Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv Inks Alan Anderson and Stephane Lasme

By Amy Samin

Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv has signed the American guard/forward Alan Anderson (27, 1.98 meters) and African forward Stephane Lasme (26, 2.03 meters). Both players have signed on for the upcoming season, with an option for an additional season.

Anderson is great at drilling to the basket, has an excellent shooting hand, pulls down rebounds and is tough on defense.
He led Cibona Zagreb to a Croatian double last season, both championship and cup (in the cup final he was named MVP), and also to the final of the championship in the Adriatic League.
His Euroleague averages last season were 15.3 points, 4.8 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 steals per game.
In the Adriatic League he contributed 18.4 points (fifth in the league) 5.6 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 2.1 steals per game (third in the league).

Anderson played for four years at Michigan State University, where he was an outstanding player.
He led the Spartans to the 2005 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament's Final Four.
During the 2005/06 and 2006/07 seasons he played 53 games in the NBA for the Charlotte Bobcats, with averages of 5.8 points and 1.9 rebounds per game, and for the Tulsa 66ers in the NBA's D-League, where he averaged 15.8 points per game.

His European – and Euroleague - career began with the 2007/08 season, with VidiVici Bologna.
Last season he started out with the Russian team Triumph Lyubertsy, then in January 2009 moved to Cibona Zagreb, where he had a great season.
Soon he will begin his third season in the Euroleague.
He has a hot hand from the free throw line, with an average of 87% in his two Euroleague seasons.
For the last two weeks, Anderson played for the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers in the Summer League, where he averaged 7.6 points and 1.4 rebounds.

Stephane Lasme, who was born in the African country of Gabon, is one of the leading defensive players in Europe with a superior talent for blocking shots and finishing well in the paint, going back to his days playing for the University of Massachusetts. Lasme's senior year at U. Mass (2006/07) was filled with both personal records for the forward and for his team.
He finished the year with impressive averages of 13.5 points, 9.5 rebounds, and 5.1 blocks per game.
He was chosen as the Atlantic 10 Player of the Year and Atlantic 10 Defensive Player of the Year.

Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv's assistant coach Sharon Drucker said on Saturday, "Anderson is the type of player who likes to take charge of the game.
He can play in several positions, especially 2 and 3.
He's an experienced and intelligent player.
Lasme is a real team player who can play both sides of the court to win games.
He was great in the Euroleague last season when he played for Partizan Belgrade and his performance just keeps getting better."

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