Joe Alexander

Joe Alexander is a professional American basketball player who was born in Taiwan. Alexander has always been equally at ease playing as a small forward or a power forward at all times during his career. Alexander was born in Taiwan but moved to the USA when he was two. Six years later, he moved to China, after his father got a job there, living there for 6 years with six months in Hong Kong and the remaining in Beijing. He began playing basketball at the International School of Beijing and became the first foreigner, along with his brothers John and Jeremy, to win the Beijing High School basketball MVP award. Alexander would win it twice in successive seasons.

Alexander returned to the USA to spend his final two years of high school at the Linganore High School. Although he was in the basketball team, his role was limited as he started mostly on the bench in his junior year. By the time he was a senior, his role had considerably increased and he was scoring at 14.8 points per game with 7.0 rebounds and 2.8 assists. This led to Alexander being named to the first team, Monocacy Valley Athlete League Chesapeake Conference. He was named captain of his team that year and was picked for the Frederick County All-Star first team and was also named as the Mt. Airy Gazette Player of the Year, the 2004 Frederick Gazette Player of the Year and was also named to a number of first teams by the Frederick Gazette, the Frederick News and the All-Met team of the Washington Post.

After setting school records in blocks for a single season, with 90 and a season field goal percentage of 58%, Alexander looked at college but his performances were not strong enough to draw the attention of the division I athletic scholarships. He decided to go in for the Hargrave Military Academy and saw limited playing time. In 2005, Alexander joined the West Virginia University after spending a year at the Military Academy.

In 2005-06, Alexander barely got much game time, playing 10 games mostly off the bench. The following season, things improved drastically as he became a stalwart for the team. However, towards the latter half of the season, his performance dropped and after February, didn’t get into double scoring digits for the remainder of the season. He ended the season averaging just 10.3 points, 4.3 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game.

In 2007, his junior year, Alexander trained harder and gained weight and muscle, making him a formidable opponent. Despite injury worries, Alexander notched up a team-leading 16.2 points per game average along with 6.1 rebounds per game. He was named to the first team All-Big East and also received an All-American Honourable Mention.

After his junior year, Alexander decided to forego college and get into the NBA and at the 2008 NBA Draft, he was picked 8th overall by the Milwaukee Bucks. He began playing for the Bucks in the Summer League and had a 9.2 points per game average along with 3.6 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game in all 5 games. He played off the bench for the bucks and has been a regular back-up member to the forwards in the team.