The Israel National has not only one but two players in Yovel Zoosman and Tamir Blatt who feature for ALBA Berlin a German club that plays in both the domestic BBL League as well as the Euroleague. Even more interesting is that their head coach’s name is Israel Gonzalez who is a young, up and coming Spaniard that showed plenty of savvy over the second half of the season by winning both major domestic titles in the Cup and League.

Both players left for Germany at the start of the 2021/22 season after Zoosman had featured with Maccabi Tel Aviv while Blatt played the point for Hapoel Jerusalem as they began their European adventure together.

Over the course of the year, Blatt took a nice leap forward in his ability to thread the needle and make the right pass as he made significant strides as a floor general while Zoosman continued to hone his craft as a swingman and also took a step forward in his shooting while refining his skills.

Both players will be relied upon to be significant contributors for the blue-and-white as they await for perhaps the biggest challenge of their national team career while they make their first appearance at the Eurobasket.

“I’m happy that we won all of our exhibition games,” Zoosman began. “But it really means nothing as they were just that, exhibition games. We have to come ready to go for the games that are coming up.”

Zoosman continued discussing what it means to him to be representing Israel on the international stage, “When we play for the national team it’s bigger than just me and Tamir. We all want to do something for the national team and do our best for the country. The two of us are good friends but the entire team is really getting along well together.”

As for Blatt, he is looking to continue to build off of his debut campaign in the Euroleague, “It was a great season in the Euroleague and being outside of the country. I will keep giving it my all and I hope that we can accomplish something special at the Eurobasket.”

“The season with ALBA has really helped a lot and I want to continue on that same track,” Zoosman concurred.

Blatt helped lead his Under-20 team in 2017 to a second place finish in Greece while Zossman was named MVP of the 2018 edition when Israel won it’s first ever youth European Championship.

“We’ve done some good things with the Under-20 side but the senior team is another level as we are playing the best players in the world and players who are stars in the NBA. We will try to do the best that we can.”
One of those stars in Finland’s Lauri Markkanen played against Blatt’s Israel a number of years ago and the two will once again face each other as professionals.

“It has been six years since that game but he is a great player and has a lot of tools including a very good shot from deep. Hopefully we will be able to stop him.”

As one of the key players with Israel, Zoosman doesn’t feel any type of pressure heading into the European Championships, “There is always pressure when you’re playing basketball and that’s what I have done for my entire life. I don’t see that there is any added pressure for this competition and we will do the best that we can.”

While both players will be making their Eurobasket debuts, veteran Maccabi Tel Aviv forward Guy Pnini has been a part of the national team for roughly 15 years and will be participating in his sixth continental championship.

“It’s a big honor to be playing with Guy and when played together when I was just a youth player at Maccabi. He’s the biggest winner in Israeli basketball and he is a role model in my eyes. He’s had a tremendous career and has reached things that I can only dream of. He can play until the age of 50!”

Another Maccabi connection is Blatt’s father David who won the 2014 Euroleague title and had been a coach with the team for many, many years. In addition, Blatt Sr. also won the 2007 Eurobasket when he was in charge of Russia.

“My father always gives me advice and we talk everyday. He has always told me that each game has a life of its own with ups and downs and we have to stay together and not lose our belief in one another.”

As for the path to success for Israel, Zoosman believes that it comes down to one of the elementary aspects of the game of basketball.

“Defense in my eyes is all about desire and we have a lot of players on the national team that can make a difference in that area which can help determine games. I’ll give my all each play and whether if it’s against an NBA player or not, I’ll give everything I’ve got.”

Does Israel have a chance? Blatt certainly thinks so as long as they can win the games that they should and get off to a good start as the final two games are against Serbia and the host, the Czech Republic.

“Serbia will be a tough game and we have to do the job before we play them. Everything is open if we can make it out of the group stages.”