Hapoel Holon will open its Basketball Champions League campaign on Tuesday evening when it faces French side Cholet in a “home” game in Samokov, Bulgaria. As the Purples begin a new chapter, one familiar face will be looking to play a much bigger role.

Shahar Amir is back in Holon for his third stint with the club, but this time he returns through the front door.

The 27-year-old guard enjoyed a breakout 2025/26 season with Hapoel Galil Elyon, averaging 12.8 points per game while knocking down 2.3 three-pointers at a 42.2% clip. More importantly, Amir helped Galil Elyon survive a difficult season and remain in the top flight, all while the team dealt with the devastating loss of teammate Raz Adam, who was killed in a car accident in May.

Now, after one of the most challenging and meaningful seasons of his career, Amir is back in Holon, a club he has never stopped feeling connected to and believes he is ready to take another step forward.

“It’s really great, I’m excited to be back,” Amir told The Sports Rabbi during Hapoel Holon’s Media Day at the Toto Hall in Holon. “It already feels very much like home. I’m really happy to be here. I’m happy to be back in the center of the country, living in my home in Tel Aviv with my new wife. It’s great to be back at this club, this arena, with these fans and this entire organization.”

There has been plenty to celebrate for Amir over the past few months. He got married during the summer and enjoyed a honeymoon before turning his attention back to basketball.

“It was an amazing experience, a perfect wedding, exactly as we imagined it,” he said. “It was a summer full of celebrations, with the wedding and the honeymoon, while also training and doing everything else. It was really perfect. A lot of energy.”

But once the season tipped off, Amir’s focus quickly shifted toward what he hopes to accomplish on the court, “From a team perspective, obviously to continue to represent Hapoel Holon the way that I and the veteran Israeli guys here know how to. My personal goal is really to have a bigger impact and bring the style of play I had in the Galil here to Hapoel Holon. But the team goals are really what drive us. We want to be a team that fights, bites and is aggressive, and a team that will make the Holon fans proud.”

A new coach, a new identity

Holon enters the season with Predrag Krunic at the helm and Amir has quickly bought into the identity the veteran coach is trying to establish, “We’ve only been together for a little over a month since the season started and right now I’m really, really enjoying it. He brings something different, something I haven’t seen before. I like the intensity and the emphasis on defense, and I think the players they brought to the team fit his style of play very well.”

One of those new teammates is Adama Sanogo, who has quickly impressed Amir both on and off the court, “First of all, he’s an amazing person. It’s really fun being around him. He’s always very positive and smiling. Professionally, he’s simply a star. He’s incredibly talented, has very, very good hands and moves extremely well for someone his size. He’s competitive, he wants to win, he wants the ball. It’s simply fun to play with him.”

Holon has also added Daniel Ravitz as its new professional director and Amir believes his experience can help the club reach its goals, “I spoke with Daniel Ravitz before I joined the club this time around and he’s also around us and with us every day. He had several very impressive years at Hapoel Be’er Sheva, and I’m happy he’s with us.

“He’s truly a very high-level professional. I’m sure he’ll help the team. I don’t know exactly how, because I don’t get involved in what happens behind the scenes or who is responsible for what, but I’m sure a professional like Daniel Ravitz will help us a lot in achieving our goals.”

From point guard to elite shooter

Amir’s development has been built largely around one of the most important skills in modern basketball: shooting.

Last season, he emerged as one of the league’s most reliable Israeli perimeter threats, but the ability to consistently knock down shots is something he has spent years developing.

“I work on my shooting every single day. I shoot every day and practice it every day. I feel like I’m a shooter who needs that work. How did I learn? Honestly, just through a huge number of repetitions. I started my career in the youth ranks as a point guard, actually. A coach I had in 10th grade told me, ‘You need to be a shooter,’ and from then on I just worked on my shooting, over and over again. It’s something I know how to do and enjoy doing, and I maintain it consistently.”

That work has helped transform Amir into a dangerous perimeter weapon something he showcased in one of Galil Elyon’s biggest victories last season.

With 2.9 seconds remaining against Hapoel Tel Aviv in Kfar Blum, Amir intercepted the ball in the backcourt and raced the length of the floor before finishing with a layup to give Galil a sensational victory.

“I actually just saw that play now. It’s a game where you’re playing Hapoel Tel Aviv at home in the Galil, with all the energy and the great atmosphere we had there. You don’t always believe you can win that game. As the game went on, I felt that we were in it, and suddenly you start believing more and more that it could go your way.

“I think I was simply very sharp in those moments, in crunch time against Hapoel Tel Aviv, because I understood what a win over a big team like Hapoel Tel Aviv would mean, what it would do for the people in the Galil, and what it would mean for us in terms of the standings. So that instinctive read of the situation, the steal and the layup, I really attribute that to how sharp I was in that particular situation.”

The season that changed everything

But for all of Amir’s individual success, the defining story of his season was not basketball.

It was the loss of Raz Adam.

Adam was killed in a car accident on May 20, leaving Galil Elyon’s players and staff to deal with an unimaginable loss while still trying to finish a professional basketball season.

Amir admits he is still trying to process what happened, “First of all, I don’t know how you can deal with it,” he said. “I think I’m still dealing with it. It’s something you can’t see coming, and you don’t know how to process it. The way it happened, that sudden death, it just catches you completely unprepared. The team evening when we were all together, it was like a movie.”

The team leaned on one another, and in some ways, basketball provided a structure that allowed the players to keep moving forward, “We dealt with it as a team, which I assume somehow helped us get back into a routine, continue practicing and be together all day. But it’s something that stayed with us until the end of the season and will stay with us for the rest of our lives. We’ll always talk about him and always mention him.

“I saw in Galil that they put up some kind of picture of him, some kind of sign that will always be there. I think that’s what we have left to do — to commemorate him and remind everyone what a special person and what a special player Raz was.”

Playing for Raz

Galil Elyon ultimately avoided relegation, and while the team’s season was far from perfect, Amir believes the circumstances surrounding Adam’s death gave the players another source of motivation.

“We had a bad season as a team, and ultimately we avoided relegation at the end of the season, Amir said. “But because of what happened with Raz, we felt an even greater drive to make it happen. We were very, very committed throughout the season, but when it happened… in a way we fell apart. We lost all our energy. We were already ‘fed up,’ and then very quickly, very consciously, that changed into a desire to win and a desire to do it for him. You can’t help but feel that Raz is with us.”

Amir paused before describing what he believes helped carry the team through those final weeks, “I don’t know, call it mystical, we simply had some other kind of strength when we went into games with him and maybe that was ultimately what kept us in the league.”

Coming home to Holon

Amir’s relationship with Holon goes back several years.

He first played for the club in 2022/23, was named its Most Improved Player the following season and returned toward the end of the 2024/25 campaign after a difficult period with Galil Elyon.
After beginning last season in the Galil and producing the best basketball of his career, Amir earned his way back to Holon and for him, the return carries plenty of meaning.

“Holon is a club that I really, really love. My time here was a period I really enjoyed. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to continue after my second season for various professional reasons. But even when I left, I told them in the conversation when we said goodbye that I would leave, improve and come back.

“So I’m happy that’s what actually happened. I really, really love the club. I love the team they’ve built here, and I really love the fans. So it’s always great to come back. It really feels like a second home to me.”

Waiting for the national team call

Despite his development and strong performances, Amir has yet to make his senior Israel national team debut and that remains one of the next major goals on his list.

“Very, very much,” Amir said when asked how badly he wants to play for the national team. “I think the Israel national team is a goal that every Israeli player dreams of reaching.
Unfortunately, I haven’t had the chance to experience it yet, and I really hope it happens as soon as possible. I’ll do whatever I need to do to show that I deserve a place there and I really hope it happens.”

Amir has already experienced international success at the youth level. He was part of Israel’s U20 team that won the European Championship on home soil in 2019, sharing the roster with future NBA star Deni Avdija and current Maccabi Tel Aviv guard Yam Madar.

Avdija’s rise to NBA All-Star status, however, still amazes him, “Deni was always exceptional, but reaching the level of an All-Star… even when I see Deni as an All-Star, it doesn’t register, because it’s beyond anything you could imagine. It’s truly amazing. He’s a player among the top 20, top 30 players in the world. What he’s doing is truly unbelievable, and it’s simply fun to watch him flourish, succeed and improve every season.”

As for Madar’s decision to return to Israel and join Maccabi Tel Aviv, Amir said he was not surprised, “I wasn’t surprised, to be honest, because Yam is a gamer. Yam is a player who loves the court, he devours the court. That’s what he wants. More than anything, he wants to be on the court and play basketball, and that’s why it made sense to me that this was the decision he would make. He wants to succeed and have the best professional situation, and that’s what Maccabi was able to give him.”

From Eilat to Holon

Away from basketball, Amir revealed that he is an Eilat native something that remains an important part of his identity.

“I’m from Eilat. I was born in Eilat, and I really, really love the city. I try to get there as much as possible during the year. Over the past two years, it was very difficult to get there from the Galil, but this year we’ll have a visit there in the league, and I also hope I’ll get to go there outside of basketball, visit my family and friends. I really, really love the city.”

As he begins another season, Amir’s ambitions remain relatively simple: keep improving, keep climbing and enjoy the journey, “My biggest dream for my career is simply to continue creating the upward trajectory that I’m on. Every season begin, I really want to continue that upward trajectory, improve and fulfill my potential. In life, simply to enjoy the little things and be happy.”