By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
Bnei PenLink Herzliya announced a reunion with Shawn Dawson on Monday morning.
The 31-year-old winger is back with the Israeli club for a third spell, following the 2017-18 and 2021-22 seasons. The latest deal is on a three-month contract with an option to extend for the rest of the 2025-26 campaign.
With Bnei Herzliya in Group D of the Basketball Champions League Regular Season, Dawson will add to his current tally of 27 appearances in FIBA Europe’s top-tier club continental competition. Previous experience was with Hapoel Atsmon Holon and Maccabi Rand Media. On Wednesday, the team coached by Yehu Orland will be in Arena SamElyon to face Tofas in Samokov, Bulgaria.
The Eilat native has also played in 27 FIBA Europe Cup games, including ten during his first year with Bnei Rav-Bariach Herzliya. In his second year, he helped his side win Israel’s Midgal State Cup and reach the Finals of the Winner League Playoffs.
With Maccabi Rishon LeZion from 2012 to 2017, he was crowned Israeli League champion in 2016. Between the two separate stints with Bnei Herzliya, he powered up Divina Seguros Joventut, combining Spain’s Liga Endesa with 11 7DAYS EuroCup games. Over the last two years, he was a member of Hapoel Holon.
Beyond the club level, the American-Israeli guard/forward represented Israel in the 2015 and 2017 installments of EuroBasket. Further international experience went into the Qualifiers of the 2019 and 2023 editions of the FIBA World Cup.
Toms Leimanis joins VEF Riga
Elsewhere, VEF Riga added 31-year-old Latvian combo guard Toms Leimanis. His contract lasts through the Champions League journey, the team announced on Monday.
The newcomer is a veteran of 18 BCL appearances, spread between the inaugural 2016-17 season as a Ventspils player and his 2020-21 stint with Tsmoki-Minsk. He most recently displayed his talents in Mexico with the Diablos Rojos, following earlier abroad experience in Spain, Lithuania, Ukraine, Belarus, and Greece, since leaving Latvia in 2018.
In FIBA tournaments, Leimanis suited up for the senior national team of his home country in the Qualifiers of the FIBA World Cup 2023 and EuroBasket 2025, after completing his junior career with a silver medal in the U20 European Championship 2013.
The reigning Optibet Latvian-Estonian Basketball League champions, also Latvian League and Cup champions, are in Group F of the Regular Season, alongside AEK, NHSZ-Szolnoki Olajbanyasz, and Patrioti Levice. The opener of a six-game double-legged round-robin schedule is against the Greek side in Riga’s Xiaomi Arena on Tuesday.
With 32 regular-season participants split into eight equal groups, the eight top seeds will advance directly to the Round of 16, with the remaining eight tickets to be decided in respective best-of-three Play-In series between the second and third seeds.