Willy Workman


Willy Workman is an American-Israeli professional basketball player for Maccabi Haifa of the Israeli Premier League. He played college basketball at Amherst. Workman holds dual-American and Israeli citizenship.

Early life

Workman is Jewish and was born to a Jewish mother in Northampton, Massachusetts. He attended Northampton High School before completing a postgraduate year at nearby Deerfield Academy, where he resumed playing basketball after enduring injuries earlier in his high school career. Workman's father, Danny, is a longtime restaurateur. His mother, Dina Fein, is a judge in Springfield, Massachusetts.

College career

Workman attended Amherst College from 2009 to 2013, winning the NCAA3 Championship his senior year. He averaged 10.2 points, 6.1 rebounds and 2.9 assists for his four-year career at Amherst, earning D3hoops.com men's All-America Third Team, ECAC Division III New England First Team and NESCAC First Team honors in 2013.

Professional career

During his first season of professional basketball in 2013-14, Workman played for Hapoel Galil Elyon of the Israeli National League, the second-tier league in Israel, and was able to move to the country’s top-flight Premier League, when signing with Hapoel Tel Aviv for the 2014-15 season.
He was signed by fellow Premier League side Maccabi Ashdod for 2015-16 and inked a contract with Maccabi Haifa prior to the 2016-17 Premier League campaign. That season, Workman helped Haifa to reach the 2017 Israeli League Finals, where they eventually lost to Hapoel Jerusalem.
On February 28, 2018, Workman signed a three-year contract extension with Maccabi Haifa. On March 2, 2018, Workman participated in the Israeli League All-Star Game as a replacement for Oz Blayzer. That season, Despite Workman having his best year in the Israeli Premier League in terms of personal averages - his team, Maccabi Haifa, had finished the season in the last place out of 12 teams and was relegated to the Israeli National League.
In the 2018–19 season, Workman won the 2019 Israeli National League Championship title with Haifa, earning a promotion back to the Israeli Premier League.