Hapoel Holon has had quite the season. From coaching and personnel changes to go along with many ups and downs, war and much more throughout what was a challenging campaign to say the least, it looks like the purples are peaking just at the right time.

After disposing of Bnei Herzliya in a two game sweep in the quarterfinals, Predrag Krunic’s team is now taking on Maccabi Tel Aviv but are 2-0 down in a best-of-5 semifinal series for the right to play for the league championship with game three slated for Friday afternoon at Yad Eliyahu.

Part of the reason that Holon is in the position that they are in is because of guard Tray Croft.

The Anniston, Alabama native began this season in France but arrived right in time after a ceasefire was reached in the war with Iran to make his mark when the Israeli league resumed action. After Croft used his crafty play to score 19 points in the second game against Herzliya and earned the MVP award in the win, he’s been unable to play in the first two games due to a minor procedure just before the semifinals series opened up but hopes to be available for game three.

Earlier in the week, The Sports Rabbi sat down with the 28-year old to find out what makes him tick as a myriad of topics were covered in an interview that took place just ahead of the semis. “I feel great. So with this being my third year, this is going to be my second time in the playoffs. I came from France before coming here and they brought me in to play in the playoffs and right now I just feel really great to have the opportunity.”

Of course, Croft and Holon are playing against Maccabi who are 6x EuroLeague champions as well as the defending titles holders and will no doubt be a challenging matchup with some high quality players.

“We got a good foundation around here, a good team. We got good team chemistry and we got a good coach. So I just feel great about the whole series. I feel good about any matchup I go into and I feel really confident.”

After Holon won their quarterfinal series against Bnei Herzliya at home, Croft and his teammates went up to the fans and even went into the stands, “Even when we travel away, we feel at home because they behind us 100% every time. So the fan love is just crazy and I had to show them some love because they show us so much love.”

With so many changes in the various team rosters this season due to the war, there are also many stories of how each and every player landed up in Israel including Croft whose family was concerned about him coming to the Holy Land but he made the decision to come anyway. 

“When I was in France, after my third to last game, I woke up to a call from my agent telling me about this opportunity so I packed my bags. An hour or so later, the head coach called me and he was just telling me that we want to get you here for the playoffs and stuff like that. I thought about it and I was like, yeah, let’s do it.”

Croft fell in the love with the game of basketball from early age and thanks his mother for being there the entire way through.

“I really started when I was three years old. My family went to a fair in Kentucky and my mom said that I had been crying the entire time until they put me on to the little basketball thing. When they did, I just was shooting the basketball and they said that I didn’t want to leave. So it just started from there. Growing up, my mom was my biggest role model. Growing up in a single parent home, seeing her work hard, the long nights, the crying, just the hard work she put in to make sure me and my sister were okay growing up. So that’s my biggest motivation.”  

The guard had played in a few European countries since arriving in Israel including Georgia, Serbia and France and due to those experiences he was able to take a number of things away from his various stops.

“Really, I took the culture. The culture is really different. People think when you come over here, it’ll be awkward and stuff. But the people overseas, they make you feel like home and they make you feel real good. You feel like a celebrity when you’re out here. Every time somebody sees you, they might want to take a picture. Sometimes they offer to even take you out to eat. So it just feels really good being overseas.”

Last year, Croft took a little bit of a break from the game due to a loss in his family, “I took the year off because a couple months before I was supposed to go to Italy, I lost my little sister. So that hit me kind of hard. So I just took the year off to get my mind back right and spend time with my family.”

During that time, Croft kept in shape and played some one versus one and there were some viral clips that made it out onto social media as he took the most from the year he had away from playing overseas.

“Growing up, I watched Ball is Life all the time, all the mixtapes and then two summers ago, I saw a flyer that one of my friends posted about them coming to an area that was close to my city. I hit the dude up and asked if I could I get a game? He told me, yeah, you’re gonna get a game. So I had got that game and I went there and did my thing and then they just offered for me to come back. But that’s one of the platforms, a big platform to help you get your name out there everywhere else. So that helped. That was a big part of helping me too.”

When Croft first got here there was a Israeli players strike, but he took full advantage of the situation, “Honestly, that was I wasn’t really expecting that. My second game here, I wasn’t expecting it. But it kind of helped me because I played a lot of minutes and it helped me build a lot of confidence and get to show the organization what I can really do.”

Part of the culture of Hapoel Holon is that the players really give it their all and battle the entire game and coach Krunic who joined the club in the middle of the season seems to be an expert in getting the maximum out of everyone. For Croft, who brings good vision, good energy and oodles of positivity, Holon seems to be a perfect match and would be happy to continue with the club into the future.

“Man, coach is probably one of the best coaches I had in my whole life. His energy is unmatched. Every day we come to practice, he full of energy. So his energy makes us have energy. It’s the same thing all the time. Great energy. No negativity. It’s just all positive. He always comes in with a smile and great, great energy. I definitely want to come back. I definitely want to come back.”

So far, Croft is very much enjoying his time in Israel which has left on good impression on him, “It’s like a foreign Miami. The food is good, the culture is good and the people show you mad love. A lot of people had questions of me coming over here because of the war. But when I got here, I saw it was nothing to be worried about.”

As for goals this season with Holon and dreams for his career, Croft was optimistic and has only one thing in mind, “Definitely winning the championship with Holon. That’s the plan. That’s the main goal.”