ISAIAH HAMLET

American Basketball Player in Spain: Isaiah Hamlet Signs in Valencia

Spain is next for Isaiah Hamlet. The 6’8″ American forward from Hudsonville, Michigan, has signed with a team in Valencia for the 2026-27 season, two summers after he earned his first tryout in the same city.

He is 20, and the road that made him a basketball player in Spain ran through high school in Michigan, a college program in Indiana and a spring league in North America before it came back to Valencia.

The first tryout came early

Hamlet first came to the EuroProBasket European Summer League in 2024, at 17, while he was still at Hudsonville High School. He played well enough to draw interest and a tryout from a team in Valencia.

Moving overseas as a teenager wasn’t the right step yet. He went home to keep building.

From Hudsonville to the TBL draft

At Hudsonville he earned All-Conference honors, averaging 13 points and 8 rebounds as a forward who could score inside and step out. He joined Trine University, the 2024 NCAA Division III national champions, for the 2025-26 season, but an illness early in the year limited him to five games.

He didn’t wait out another season. He entered The Basketball League (TBL) and went 10th overall in its draft, the youngest top-10 pick in league history.

At 19 he averaged 12 points and 8 rebounds with the Halifax Hoopers in Nova Scotia, then 10 points and 7 rebounds with the Red Tails in Mattawa, Washington, under head coach Jeremy File. His opponents were older, including former NCAA Division I, Division II and international players.

What a coach gets is a 6’8″ forward who can bring the ball up, see the floor and switch across positions on defense.

One week in Valencia, four wins

Hamlet came back to the European Summer League in June 2026 for one week of games. His teams won all four, and he averaged 9.5 points, 6.3 rebounds and 2.3 assists in about 19 minutes a night.

The value was in the work around the scoring. He drew 3.5 fouls a game, got to the free-throw line 17 times and turned it over only four times in 77 minutes on the floor.

He saved his best for the last game. In the ESL All-Star game he put up 13 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists with zero turnovers, finished +18 in an 83-70 win and led his team in efficiency. That is a forward making plays for other people, which is exactly what his résumé said he could do.

A basketball player in Spain at 20

Isaiah Hamlet signed with a team in Valencia, Spain, for the 2026-27 season after the June 2026 European Summer League. He arrived with a full TBL season at 19 behind him and four recorded ESL games in front of coaches and scouts, and that mix of game film, stats and exposure gave him leverage he didn’t have at 17.

The season is already underway. He started his first game in Spain and scored 14 points in 27 minutes, going 6-of-11 inside the arc and 2-of-2 at the line, with 3 assists.

In 2024 a team in Valencia wanted a look. Two years and two leagues later, a team in Valencia signed him. For any American who wants to play basketball in Spain, the first season is the audition for the next one, and at 20 Hamlet has time on his side.

Where the film comes from

Every European Summer League game is filmed and shared with our scouting network while clubs are still building rosters. Hamlet used that window twice. 400+ players signed and committed in 25+ different countries since 2015. Receipts, not promises.

Go through the full list of players signed. If you are where Isaiah was last spring, get on the European Summer League waiting list before 2027 registration opens in December.