{"id":510942,"date":"2025-04-24T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-24T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8080\/maccabi-added-center-nathan-mensah\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T09:51:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T06:51:15","slug":"maccabi-added-center-nathan-mensah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/maccabi-added-center-nathan-mensah\/","title":{"rendered":"Maccabi added center Nathan Mensah"},"content":{"rendered":"
\tMaccabi Playtika Tel Aviv has signed Ghanaian center Nathan Mensah to a contract until the end of the season. The 27-year-old, 2.10 meters tall Mensah possesses high-level defensive abilities, and joins from Olympiacos to bolster the reigning champions’ frontcourt for the upcoming playoffs.<\/span><\/p>\n

\tMensah is a long center with a wingspan of 2.26 meters, which allows him to act as a rim protector and block opponents’ shots. He’s also an excellent rebounder, and he ranks second all-time in both blocks and rebounds at his college, San Diego State. He has a brief NBA experience with the Charlotte Hornets under his belt and brings a strong hunger to prove himself.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\tNathan Mensah was born in April 1998 in Accra, the capital of Ghana. As a child, he actually played soccer, but due to his impressive growth spurt, he was invited to try basketball at a tournament when he was 13. He was soon discovered by a scout who moved him to the United States, and he attended high school in California. He quickly built a reputation as a tough defensive player and received offers from various colleges.<\/span><\/p>\n

\tThe big man from Ghana ultimately chose San Diego State, a modest basketball program but one that had recently produced a star like Kawhi Leonard. During his college years, Mensah was a consistent starter and a defensive anchor, averaging 1.6 blocks and over 6 rebounds per game, while showing good awareness around the basket. He was named Defensive Player of the Year in the Mountain West Conference twice, in 2022 and 2023.<\/span><\/p>\n

\t\"\"
\tIn his final season with the Aztecs, Mensah was among the key players in a historic run for the university—its first-ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament Championship Game. Although San Diego State lost the to UConn, Mensah’s performance garnered NBA attention. Though he went undrafted, he was signed by Charlotte and played 25 games for them in the 2023\/24 season.<\/p>\n

\tHe began the current season with the San Antonio Spurs’ G-League affiliate but was signed by Olympiacos this past December. However, after limited opportunities in their crowded frontcourt—on a team that finished first in the EuroLeague regular season—Mensah now has a chance to showcase his talents in Tel Aviv.<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Ghanaian big (2.10 meters tall) joins the yellows from Olympiacos until the end of the season and will bolster the teams’ frontcourt<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":518767,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"custom_author":[],"class_list":["post-510942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=510942"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":518775,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510942\/revisions\/518775"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/518767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510942"},{"taxonomy":"custom_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/custom_author?post=510942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}