the

LEB Oro League. In September 2008, his childhood dream came true when the New York Knicks signed him to the team under undisclosed terms.[6]
On October 23, 2008, Grunfeld was waived by the team.

In January 2009 he received Romanian citizenship in order to be eligible for playing for the

Romania national basketball team.[7]

He played for

Hapoel Holon.[11] Due to the team's financial problems at the beginning of the 2011 season, he was released and signed a two-year contract with Hapoel Jerusalem
. He is one of a number of American Jews who played in Israel, including Jon Scheyer, Sylven Landesberg, Glenn Consor, and David Blu.[2]

Maccabiah Games

Grunfeld played in the Maccabiah Games for the United States, in 2009.[10] He led the U.S. to a gold medal, with 25 points and 12 rebounds in the final overtime game against Israel.[10][12][13]

Post-Basketball Life

After retiring from basketball, Grunfeld received an MBA degree from Stanford University and began a career as a technology executive in Silicon Valley.[14] He also comments on social issues and politics.[15]

References

  1. ^ "Jucător din NBA în naţionala României | GooolSport". www.gooolsport.ro. Archived from the original on 23 January 2009. Retrieved 30 June 2022.
  2. ^ a b http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/43940730/ns/sports/ [dead link]
  3. ^ Colman, Zack (July 23, 2009). "US grabs hoops gold over Israel in OT thriller". Jerusalem Post. Archived from the original on November 7, 2012. Retrieved November 6, 2011.
  4. ^ a b c d e f "Player Bio: Dan Grunfeld - Stanford University's Official Athletic Site". www.gostanford.com. Archived from the original on 14 June 2012. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  5. ^ Anderson, Kelli (November 21, 2005). "14 Stanford". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved October 5, 2008.
  6. ^ "Knicks Sign Dan Grunfeld". NBA.com. September 25, 2008. Retrieved October 5, 2008.
  7. ^ "Jucător din NBA în naţionala României | GooolSport". www.gooolsport.ro. Archived from the original on January 23, 2009.
  8. ^ "Dan Grunfeld Player Profile, Bnei Hertzeliya, News, Stats - Eurobasket".
  9. ^ החתמה חדשה!!![permanent dead link] (in Hebrew)
  10. ^ a b c "Basketball / Son of Washington Wizards exec to join Bnei Hasharon next week". TheMarker.
  11. ^ "Stanford's Dan Grunfeld Switches Teams in Israel | LostLettermen.com". www.lostlettermen.com. Archived from the original on 23 July 2011. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  12. ^ "As Maccabiah closes, U.S. Men win hoops gold | JTA - Jewish & Israel News". www.jta.org. Archived from the original on 29 September 2012. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  13. ^ "Basketball / U.S. Overcomes Israel to take gold on late surge". TheMarker.
  14. ^ "Americans must remember the Holocaust". The Jerusalem Post | Jpost.com. Retrieved 2020-02-02.
  15. ^ "Dan Grunfeld | HuffPost". www.huffpost.com. Retrieved 2020-02-02.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dan_Grunfeld&oldid=1188599865"