Hapoel Jerusalem has landed another player with genuine NBA pedigree, officially unveiling American forward Kenneth "Kenny" Lofton Jr. as part of its build-up to the 2026/27 season, ONE reports.
The 23-year-old, a bruising 1.98m frame at power forward, arrives fresh off a Chinese Basketball Association MVP campaign and says the club's ambitions match his own. "The plan is to win the EuroCup and qualify for the EuroLeague, we'll need to prepare well and progress game by game to achieve this," Lofton told ONE upon arriving in Israel.
It is a bold target for a club that finished 11-8 in last season's EuroCup group phase and reached the Israeli State Cup final, where it lost to Maccabi Tel Aviv, but Jerusalem has spent the summer recruiting with exactly that ceiling in mind.
Lofton's résumé reads unusually high for a EuroCup newcomer. He played 49 NBA games across three seasons with the Memphis Grizzlies, Philadelphia 76ers and Utah Jazz, and produced a breakout 42-point, 14-rebound night in his first career start for Memphis against Oklahoma City in April 2023.
Before that he was G League Rookie of the Year in 2022/23 with the Memphis Hustle, averaging 23.4 points and 9.9 rebounds and earning two All-G League selections. He then moved to China's Shanghai Sharks in 2024, where he was named CBA MVP in his debut season after posting 24.4 points, 12.2 rebounds and 6.5 assists a game.
"I'm happy to join Hapoel Jerusalem and begin my journey in European basketball," Lofton said. "From the first moment, I was impressed by the club's high ambitions, and I want to thank coach Sasha Obradović and the management for the trust they have shown in me."
He added: "I'm already looking forward to arriving in Jerusalem, meeting the fans, getting to know my new teammates and fighting in every game for this club. Yalla Hapoel!"
Lofton signed through the end of the 2026/27 season, on a deal reported by the Jerusalem Post at roughly $1.3 million, and joins a squad already stocked with NBA-experienced Americans, including forward David Roddy — who also began his professional career with the Grizzlies before stints elsewhere in the league — and point guard Jared Harper, recently extended in Jerusalem through 2028/29.
The signing continues a busy off-season overhaul under Obradović, the Serbian coach hired in June to replace Yonatan Alon and given a contract through 2029 after leading Crvena Zvezda to a EuroLeague play-in finish last term. Between the coaching change and a wave of new arrivals, Hapoel Jerusalem is clearly building for more than another routine domestic campaign.
