Ibrahim Jaaber

From Hoopedia

Ibrahim Jaaber (born February 3, 1984, in Elizabeth, New Jersey, USA), is an American/Bulgarian professional basketball player, currently playing with the Italian League's Lottomatica Roma. He plays both the point guard and shooting guard positions and is 6'2" (1.88 m) in height. He plays in the Euroleague and he was picked to play for the Bulgarian national team even though he is American.

College career

As a former men's basketball player at the University of Pennsylvania, he won the Ivy League Player of the Year in his junior and senior years, in the process breaking the league's career record for steals (303) and finishing among the top pickpockets in college basketball (2nd nationally in steals his junior year and 3rd nationally in steals his senior year). With Mark Zoller, Ibrahim also led the Quakers to three straight Ivy League titles between his sophomore and senior years; he also played well in the team's three NCAA Tournament games getting 16 points against Texas A&M and 15 against Texas and he scored 21 points when Penn visited a top North Carolina team. Jaaber will go down as one of the best players ever to play for the Quakers and is the all time leader in steals at Penn and in the Ivy League.

Professional Career

Jaaber was not drafted by any NBA teams, but he played for the Detroit Pistons' Summer League team from July 7 to July 14, 2007 and he subsequently signed a contract to play professionally for a Greek League team called Egaleo ΒC. In the middle of the season, after leading the Greek League in many statistical categories (including points scored and steals), he was traded to the premiere Euroleague to play for Lottomatica Roma.