Maccabi Tel Aviv has been the home to many a great basketball player over the years. From Miki Berkovic to Tal Brody, from Derrick Sharp to Nadav Henefeld and Tal Burstein to Guy Pnini, the yellow-and-blue have always had terrific mix of players who have made their impact on the club. Two more players that are now also part of that prestigious list is Jake Cohen and John Dibartolomeo who were honored this week for having played 500 games in a Maccabi Tel Aviv uniform.

Prior to the club’s quarterfinal clash against Nes Ziona, the pair of naturalized Israelis from the United State of America were feted by the fans as they received a special framed jersey emblazoned with the number 500 on the back, acknowledging their accomplishment.

Following the game, Cohen opened up about his career, his special evening and offered his reflections on his time as a member of Maccabi Tel Aviv.

“The first thing that I think about when it comes to these things is how grateful I am,” the Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania native began. “It’s a position of privilege that I’ve been in to play for this club for such a long time and to share all these memories with such great people. It’s not only the championships that I cherish, obviously they are really special but also the hard times too, going through difficult times with great people is really a special experience too and nothing encapsulates that more than the last two years what we’ve gone through as a team, that’s been really special to be a part of.”

“To share the night with John who is deserving of so much, a night of his own to be honest was really cool, because he’s my brother in so many ways and he is a really special person, he has gotten me through so many tough times, just being a great friend. To have my wife and children out there to share a moment like that, how many people get the opportunity to do that. That picture is going to be in the Cohen household for a very long time and hopefully for generations to come. It’s hard to wrap my head around it.”

At 34-years old, Cohen understands that his playing career may be coming to a close in the near future, perhaps even after this season and he is well aware as to how fortunate he has been for more than a decade to be able to play the game that he loves.

“I think I have one of the best jobs in the world. Get to come to work with amazing people and I get to play the sport that I love and that I have devoted my life to. I have wonderful people around me and supporting me. I have my family here around me. I’m incredibly lucky, I’m grateful and how can you not have fun. We played great in the second half and the crowd was great those are the moments that I will remember a lot. I don’t know how much longer it will be but whatever it is I want to take every moment as it comes, be grateful, be present and just cherish it because who knows how much longer it will last. I am just going to try and enjoy it.”

The Davidson Wildcats product joined Maccabi Tel Aviv after he graduated college in 2013 and soon thereafter was loaned out to Maccabi Rishon Le’Zion. After a season back in yellow-and-blue, Cohen headed to Greece and when he returned he featured for Maccabi Ashdod during the 2016-17 campaign. From there it was back to Maccabi Tel Aviv for three years where he captured a trio of league championships before playing a season in Spain. Once again, in 2021 it was back to the Holy Land where he took home another pair of titles.
“Family is the best answer for me,” Cohen said about what Maccabi Tel Aviv means to him. “They have been with me since the start of my career. I remember a scout came to see me at the Portsmouth Invitational in April of 2013. He came to me after one of the games and said good game, we’ll be talking to you and now look at me 12 years later. It’s crazy. Reggie Fanan (fitness coach) came up to me and gave me a hug and said I remember when you first got here and you were my project because I wasn’t great physically, I’m still not but that’s not Reggie’s fault.”

“Now I had this pregame ceremony and I had my two kids with me, that’s life and it’s a special thing and like all families we had hard parts I was released by Maccabi three times and I’m still here. It’s a special place nonetheless. I am so fortunate, how many guys get to spend their career at a Euroleague club like this, it’s not lost on me.”

Over the years, Cohen has been in the starting lineup both in the Euroleague and the Israeli competition, he has also come off the bench and there have also been plenty of games where he played very sparingly or not even at all. But regardless of how many minutes he was on the court, Cohen always made sure to keep himself levelheaded and focused on the task at hand.

“That’s part of the job. It’s not guaranteed that you start and it’s not guaranteed that you play. The only thing you can do is help the team as much as you can when you are out there and it’s up to the coach to determine how much I will play. If I worry about things that are outside of my control, I am not doing my job properly. I think that this is something that I have come to learn at this age after over 500 games, you got to worry about what you can control otherwise you are going to drive yourself crazy and focus on the wrong things and then your performance is going to suffer.”

“If you can stay focused and if you play two minutes of twenty minutes as long as you are doing your job and you are trying your best, that’s really all you can ask for. Hopefully the two minutes leads to four to eight and to whatever, that’s how it goes. Wat the coach decides to do, that’s his job, that’s why he gets paid. He’s good at his job too. I need to make sure his job is difficult and he has to play me and has to play all of my other teammates because everyone’s playing great. We need to give him those problems. It’s really just about mindset and focusing on what I can control.”

After Maccabi Tel Aviv punched their ticket to the semifinals with a 3-0 sweep of Nes Ziona, they are now awaiting the winner of the Bnei Herzliya and Hapoel Holon clash. Should they advance to the finals they will face either Hapoel Tel Aviv or Hapoel Jerusalem both of whom will be a very tough opponent in the championship series for the reigning yellow-and-blue. With that, Cohen offered the his thoughts as to what will be the key as the postseason continues on.

“It’s a big challenge and it’s really easy to look too far ahead because Hapoel Tel Aviv and Hapoel Jerusalem are both really talented teams. But no matter who we play in the semifinals whether it’s Bnei Herzliya or Hapoel Holon they are really talented too. So we need to take this break to continue to improve, not get complacent with how we did in the quarterfinal because we are going to have a dangerous team in the semifinal and it’s only a best-of-3, so each game takes on even greater meaning. But I think it’s up to me and John and the other veterans to make sure our guys are focused on the task ahead, not get too far ahead and not get too cocky. You have to understand in the playoffs you can’t look ahead at all and you really have to stay in the moment and appreciate how good your opponents are because at this point every has been playing together for a long time and everyone is dangerous. It’s definitely going to be a challenge for I think we are up for it.”