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Former basketball player Tamir Goodman, dubbed by Sports Illustrated and others as the Jewish Jordan, visited Syracuse Sunday to speak and give basketball clinics.

Goodman was a top-ranked high school recruit who went on become the first Orthodox Jewish basketball player to play D-1 college, playing at Towson University, according to the New York Times.

Goodman spoke at the JCC and Syracuse University. He gave two clinics at the Jewish Community Center in DeWitt.

When he graduated from high school, Goodman received a scholarship from the University of Maryland, but he turned it down because it meant practicing and playing on Fridays, which was against the rules of Orthodox Judaism. At Towson, he didn't play on Fridays.

After college, he played professional basketball in Israel from 2002 to 2007; he was sidelined several times by injuries. He briefly played for a minor league team in the United States.

In 2009, he stopped playing basketball and became a motivational speaker, coach and educator.

His visit was sponsored by the Chabad House at SU and the JCC.

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2013/04/basketball_player_dubbed_the_j.html