1) Beitar Jerusalem are all alone in first place, of course, Hapoel Beer Sheva who are 3-points behind will leap over the yellow-and-black due to better goal differential should they beat Hapoel Tel Aviv on Monday night, but nonetheless, Barak Itzhaki’s side is at the top of the table. This was probably just a dream for Beitar fans when the season began but here they are leading the league.

Credit has to go from top to bottom as the head coach to the players to the sports director Almog Cohen to the owner Barak Abramov all have a part in the club’s success thus far. Success that may, just may end with a championship at the end of the season. Sure, Itzhaki doesn’t want to even utter the word championship or title, but the facts are the facts, Beitar is in the race for the first time in what seems to be years and years.

Why has Beitar been so good this season? Well, they have the most lethal attack with the likes of Yarden Shua, Omer Atzily, Adi Yona, Timothi Muzie and others, plus they have arguably the best central defender in Luka Gadrani who organizes and sets up the play from the back to perfection. With the situation being s positive, Beitar has already signed Boris Enow who made his debut on Saturday against Hapoel Petach Tikva while Gonzales is on his way and should arrive in the Holy Land this coming weekend.

Beitar had to put a small tiff to bed when Ziv Ben Shimol and Dor Hugi got into it during the 1-0 win over Bnei Reineh, but they buried the hatchet and that helped the latter score a late brace thanks to the former to close out the 3-1 victory at Petach Tikva.

Teamwork at its best and teamwork that Itzhaki wants to see and also needs to see in order for Beitar to compete for the championship.

“It’s very hard to wait on the bench,” Hugi said. “It’s not a simple period and requires a lot of mental work at home. It’s not easy to come on for scraps of minutes every time, but this is a big club. You have to come on without sulking and help the team win, that’s my job. What happened in the previous match with Ziv Ben-Shimol involved emotions; it happens. I think the media blew it up a bit. There’s a great locker room, no bad blood, everything is fine. Everyone are friends with everyone.”

2) Maccabi Tel Aviv Football Club are in trouble. The yellow-and-blue look as if they are just going one way, the wrong way especially after losing the Israeli Classico 4-1 at Maccabi Haifa. Zarko Lazetic’s team looked tired, exhausted and lost as they went head-to-head with a surging Greens side that looked a billion times better since Bark Bachar took over the reins from Diego Flores.

The secret? Tons of young players are now littering their roster. The bench boss has been able to integrate the likes of Navot Ratner, Yinon Fainegezict, Elad Amir who was injured in this game as well as Niv Gabay while you can add new recruit Cedric Don from Hapoel Jerualem and one could see plenty of up and coming talent that will take Haifa into the upcoming years. Together with these youngsters who have come from the youth team, Bachar is refreshing and renewing the roster, a roster that just blew away an overmatched Maccabi.

Sure, Maccabi won a very emotional State Cup Derby in penalties, but still how do they come out and look totally lost and without a clue in a massive game in front of a packed Sammy Ofer Stadium.

Will the bench boss Zarko Lazetic keep his job? Will owner Mitch Goldhar make a stunning move or is the club just going to play out the string this season, one that they have no chance to win the league title. Time will tell where Maccabi goes from here, but there have been so many side stories that have permeated throughout the club from the fans setting off fireworks at Lazetic’s home, to the fans boycotting games, it’s been a campaign that everyone would probably like to put behind them.

3) Over in basketball, Hapoel Tel Aviv is coming off of a 75-66 win over a very game Elitzur Netanya. The Reds did not have their so called big guns for this game as Elijah Bryant, Dan Oturu, Vailije MIcic and Antonio Blakeney (who we will get to in a bit) were not dressed. But the balance of the roster with the likes of Johnathan Motley, Chris Jones, Colin Malcolm, Ish Wainright and Tai Odiasse plus a full complement of Israeli players were charged with playing this contest, however, play here is the word in question as Head Coach Dimitrios Itoudis’s squad didn’t look too interested in this game one iota.

At times it looked as if the Reds were going to come up short to the last place team in the Israeli League clash, but with solid play late in the game from Tai Odiase along with Yam Madar and Tomer Ginat and Hapoel were to chalk up the win. But there was really in essence nothing to take from this game whatsoever, at least for Hapoel.

Netanya looked like a totally different team than the one that had played the majority of the first round. They were defensively responsible, offensively solid, effective in how they came and executed their game plan which took them to oh so close to a win as they game was neck and neck all the way to the final couple of minutes. Now Netanya Head Coach Eli Raby wasn’t interested in getting the proverbial pat on the back because as he said, “we need win,” but he has plenty to take from the game as well as from their win last week and they will look to stay up in the top league and avoid relegation.

They were so solid, that Itoudis mentioned not once or twice at how much better they were since they met about a month ago. The bench boss also said how he personally complimented Raby on his team’s play and expressed how impressed he was. Raby, who coached for years in the world of women’s basketball is taking full advantage of the opportunity to once again coach in the men’s top division, something he hasn’t done since he was at the helm in Ashkelon back in 2011.

The relegation battle is now on and it’s going to be exciting to see where Raby can take his team and how the season will turn out for the club’s at the bottom of the standings.

4) Getting back to Antonio Blakeney and his situation that saw allegations levied against the swingman as the story that was broken by NBC last week has left plenty of open questions that will need to be settled, but that is for the higher authorities to deal with, not The Sports Rabbi. The one query that I thought of immediately was the issue of trust between Blakeney and Itoudis as well as Blakeney and his teammates along with what type of future effect could this have on the team, one that is competing for the Euroleague championship and are currently in first place. Trust is the most important thing in the hallowed walls of the locker-room and that to me was critical to be as the players are all a family as they all look to reach the same goal.

I asked Itoudis about the trust issue at the post game press conference and he while he said he could not share a number of things that he knows, he did say the following, “We have full trust in the player. I have talked with the player, as also the teammates, he’s practicing serious, no concerns in regards of the integrity, commitment and the sport ethic that AB has.”

Hapoel Tel Aviv Coach Itoudis about the allegations against Antonio Blakeney:

“We have full trust on the player. I have talked with the player, as also the teammates, he’s practicing serious, no concerns in regards of the integrity, commitment and the sport ethic that AB has” pic.twitter.com/OT0hVfUwbG

— Sports Rabbi (@thesportsrabbi) January 18, 2026

If Itoudis is satisfied as are the players than that is good enough for me. I’m not an investigative reporter and I’m certainly not interested in being one. I don’t have the qualifications to be one, so I am not even going to attempt to opine on the matter. Ethically, I do know that one should always be innocent until proven guilty and that is how I have always looked at life and the law. From all of the interactions that I have had with Blakeney, I can only say that he has been a standup guy and one who has told it like it is when it comes to the game of basketball. Hopefully, for all involved the case will come to a positive and amicable solution.

5) What went on in the Maccabi Rishon Le’Zion and Maccabi Ramat Gan game was disgraceful. Battle Royales should be left for the professional wrestlers to take part in and not pro basketball players. With time running down and Rishon who was playing at home in cruise control and up by almost double digits saw all hell break loose as DJ Burns and Khalil Ahmad getting thrown out while Joirdon Nicholas being tossed from Ramat Gan. We all know what happened from there as Freddy Bourdillon knocked down one free throw after the next and then hit his 3-point shots while Adam Ariel did the same and came away with an overtime win out of nowhere.

כן, זה רשמית המשחק הכי משוגע שהייתי נוכחת בו. pic.twitter.com/pJjjDPxPn8

— Noa Konfino🏀 (@easymoneynoa35) January 18, 2026

But the punches thrown, the fighting and wrestling have no business being on a basketball, court. It was an awful look and honestly, who cares who started it, this is something that should never, ever have occurred and I’m sure Rishon Head Coach Guy Kaplan will agree with that especially because his team ended up losing a surefire win.

6) Finally, can Maccabi Tel Aviv Basketball Club please give us the full story on injuries and player availabilities? Is it that difficult? The team posted an injury update on Monday saying that Lonnie Walker who has been out now for a few weeks with some sort of shoulder injury isn’t travelling with the team to Greece but no time line for his return, Zach Hankins is still out for yet another 2 weeks with an injury above his ankle and the captain John Dibartolomeo is also now on the shelf with a small tear in his groin muscle and will be out for two weeks. Why can’t they just say that Walker is out XXX weeks and that they will have do without him?

That brings up another topic of Jeff Dowtin who has been dressed now for a number of games but has not seen the court. Everyone thought that he would finally get some minutes in the win over Hapolel Holon but that didn’t happen. Will he take part in the upcoming Greek Double Week?

I hated having to ask Will Rayman at the post game press conference about his thoughts on Dowtin not having played yet and he said that he has been out for about 6 weeks and it takes time to get back into the swing of things as well as that he has been working hard.

One just wishes that Maccabi would be just a bit more transparent.