Maccabi Tel Aviv has a long and fruitful relationship with Israel’s Law of Return, which defines who is eligible for Israeli citizenship and in basketball terms, who can be part of the roster without taking up one of the limited foreign-player spots. Since the 1970s and over the years, “the nation’s team” has been known for its extraordinary amount of naturalized players. Even in the current roster there are players who don’t dream in Hebrew, such as Will Rayman and captain John DiBartolomeo, but their Jewish mothers granted them Israeli citizenship and a strategic place on the yellow-and-blue roster. From Lou Silver, Derrick Sharp, Alex Tyus and David Blu—who became Maccabi legends, to names like Jon Scheyer, Joe Alexander and Taylor Rochestie, who remained on the cutting-room floor of yellow-and-blue history, the chronicles of Maccabi Tel Aviv are full of foreigners with some connection to the faith of Moses and Israel.

One of the more veteran naturalized players is Brad Leaf, an American from Indiana who underwent a conversion and saw his connection to Israel begin in 1982. his story ended with 17 seasons in the Israeli Premier League, 6,083 points (sixth all-time), four championships (including a historic one in the Galilee), 17 appearances for the Israel national team and two Israeli-born children. One of them is T.J. Leaf, who took a long and fascinating path before arriving to play for his father’s team, in the city where he was born.

Ty Jacob Leaf was born 28 years ago in Tel Aviv, when his father was nearing the end of his playing career in blue-and-white. Shortly after his father’s retirement, the family relocated to San Diego. In California, young T.J. began showing his first basketball sparks under a coach he knew quite well, his father Brad. From the start it was clear that T.J., blessed with excellent shooting ability and standing 6’10” (208 cm), was headed for the best league in the world. Whether it was his participation in the McDonald’s All-American Game (the high school “All-Star”), tryouts for the U.S. Under-19 national team or leading prestigious UCLA in the NCAA alongside Lonzo Ball. Along the way, the Leaf teenager joined Israel’s U18 national team at the European Championship, helping it earn promotion to Division A, winning the tournament MVP and leading the team to second place alongside names like Tamir Blatt, Roi Huber and Lior Carrera.

The potential T.J. showed led the Indiana Pacers to select him 18th overall in the 2017 Draft. Expectations were very high, but his NBA career failed to take off. From 16 points per game in college in 30 minutes, he dropped to just 8 minutes a night, scoring only 3 points. Over the three years of his rookie contract, Leaf was pushed deeper and deeper down the Pacers’ bench. In his third season, he appeared in only 28 games, after which he was traded to Oklahoma City, waived and then found himself in Portland midseason, managing to play just eight games there. Leaf struggled to cope with the NBA’s intensity. He had difficulty creating for himself and was no longer physically superior as he had been in college. It was clear he needed a change of direction to relaunch his career. Israel was mentioned as a potential destination, but Brad’s son chose to go further east to the Guangzhou Loong Lions of the Chinese league.

Over three and a half seasons in China, T.J. Leaf felt good, rediscovered his scoring touch, and put up Wilt Chamberlain-like numbers. Just one week after landing in the city that financially set up Eran Zahavi’s great-grandchildren, he scored 47 points and grabbed 17 rebounds. His rather surprising career highs, 47 points, 21 rebounds and 13 assists all came during his time in a country where the average male height is 1.72 meters and only one foreign player is allowed on the court at any given time. Leaf again averaged over 20 points per game and delivered the goods after moving to Beijing and later to Nanjing. In the league he encountered players looking to earn a few more dollars at the tail end of their careers, such as Eric Bledsoe and Tacko Fall, as well as players seeking a springboard back to higher levels, one you surely know: Antonio Blakeney.

Last summer, Leaf chose to follow in the red scorer’s footsteps and returned to the city where he spent the first two years of his life. The conditions were finally right and Maccabi Tel Aviv was there to sign an Israeli player with a résumé of 151 NBA appearances at just 28 years old, yet with no European experience whatsoever. So far, T.J. has struggled to show consistency. In some games he gets his points; in others, as in his Indiana years, he struggles to be active in his minutes and to take shots. His percentages aren’t bad, but he hesitates too much. Since the start of the season he has taken only 20 shots from beyond the arc in 32 games and he rarely gets to the free-throw line (just 2.2 per game), despite his physical advantage. Heavy competition for the same minutes with Roman Sorkin, Marcio Santos, Oshae Brissett, Jaylen Hoard and Gur Lavi hasn’t helped his acclimation either.

In the league, he is the Israeli with the fewest minutes per game on the roster (15.8), aside from youngsters Oren Sahar and Tamir Gold. In the EuroLeague, he averages 18 minutes per game which is slightly better, but still the fourth big man in the hierarchy. Out of 19 EuroLeague games, Leaf finished with a negative plus/minus in only four, meaning that even when Maccabi loses, in Leaf’s minutes the team is usually better. In the win over Jerusalem, Maccabi played through him in the post during the third quarter; he went again and again to the basket or the line, finishing with 11 points and 7 rebounds in just 17 minutes (+11). He showed that he knows how to work in the paint, pull down rebounds, and exploit mismatches, but not enough to earn more credit from Oded Katash, who, it should be noted, shared a locker room with the previous generation of the Leaf family.

For now, yellow-and-blu fans are settling for sporadic flashes from a player who at 18 led UCLA in scoring ahead of Lonzo Ball, but at 28 can’t crack the starting lineup ahead of Brissett. When you take into account the journey of Ty Jacob Leaf, his dominance in college, with the U20 national team and even in China, contrasted with his disappearance in the NBA, the question that needs to be asked right now is: what should come first? Does T.J. need to show more to earn Katash’s trust, or perhaps if the coach hands him the keys, he’ll take the long-awaited leap and could become his X-factor?