The Israeli forward finished the summer league with averages of 4.8 points and 1.8 rebounds for Houston
Lior Eliyahu returned to Israel Monday morning after spending the last three weeks in the US training with the Houston Rockets coaching staff and playing with the team in the NBA summer league at Las Vegas.
“It would be special to be the first one from a country with seven million people. It’s a big honor for me to be here. I’m just taking everything step by step.”
“I don’t know if I’m ready for the NBA and if the Rockets are interested in signing me,” Eliyahu said.
“As things stand, it looks like I’ll be staying at Maccabi. My NBA dreams will wait another summer.
“I trained with the very best,” he added. “My first training session was with Yao Ming and that was very exciting. I had a tough time with practice in the first few days and barely managed to end the sessions.”
Eliyahu, who was selected 44th in the 2006 NBA draft, averaged 4.8 points and 1.8 rebounds in 12 minutes of play in the summer league. His best game of the league was his first, in which he scored 10 points and grabbed four rebounds in 17 minutes of playing time. “I was extremely excited during each of the games, but managed to relax after a few minutes and played my regular game.”
“He told me that never really played the three before,” Rockets summer league coach Elston Turner said. “We’ve been playing him at both the four and three this week. He got some good experience from that and the initial signs are that he’s talented. He’s long and athletic. He just needs to learn how to play the NBA game and be more physical.”
