Maccabi Tel Aviv moved to within one game of capturing the 2025/26 Israeli league championship as they defeated Hapoel Tel Aviv 102-98 in an end-to-end, action packed contest that saw almost anything and everything one would ever want to witness in a basketball game. Huge runs, top level shooting, character and hustle, what else could one ask for?

Hapoel came out running and gunning as head coach Dimitrios Itoudis made sure to get his two stars into the game early with Yam Madar and Vasilije Micic each hitting their shots to help lead the reds to an improbably 14-0 run to begin the game which was exactly what the doctor had ordered after game one’s lackluster affair.

Games aren’t won or lost in the opening minutes but when you take a two touchdown lead off the bat, it makes life that much easier, or that’s what one would think, however, that was not the case with this Maccabi Tel Aviv team that knew how to knot the score up at 20-20 by the time the first quarter had ended.

Oded Katash made the necessary adjustments in order to stem the tide and relax his charges as they chipped away at the lead and eventually went ahead with a tremendous third quarter where the yellow-and-blue scored 33 points to take the lead for good and notch the win.

With the score 16-5 in favor of Hapoel and five minutes remaining in the opening frame, Zach Hankins entered the fray and from that point on, it was all Maccabi as the former league MVP put down a thundering dunk that allowed his team to mount the early comeback and eventually tie up the game after ten minutes of play. Add in a gorgeous mini-hook to begin the final frame and the

All told, the big man scored half a dozen points, grabbed a pair of rebounds but the number that clearly stood out on the stat sheet was a plus/minus of +14, the only player that finished in double digits in that category which speaks volumes of Hankins’ quiet influence on the game itself.

Perhaps that’s why the Star Wars Lego aficinado described his play as a unique figure, Coleman Trebor. The Vurk Jedi Master, the only one of his species, was eventually cut down by Jango Fett on Geonosis in Star Wars II movie, Attack of the Clones and was featured in a lone set, the AT-TE.

“He’s one of my favorite characters,” Hankins told The Sports Rabbi in the lockerroom following the Maccabi win. “He had like three scenes that he was in in all of Star Wars, never said anything and then he just gets murdered by Jango Fett. Amazing Lego figure. There you go.”

Hankins has won at every level, from capturing the NCAA DII Championship, Tournament MVP and Player of the Year award at Ferris State, to winning the Israel State Cup with Hapoel Jerusalem to go along with being named to the Israeli league and Basketball Champions League First Teams back in 2023 the MVP has quite the collection of hardware.

Having helped Maccabi Rishon Le’Zion knock off Hapoel Jerusalem in the league semifinals back in 2020, which was also ironically the last time an Oded Katash coached team lost a domestic playoff season, Hankins finally had his first taste of the Euroleague when he joined Maccabi Tel Aviv this past December.

The 29-year old is part of Katash’s very short 8-man rotation in the finals due to a number of injuries and while Maccabi went down 14-0 to start off game two, Hankins spoke about how the club came back and put them in the position to wrap up the championship on Sunday.

“We knew that they were going to come out and punch us, plus they’re going to have a great home crowd, they’re going to have great energy. We just had to weather that storm and start fighting back and just fight the way we did the first game, have that same kind of desire to just win and give ourselves a great advantage before game three.”

When a team goes down so early, it usually sets the tone for the balance of the game itself as has been seen the previous two times Maccabi played Hapoel in the championship series when the Reds walloped the yellow-and-blue at the Drive In Arena in game two of the 2023 and 2024 best-of-three series. However, this version of Maccabi had the wherewithal to be able to come back and record the victory.

“I really think this group has really matured and grown together in the last couple months,” Hankins explained. “From everything that we have gone through this year, obviously it’s been a really difficult year, more so for Israeli teams than everybody else that has played he game this season. So, this group has just kind of come together and learned to fight together really well.”

In this game, the referees certainly put their mark on it with plenty of fouls being called on either side with some star players including Jimmy Clark even fouling out for Maccabi. But as Hankins said, they are part of the game and while it hurts the rhythm of the game, it’s also something that gas to be dealt with and understood in order to finish off on top.

“It kind of messes up the consistency of the game flow but I think that it comes down to just mental toughness. You have to make adjustments based on what they’re calling, what they’re not calling and they also make adjustments too throughout the game. So, we kind of have to ride that wave. Obviously, it didn’t really go our way, in fact, it didn’t go either team’s ways, but that’s what the game is. They’re part of the game, they’re an important part of the game. We just got to ride with it.”

Maccabi is now just one win away from capturing the championship and Hankins knows that while the momentum may be on their side, it ain’t over until it’s over as New York Yankees Hall of Fame catcher Yogi Berra once said.

“We can’t relax, we cannot relax. This is a dangerous team, a talented team. We have to come out the same way we did in game one and respond the same way we did here in this game too. Having the home crowd just gives us so much energy.”

Hankins, who joined the club in the middle of the season, had to adjust to Katash’s system and just like with everything in life, it takes time. Having not played in many Israeli league games, the center was thrust into action during the playoffs replacing Marcio Santos who is heading to play at LSU in college ball next season.

“It’s been a long way of kind of learning the system, seeing where I can fit in, seeing where I can contribute. I think I’ve done a great job defensively by just giving effort and energy and doing what I can. So, when I get those opportunities, I got to make the most of them and I think I’ve been doing a good job of that.”

Katash himself spoke about the contribution that Hankins has made to this year’s version of Maccabi and that there is a learning curve as well in order to fit in, “First of all, I’ll say that when I played against Zach, I didn’t enjoy playing against him. He’s the kind of player you want on your team, not on the other side. I think Zach is an excellent basketball player with a lot of experience. He brings us something that we didn’t have before. His skill set doesn’t necessarily fit perfectly or specifically with the way we play and we’ve always talked about how, at the beginning of the season, it takes time.

“With my teams and I don’t think I’m the only coach, it takes a few months to really figure things out. Now, beyond the fact that I have a great deal of respect for him, really like him and love his energy and positivity, I think he also feels much more comfortable in our system and knows exactly what we want from him. So we have a great deal of trust in him. That has even allowed us, for stretches in both the semifinal and the final, to play with two big men on the floor and give Roman a few different looks that maybe we weren’t used to seeing in previous seasons.”

Sith Hankins not hitting his peak at Maccabi for the season and he is also aware that many players from this year’s squad are already re-signed, he’d be very open to returning for some of the same reasons that Katash outlined.

“That is a discussion I would love to have, love to be open to. Obviously, it’s difficult for teams to sign guys here [Israel]. That would be a discussion to have this summer. I think with Coach Oded it takes a year for guys to really get used to his coaching, used to his system and it shows, he’s proven that. It shows his success after he keeps a core of guys around for long enough to understand him, understand his system and it shows right now, as we’ve been having so much success late in the season that it works.”

We already know Hankins is a Star Wars Lego buff and with that in mind, the only way to end a conversation with the big man is exactly how it began, as he spoke about what the next big purchase was going to be.

“There’s a great wave coming out. I don’t know if I have a big purchase yet with the UCS sets, but I know I want the new Razor Crest that came out, the new playset. Razor Crest, I got the UCS one and the old one, so I need the new one.”

One thing is crystal clear when it comes to Zach Hankins, he’s hopeful that not only will he be able to add a brand new Lego set but also have a new championship, his first in Israel to add to his trophy case when the final buzzer sounds on Sunday night.

Shabbat Shalom.