The Israel Men’s National Basketball Team will be in action this coming weekend as the blue-and-white will begin 2027 World Cup European Qualifying with a pair of games against Germany and Croatia. Head Coach Ariel Beit Halachmi’s squad is coming off of this past summer’s Eurobasket in which they advanced to the Round of 16 in Latvia but succumbed to Greece and NBA All-Star Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Israel was drawn in Group E which will also include Cyrus in addition to Germany and Croatia as the top three teams advance to the second round, however, the record obtained in the first round rolls over and the top three of six teams will then punch their ticket to the tournament in Qatar. The next set of first round games will be played at the end of February and the third set will take place in July.

Just ahead of the opening contests, Beit Halachmi and veteran swingman Yovel Zoosman spoke about the challenges ahead along as well as the return of Tamir Blatt to the team and much more.

“We are about to launch the next campaign that is very significant for Israeli basketball and for all of us. It’s a very big challenge, but also a huge opportunity to continue the path we’ve been on over the past two years. We are proud to be here, proud to always represent our country and we will come into these games, as we have in recent years, with a lot of commitment, desire and hunger. Our goal is to accomplish something here and qualify for the World Cup after many years of not doing so. The road is not easy and it’s a long one. We respect all of our opponents of course, but the focus is on us. We need to come and play our best, bring our desire and hunger, and do everything that we can to qualify for the World Cup from here on out.”

The bench boss also spoke about the first two opponents Germany and Croatia, “I don’t want to talk too much about them as we all understand the level of play that these two are on. But if we want to accomplish something big, we need to beat the teams that on paper are better than us. The competition is a very long one, two years until the actual tournament and in the upcoming window, we first need to bring the players together. As you understand, we don’t have too much time together. But I trust the players, I believe in them and we need to look every opponent in the white of their eyes.”

“The goal as we said from the beginning is to qualify and we want to be at the World Cup. It won’t be an easy journey but I believe in our players and we need to take each window on its own. The upcoming window, because of the complexity of the schedules between the EuroLeague and FIBA, we’ll basically see the full squad only on Thursday in practice but I trust the players and their seriousness. We need to find the best way to play together and to play our basketball.”

Tamir Blatt is making his return to the blue-and-white for the first time since the 2022 Eurobasket which was the cause of some controversy over the past few years, “We had a good conversation and Tamir is arriving here committed and one who wants to be here and we want him here. We’re all happy about his return. We’re starting a new path and our whole goal is for the national team to be as good as possible. Tamir definitely strengthens us and we’re happy about his return. We’re not going to looking backwards.”

Yovel Zoosman also discussed the upcoming pair of games as well as some other issues that were bright to the forefront including that of workload, “I’m not going to hide from it but there is a general physical load of flights and a thousand different things attached to them which we gave experienced since the start of the war. But when the national team wants you, you show up full of motivation. You have to throw those complaints out the window and want to do what we all love most. It’s a bit different from regular club play, you need to adapt and understand where you can help. That’s more important than anything. Any fatigue is something that we put aside.”

Zoosman has been playing extremely well recently for Hapoel Jerusalem and hopes that this stretch will continue into the national team window where he will also have the opportunity to play with Tamir Blatt.

“I’m doing what I’ve done until now. I believe in myself. I’m going through a good stretch and I know what needs to be done and in this opportunity I can also be more vocal with the experience I have. Regarding Tamir Blatt, I’m happy to see all of the guys. It’s fun, emotional and we all share stories from our clubs. We’ve known each other since we were young and we played together at Alba Berlin as well as youth national teams. Bottom line is that it’s very nice he’s here. I hope he can help us win the upcoming games and that everyone will do their job and do their best. I’m looking forward to playing with Tamir again, it’s been a long time and I miss him.”

As for the upcoming opponents, Zoosman shared his thoughts on what will no doubt be a quite a pair of games, “First of all, the German national team is a very good team, especially with their NBA players, world champions and European champions. Even without the NBA players, they’re still very good. There isn’t just one player who will do more damage than another, they have a lot of talent and they are a very quick team. It’ll be nice to meet some players I played with, I miss all of them there. They’re really good people who welcomed me with open arms as a foreign player in Germany. It was a very nice time and I’m grateful for that. But hopefully we’ll play against them and win and then afterwards we’ll still stay friends, because I truly like them.”

As for Croatia, along with Mario Hezonja, the squad has plenty of other weapons, but ultimately it’s a team effort Zoosman explained, “Basketball is played 5-on-5. Hezonja’s a player with many years of experience in the EuroLeague, he’s a top player and double-digit scorer who was also an NBA player who was a top-10 draft pick. It’s not me alone against him, stopping him is a collective effort. With players like that, your job isn’t to prevent them from entirely scoring, but to limit them and make them less efficient. We’ll see together with the coaches what will be the best way to do that. But it’s a team effort. A player like that can’t be stopped at 0 or 2 points, or even 5 or 6. But in terms of efficiency, we can do a better job.”