Joe Alexander

Joe Alexander was born in 1986 in Kaohsiung

Alexander was born in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, and moved with his family to Maryland. His family later moved to China when his father took a job with Nestlé, and he learned Mandarin. His maternal grandfather was Jewish, which made him eligible for Israeli citizenship.

He attended the International School of Beijing from 1996 to 2002, where he began playing basketball. Back in the United States, he played for Linganore High School in Maryland and then spent the 2004-2005 season at Hargrave Military Academy in Virginia.

He played for West Virginia University from 2005 to 2008. In his junior season he averaged 16.2 points per game and was named to the first-team All-Big East squad. The Milwaukee Bucks chose him eighth overall in the 2008 NBA draft.

In 2014 he signed with Maccabi Tel Aviv, then played for Dinamo Sassari in Italy. He returned to Maccabi Tel Aviv in 2016, joined Hapoel Holon in 2017 and won the State Cup with it in 2018, and then played for Beşiktaş in Turkey.

Later he played for several Israeli clubs, including Ironi Nahariya, Maccabi Rishon LeZion and Maccabi Haifa. In December 2023, after foreign players left Israel during the Swords of Iron war, he signed a one-month deal with Hapoel Jerusalem.