Hapoel's glue guy won the first championship of his career
Tribute to the champs: Ish Wainright
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No player on the freshly-crowned BKT EuroCup champs has a greater discrepancy between his value and his stats than Ish Wainright. The forward was among the Hapoel Shlomo Tel Aviv leaders in appearances and minutes, though he did little to stand out in the box score.
What he did, however, was play rugged defense, make clever plays at both ends, stretch the floor with his outside shooting and serve as the ultimate glue-guy on a winning team. Whenever there was a charge to be taken or a loose ball to dive for, Wainright was at the heart of the action.
For the season, Wainright averaged 5.5 points, 3.4 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.2 steals over 24 games – including 20 in the starting lineup. His best offensive game came in his second appearance when Wainright totaled 13 points on 3-of-7 three-point shooting and 4 assists against Wolves Twinsbet Vilnius. In the penultimate regular-season game, Wainright posted 8 points and a season-high 8 rebounds against Trefl Sopot for a personal-best PIR of 15.
In the postseason, Wainright had a positive plus/minus rating in five of Hapoel's six games, including both games in the finals against Dreamland Gran Canaria. Wainright's first season in the EuroCup would be one to remember and it finished with him holding the trophy – for the first championship of his professional career.