Maccabi Tel Aviv will begin yet another Euroleague season this coming Thursday when they will host ASVEL Villeurbanne at their home away from home at the Aleksandar Nikolic Pionir Hall in Belgrade, Serbia for what will be its second season once the beginning of the war with Hamas that started last year back on October 7th. The yellow-and-blue lost a variety of top of the line players from Lorenzo Brown to Wade Baldwin and Bonzie Colson to name a few and brought in others to replace them.

One of the players who will be making his Euroleague debut is Will Rayman, a naturalized Israeli forward that Maccabi had signed to a long term deal at the end of the 2022-23 season after a successful campaign with Hapoel Haifa and then loaned him out to Saint Quentin in France to get some European experience. There is no question that the 27-year old who has stepped up in the preseason will get his opportunity to be a key player for the yellow-and-blue as the injury bug has hit a number of squad members.

Just ahead of tip-off, The Sports Rabbi spoke to Rayman about his career to date, how he has climbed all the way to the Euroleague as well as how excited he is to grab the chance to show his wares on the continental stage.

“I’m really excited,” Rayman began at Maccabi’s training facility at “Midtown” in Tel Aviv just a block away from the Azrieli Towers. “I signed a couple of years ago and played in France last year, so I’ve kind of just been waiting on this. Obviously, I was super focused last year in France, but it was always in the back in my mind to come back here and back to Israel, so I’m really excited.”

So far, Rayman has enjoyed his time with the yellow-and-blue whether it’s his teammates or the fans, “It feels great to be part of the team so far. The guys are great, the coaching staff is really smart, super professional club. It’s been really good so far. Seeing the fans was awesome. Just getting a first little taste of them, seeing how much they love Maccabi and even just cheering during practice only for maybe 20 or 30 minutes, I felt like they’ve been here the whole time.”

Rayman, whose father is a journalist for the New York Daily News and his mother owns Soho Press, began playing basketball as a child when he was growing up in New York, “I started when I was really young, maybe 4 or 5, growing up in New York City the basketball culture is something out there and my dad played a little bit in college, so it was kind of always there for me. I fell in love with the game in New York City, playing outside in Rucker Park and West Fourth Street, all of these small street tournaments and then eventually I just kept on playing, got better and carried on.”

From the streets of New York it was off to college for Rayman as he continued to develop his game, “I had a really good career at Colgate and I felt from my freshmen year that I always wanted to be a professional basketball player. I just didn’t know what level that would be at and my coaches in college were always pushing me to keep getting better because they knew that I had some potential to play after I finished school.

“Of course everybody wants to play in the NBA, but if you can’t play in the NBA you want to play in the second highest level or even as close as you can get to the NBA. I feel like the Euroleague is the level that is closest.”

Due to the Law of Return, many basketball players with Jewish roots choose to come play in the Holy Land as they can obtain an Israeli passport and not count against the import quota in domestic play. With that, Rayman was a wanted man and Hapoel Haifa’s coach Elad Hasin was able to bring the forward into the fold up by the Carmel Mountain a few years ago.

“Coach Hasin reached out to me because he knew that I had some Jewish roots. We had a really good conversation and he told me that he thought I could be a really good player in this league, so I worked with my agent and with some people in Haifa and a couple of other people in Israel to help me get the citizenship and I’m very excited that I was able to do that. I had great two years at Haifa, I loved those guys as a family, they’re great people and here I am.”

Ironically, Rayman’s debut for Haifa was against Maccabi Tel Aviv at Yad Eliyahu, “That was crazy. I probably only had four practices, but I remember getting out there and being so excited being able to play basketball. On the first play I got an offensive rebound and an and-one, so that’s what I remember the most.”

Later on that season, Haifa defeated Maccabi in what was a stunning upset Rayman recalled, “I remember Amit Simhon’s 41 points and it was crazy because his brother was going to be 43 that day. I still think about it all the time, shout out to Simhon, he carried us that game, also James Ennis was on that team. That was a crazy game, it was the first time I beat a Euroleague team, so that was very big news for me too.”

After a pair of seasons with Hapoel Haifa it was off to France and Saint Quentin where Rayman continued to develop to one day return to Maccabi Tel Aviv and be an important cog to the yellow-and-blue machine.

“Going to France was part of the process the whole time. When Maccabi had approached me they told me that I was going to be loaned out in the first year no matter what, I talked to the coach there in France and saw that he’s a very smart coach. I felt like I would be able to be prepared the most for this league, that the coach there is very professional and very serious, very smart on defense and we had some very mutual interests in terms of the basketball game and the way that we see the game so it was kind of a no brainer for me. I was excited to play in France too because I’ve never lived there or been there before, so it was really cool to see a new culture and be around new guys.”

While Rayman was just beginning his French League season, October 7th occureed back in Israel as Hamas terrorist attacked Israel which totally threw him for a loop, “It caught me off guard as I think it did with most people in Israel. I have a lot of friends here so I was really concerned and I was really kind of out of it for a couple weeks. I had some bad practices and I didn’t play very well in a couple games because my focus wasn’t really there. I was able to understand that all of my friends here in Israel were ok but they had some friends that were in some pretty bad situations, so it was really tough especially being in France and not being able to help at all. I decided to do what I could, posting on Instagram, Twitter and stuff like that, making sure people knew Israel was fighting for their right to live rather than the other way around.”

One of Rayman’s Saint Quentin teammates was Israeli Iftach Ziv who will be playing with Hapoel Holon this coming season and had also been a part of Maccabi Tel Aviv earlier in the decade.

“It was awesome. Iftach is an amazing guy and an amazing teammate. Also, it was really nice because the city there was a really small city and you can’t really make many friends beside your teammates, so it was nice that he came because we both lived in Israel before and it was really nice that we knew the same people, we had a good vibe and he’s a great player. I’m excited for him too in Holon, I think he’s going to have a really good year.”

Another teammate in France was Nolan Traore who is a lock to be one of the top picks in the 2025 NBA Draft, “Nolan is a super talent, I think he’s only 18. Last year he had some really big games in France. Not many players score 20 points in France because the defense is so good and the system is very team oriented, but this dude was good at scoring, assisting, doing everything, in our system the point guard did do a lot of things and had control of the ball a lot. He’s great and his attitude, he’s so confident, we’ll see what he does this year, but I thought last year as a newcomer in France that he’s good.”

In the 2020-21 season, Rayman played for BC Gottingen in Germany where another up and coming Israeli in Ben Saraf will be plying his trade with Ulm.

“I played in the German league five years ago for six games or something, I didn’t have a great experience there so I don’t remember too much about it. But I think he should do really well, I’d say the Israeli league is pretty much the same, there are a couple teams in the top that are above but he’s at Ulm so they have a good team. I think he’ll be really good in that league, I’d say it’s very tactics oriented, but I think it’s pretty similar to Israel.”

Rayman will now we learning from a new head coach in Oded Katash who beings an incredible amount of knowledge to the court, “He’s a very smart guy, very cerebral. With the offense he’s been able to incorporate a good flow and a good rhythm, so I’m just trying to learn from him and take the small points, because he’s such a great coach and he was such a great player too.”

Maccabi captain John Dibartolomeo and Jake Cohen are also naturazlied Israelis who have been around the club for many, many years which of course would be a blueprint for Rayman’s career but he wants to take it slow and easy as he integrates into the club.

“I’m just trying to take it one day at a time, honestly, I’m just trying to keep getting better everyday and help the team as much as I can. I can’t predict the future but I can try to do what I can in the moment, so I’m just trying to do that right now.”

Last summer, Rayman was called up by the Israel National Team and it looked as if he was going to be an integral piece of the puzzle but his time with the blue-and-white was cut short due to an injury.

“I was so mad last summer when I got hurt, I was like, ‘Ugh’, I couldn’t believe that happened, but everything happens for a reason, so maybe I’ll get another chance and maybe not, but even in the week that I was there it was a great experience and I’m so grateful to have been on the team.”

Rayman has the ability to play both the small and power forward positions for Maccabi and can shoot from the outside while also maneuvering on the inside, “For now I’ve been playing mostly the 3-4, but I’ll play wherever they want me to play. My strengths? You guys know I play defense, switch multiple positions, I can guard 1 through 5, good catch and shoot shooter, I’m going to crash off for the rebounds, I’m going to battle down low, dive on the floor for loose balls and stuff like that. Just a bit of everything and just trying to help the team in any way I can.”

With an affinity for the beach and long walks, Israel seems to be the ideal place for Rayman and playing with Maccabi perhaps will help him reach his dreams and goals, “To win championships, that’s it. I just want to try and fulfill my potential and become the best player I can be.”