Esteban Batista

Esteban Damián Batista Hernández (born September 2, 1983, in Montevideo) is a Uruguayan professional basketball player. He is the first ever Uruguayan NBA player. He currently plays with the pro club Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Israeli League.

Pro career

Batista began his pro career in the Uruguayan League in 2001. He then moved to the second division of Spain, the Spanish LEB League in 2003.

NBA

Batista was signed as a free agent by the Atlanta Hawks on September 12th, 2005. He made his NBA debut on November 2nd of that year, going scoreless in 6 minutes of play time against the Golden State Warriors. In his first NBA season, Batista averaged 1.8 points per game and 2.5 rebounds per game in 8.7 minutes per game, in 57 games played.

On September 26th, 2007, Batista signed a non-guaranteed contract with the Boston Celtics. On October 16th, 2007, however, Batista was waived by the team.

Israel

On the same day that he was released by the Celtics, he signed with the Euroleague club Maccabi Tel Aviv.

Uruguayan national team

Batista is a member of the Uruguayan national basketball team. During the 2007 FIBA Americas Championship, which was held from August 22nd through September 2nd, in Las Vegas, Batista averaged 20.8 points per game and 12.4 rebounds per game.

References

External links

• NBA.com Profile - Esteban Batista
• Euroleague.net Player Profile