When Justin Smith first signed in Israel, basketball diehards weren’t quite sure what to make of him. On one hand, he wasn’t tall or big enough to be a “classic” center. On the other, he wasn’t a threat from beyond the arc. So what exactly could be expected from him?...
Hapoel Jerusalem returned to Israel on Wednesday evening from Belgrade where they held a training camp ahead of the domestic season restart this coming Saturday night when they host Bnei Herzliya. The reds held the training camp in order to keep some sense of routine...
Singing Hatikvah, Israel’s national anthem, is a fairly routine act for me. Every basketball game in Israel begins with it. Add to that the military ceremonies, memorials and Independence Day events and you end up with dozens, if not hundreds of times each year that...
When Ethan Burg was called up to the preliminary squad of the Israel National Tem ahead of the European Championship, many eyebrows were raised. The guard, who is about to start his first season in the NCAA, had just finished a pretty mediocre season with Bnei...
Saturday evening, prior to tip-off between Israel and Poland, dozens of police vehicles began to gather in the square near the “Spodek Arena,” the venue hosting the Group D games of the European Championship. The reason? A pro-Palestinian protest planned to take place...
For me, a basketball game is always a celebration, but it's hard to overstate the festive atmosphere that fills every corner of the city of Katowice which is a small, sleepy town on ordinary days that, every few years, gets to host a major tournament and rightly so....
In Israeli basketball, there's a fairly clear milestone at age 30 — a point where you're suddenly no longer a “promising youngster” but an “experienced veteran.” This past July, Itay Segev also crossed that point and now, officially, he’s no longer a kid. Still, the...
