Shakira Austin, the U.S. gold medalist and one of the top 20 WNBA players, has joined local team Elizur Ramala.
The 22-year-old, is the current national champion's newest purchase.
"I wanted my first year as a player outside of the U.S. to go well, that's why I chose Ramla," Austin said. "It's a great town, a great league and I'm very excited.," she said adding that she hopes to improve her game and return to the WNBA.
Austin said her agent thought Israel would be a good place to launch her professional career and that there is a high level of basketball played here. but notes that because she knows other foreign players who have made the move to Israel, she understands she will be facing a challenge.
She said her goals were to win the championship with her new team and to help her teammates improve their game too.
Austin is one of the best basketball players in the world, but her father, David, says he never believed his daughter will become a basketball player. In her first game, when she was five-years-old, she managed to steal the ball from the opposing team, and score into her own team's basket.
"My dad always tells me I was never really into sports," Austin said. "I had a love-hate relationship with basketball. My dad keeps reminding me that I didn't really liked it and decided to stop. I tried every sport back then: football, gymnastics, volleyball, softball."
She remembers he always said she was not really into sports and agrees she had a love-hate relationship with the game but after trying football, gymnastics, volleyball and softball, she ultimately found her place.
In the seventh grade, she recalls, she realized her passion for basketball and asked her father to let her give the game another try. he agreed.
Austin was one of the most sought after basketball players, and participated in the 2018 high school all-star games. She was convinced to join the Maryland College basketball team, but two years later decided to sign on with Ole Miss which was 14 hours away from her home state of Virginia.
That was the moment she broke out and surpassed even her own expectations. Her father agreed.
Her impressive statistics of 15.2 points, 9 rebounds, 2.1 blocks, 1.7 assists and 1.2 steals per game made Washington Mystics, place her first in the draft. coach Michael Thibault described her as fearless.
Ramla now has a versatile player, whose height and arm-length provide a great advantage. After all she was one of the WNBA's top blockers.
"Shakira is an exciting player." Haelyon said. "Her advantage other then being a great rebounder and scorer is that she does everything with focus and all the way.
Austin is part of the Israeli Basketball Premier League, beginning on Thursday. No one expected her to play in Israel, but she might have been convinced, seeing as Elitzur Ramla played in the European Basketball League.
She claimed that despite the news coming out of Israel, she was not worried and added that coming from a Christian family, she was happy for the chance of visiting and praying in the Holy Land.