Darion Atkins
Darion Ray Atkins is an American professional basketball player for Maccabi Ironi Ramat Gan of the Israeli Basketball Premier League. He played college basketball for the University of Virginia before playing professionally in Israel, France and Germany. Standing at, he primarily plays at the power forward and center positions.
Early life and college career
Atkins attended the Landon School in Bethesda, Maryland, where he averaged 15.2 points, 12 rebounds and 7.3 blocks per game as a senior, earning All-Interstate Athletic Conference honors.Atkins had offers from Notre Dame and Maryland, but he chose to attend the University of Virginia, where he averaged 7.6 points, 5.9 rebounds and 1.1 blocks in 23.9 minutes per game in his senior year.
On March 8, 2015, Atkins was named ACC Defensive Player of the Year. On April 3, 2015, Atkins was named Lefty Driesell Defensive Player of the Year Award.
Professional career
Westchester Knicks (2015–2016)
After going undrafted in the 2015 NBA draft, Atkins joined the San Antonio Spurs for the 2015 NBA Summer League. On September 10, 2015, Atkins signed with the New York Knicks. However, he was later waived by the New York on October 23 after appearing in three preseason games. On November 2, he was acquired by the Westchester Knicks of the NBA Development League as an affiliate player of New York.Hapoel Holon (2016–2017)
On July 1, 2016, Atkins joined the Golden State Warriors for the 2016 NBA Summer League.On August 5, 2016, Atkins signed a one-year deal with the Israeli team Hapoel Holon. On October 22, 2016, Atkins recorded a career-high 26 points, shooting 11-of-16 from the field, along with 13 rebounds in a 72–81 loss to Maccabi Tel Aviv. On November 3, 2016, Atkins was named Israeli League Player of the Month for games played in October. On April 18, 2017, Atkins participated in the 2017 Israeli League All-Star Game.
Atkins helped Holon reach the 2017 Israeli League Playoffs as the first seed, but they eventually were eliminated by Maccabi Haifa in the Quarterfinals. On June 9, 2017, Atkins earned a spot in the 2017 All-Israeli League Second Team.
SIG Strasbourg (2017–2018)
On July 3, 2017, Atkins joined the Phoenix Suns for the 2017 NBA Summer League.On July 21, 2017, Atkins signed with the French team SIG Strasbourg for the 2017–18 season. On December 5, 2017, Atkins recorded a season-high 23 points, shooting 10-of-12 from the field, along with four rebounds in an 87–72 win over Banvit. He was subsequently made the Champions League Team of the Week. Atkins went on to win the 2018 French Cup with Strasbourg.