Roman Sorkin has come a long way since sitting on the bench and collecting splinters for a full 40 minutes for Maccabi Tel Aviv in game 5 of their quarterfinal series against Monaco back in May of 2023. Having been at that game, the thought of Sorkin not getting a chance to come in and see if he could impact a matchup that the yellow-and-blue eventually came up short in was very frustrating.

However, seeing Sorkin now doing as he pleased on the grandest European stage for the Israel National Team against Iceland was something extraordinary. The big man who played for Oregon Ducks and then another team in green Maccabi Haifa that went down a league while he was on the roster, looked and played the role of superstar next to the third Israeli in the world’s greatest league, Deni Avdija.

31 points, 31 efficiency rating in 31:54 minutes is quite the showing. Add to that going 13/19 including 4 triples and 5 boards and you gave a massive performance in Israel’s 83-71 win.

Sorkin, who is now 29 years old has aged like fine wine as they say and is really coming into his own. Sure he flirted one summer league with the Golden State Warriors a few years back and he’s honed his skills adding various weapons to his arsenal, one of which is his 3-point shot, but it looks like he is primed to build off of his breakout year last season in the Euroleague.

With averages of 12.9 points, 4.1 rebounds to go along with 34.1% (31/91) from 3-point land, Sorkin will get even better and he’s shown it already after the Eurobasket opener.

Following the game, Sorkin was the talk of talk of the town as everyone wanted to discuss the Minsk, Belarus born center. But as much as people wanted to praise Sorkin, they were also trying to tow the party line that Head Coach Ariel Beit Halachmi has been attempting to keep; the talk is about the national team as a whole and not one individual.

“What did I like about him?” Beit Halachmi said. “That he was part of Team Israel, they played together and won. We did it together. Everyone who played contributed of course and those who didn’t play, contributed with their energy.”

Sorkin danced on the floor and did as he pleased in the paint going 9/12 on the inside and once he started to heat up from the outside he knocked down a quartet of 3-pointers going 4/7 from downtown and looking like a superstar.

Now Deni Avdija did have a role in Sorkin’s showing by not only getting him the ball but drawing the defense towards him leaving the big man wide open at times and able to do just about he wanted to without even being guarded at times.

Sorkin was aware of that fact and spoke about what it was like to have an NBA star by his side throughout the game, “It’s a lot of fun, he draws so much attention that it makes the job much easier for all of us. He’s a great player, doesn’t force things, everything flows and is just fun. We’re happy that he’s with us and not against us.”

While Sorkin and Avdija really led the way in this game scoring a combined 51 points or 61% of the entire team’s output, his points also came at the most critical time for the national team; coming out of halftime when Israel was only up 36-32.

Sorkin went from deep to begin the second half and led the blue-and-white on a 9-0 run to get the second half underway and then continued to score and score and score some more as he drained another triple to get the fourth quarter going as well.

Of course, Sorkin and Avdija can’t be the only ones who will be carrying the scoring load and others will need to step up including Yam Madar who was rusty going 1/7 from the field.

Madar, who played his first game in quite some time due to the right knee injury that he has been nursing since the spring also gave his short but poignant thoughts on Sorkin, “I think he did an excellent job today, so did Deni Avdija and Guy Palatin. Everyone prepared as well as they possibly could. I hope he and the others continue this level of play.”

“Sorkin had a great game,” veteran guard Bar Timor added. “Not only him, many others did well too. I’m happy we won. We have a lot of weapons. We’ll prepare properly for Poland that’s a totally different game.”

Israel will look to knock off the host, but it will be a very tough game in front of a packed Spodek Arena in Katowice and it will be all hands on deck, not just the dynamic duo from the Iceland game, Sorkin and Avdija. Khadeen Carrington has to score more than a pair of points and others need to be up to the task playing their best basketball because if Israel has any designs of advancing to the Round of 16 in Riga, they need to beat Poland and not have to think about finding a way to win against the likes of France and Slovenia.

“They are a different team and the arena will be full,” Beit Halachmi said. “Their style is different, this is a tough and experienced team and it will be a different game which we will have to come in prepared for. We have a little more than a day to get ready.”

Israel will no doubt have ask hands on deck for the Poland game, but any contest against a host country is going to be tricky, ask them about last Eurobasket when they lost to Czechia or even years back in a defeat to Greece at the OAKA Arena in Athens.

On paper, Beit Halachmi’s team is the superior side but the game is played on the court and Israel will need to make sure they are playing in 5th gear or else, despite an opening group stage win, they’ll be looking from the inside out at the knockout rounds in Latvia.