The future of Israeli basketball has been on display all summer long as both the youth men’s and women’s national teams of various ages have been playing across Europe in their respective European Championships.

The Israel Under-18 team is in a unique situation as they are the only one of six blue-and-white teams that is participating in Division B and have one goal in mind, which is to be promoted to Davison A so that all of the squads will be playing at the top level next summer.

One of the most intriguing players on the U18 team is 16-year old point guard Maayan Gorin who plays for Crestwood Preparatory College in Toronto, which is one of Canada’s top basketball academies.

Last summer, Gorin was one of the leaders of Israel’s U16 National Team, which finished 11th at the FIBA U16 Women’s European Championship. She averaged 20.0 points per game (second-best in the tournament), along with 3.0 assists and 4.6 rebounds. Already at 3-0 in the current tournament taking place in Tulcea, Romania, Gorin leads the Israel squad with 17.7 points per game

Just before the competition tipped off, The Sports Rabbi sat down with Gorin in a special interview about almost everything under the sun.

“It’s an amazing feeling to represent Israel,” Gorin began. “There’s nothing better than representing your country and being together with all the girls. It’s just so much fun.”

Last summer Gorin had a very successful tournament, both individually and with the team as a whole which she was able to take plenty out of the experience, “That was a lot of fun, both as a team and personally. I think this year we can accomplish a lot by taking the good things from last year with us. We have a very talented team and I believe in all of us.”

The goal is clear for Gorin and the squad as they look up from Division B, “Of course, to earn promotion to Division A, do the best we possibly can and play together as one team.”

Growing up basketball was not the first sport that Gorin started playing, “I actually played soccer, but all of my friends played basketball and wanted me to join them. So I decided to try it once and I fell in love with it.”

Gorin played in the Gilboa/Maayanot youth department although she is from Kibbutz Meggido which is in the area. But the experience really helped her develop her skills and was the foundation stone for her success and a move to North America.

“I joined the academy at Gilboa/Maayanay and lived there for a year. It was an amazing experience. It’s a great club and I had a lot of fun. After the European Championship last year with the U16 national team, the Crestwood Preparatory Academy contacted me. I felt it was an opportunity I didn’t want to miss out on, so I decided to go for it.”

Gorin received a number of offers including some from schools in America, but ultimately settled on playing in Canada, “I did have a few offers from the United States, but I felt that the opportunity in Canada was the strongest of all the options. So there really wasn’t much of a decision, I wanted to go to the best place I could.”

Before Gorin made the move to the Great White North, she spoke with players who had already made that kind of move, whether to Canada or the USA, “I had a few conversations at the beginning, but mostly my parents spoke with a lot of people and my agent did all the research before I moved. I felt completely confident before making the move and knew exactly what I was getting into.”

Gorin’s success has led her to have some clips of game highlights from Canada on Instagram that have gone viral, but she knows that the key is to keep everything level headed, “Of course it’s fun. I think you just have to enjoy it, not get too caught up in it and just let it be.”

As one of the younger players on this U18 team, Gorin has not had any issues with fitting in and finding her place, “I already knew most of the girls. There were a few I hadn’t played with before, but I felt like I fit in right away. They’re all really good friends of mine and it’s just a lot of fun.”

Gorin has some incredible assets and is extremely talented but knows that she also has areas that need improvement in order to become the version of herself as possible, “I think one of my biggest strengths is my speed. I just love to run. What I’d like to improve is learning to control the pace of the game better at times, work on my weak hand and just improve in every area that I can.”

Over the past few years, women’s basketball in Israel has really taken a step up with more players going abroad along with a number of success stories from some of the age groups. Gorin feels that there has been progress and also has some dreams of her own.

“First of all, it’s great to see more and more girls playing and to see how much the sport is growing. I think all of us work really hard and you can see the progress. Women’s basketball is developing a lot, and that’s exciting. As for my biggest dream, that’s to play at a great college and then make it to the WNBA.”