The Sherwood Brown Dilemma

Sherwood Brown dunks in Haifa pre-game warmups

Sherwood Brown was passed up by NBA teams and as you may know, signed with Maccabi Haifa of the Israeli Winner League. His contract is one year with a team option for the second.

But the Israeli Winner League has started, and Haifa did not register to play Brown in these league games. However, he is registered to play in the EuroCup, or European competition.

This decision to leave him off the Winner League roster was a culmination of many factors. First of all, Israeli teams are only allowed to register eight foreigners the entire season. Haifa kept four, not including Brown, in order to leave their options open for future signings.

In addition, the Israeli teams have numerous other restrictions they must meet. Among them, teams must have two Israeli players under 22 years of age, and one between 22-25. With all of these limitations, there was simply no room for Brown on the roster.

In a David Pick article on One.co.il, Sept. 22 (might want to brush up on your Hebrew), it was said that Brown "may be cut unless something unusual happens". This was shown during Haifa's NBA tour when Brown was benched the entire game against the Pistons. The owner, Jeff Rosen, however supports Sherwood Brown and the foreigners.

While this is the case, in a Seth Soffian News-Press article (Oct. 11) Brown's agent Seth Cohen said "He's not getting cut."

In Haifa's first two Euro Cup games, which Brown is on the roster for, the former FGCU star saw no playing time. Now, the Greens will face Maccabi Ashdod (Oct. 27) in Winner League play before going back to the Euro Cup to battle VEF Riga (Oct. 30).

H/T David Pick

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