The Lead Point
We may have witnessed Yam Madar’s final game in Israel with Hapoel Tel Aviv, an 88-76 loss to Hapoel Jerusalem but he made sure to get going early for Hapoel Tel Aviv giving NBA clubs one last chance to see him on the court before Wednesday’s Draft. Madar didn’t let the pressure get to him knowing that he may have rocked and rolled in the appropriately named Drive In Arena and looked stellar in the opening minutes with points on inside and from the outside along with a brilliant fast break bounce pass to Bar Timor.

One could see Madar’s swagger and when his team came out of the halftime break down by 7 points, he felt he had to take the bull by the horns and work his magic. A pair of runners in the lane, a crazy turn around ankle breaker jumper and a big time 3-pointer brought his game total to 17 points and 6 assists with ten minutes to go and his team down by 9-points. A layup and foul helped keep the Reds in the game as team management cheered him on.

Madar nailed a floater and scored a few more points but his 23 on the evening weren’t enough for a team that needs a lot more than just an effective Yam Madar to be successful. However, an NBA team will certainly be able to plug a player like Madar into their team and watch him work his way up the ranks of the greatest league in the world.

Yam Madar spoke about the game that was and of course the upcoming NBA Draft with The Sports Rabbi, “We weren’t consistent enough and we didn’t know how to stay in the game.”

“On a scale of 1-10 I’m a 10, I’m really excited, I won’t hide that fact. This is any child’s dream to be at this point. I hope that I will hear good news and be able to experience my dream.”

As for preparing for the big day, Madar “I’ve been trying to disconnect from everything round me, the phone calls and the messages as I focus on just playing basketball. I have a great group of people around me and right now my focus is on our next game at Hapoel Tel Aviv.”

This season with Hapoel, Madar was named as the team’s captain as he spoke about what that means to him, “Either you have it or you don’t. I have taken it upon myself but it’s not just being a captain, it’s what you can do ay in and day out for your team. You step onto the court and you try to give the best performance that you can.”

2) Hapoel Jerusalem did what they needed to do to get the win in a week where they will play three Israeli league games and it’s so far so good going one for one. Coach Oded Katash had a short roster, actually a very short roster without J’Covan Brown, Malcolm Hill, Adam Ariel and Deividas Sirvidis who is heading to join the Detroit Pistons. With five players chalking up double digits out of the seven players who featured, the Reds did the job to notch the win. “After the first four minutes we stalled down and began to focus on our attack,” commented winning coach Oded Katash. “We scored a bundle of points in the 3rd quarter despite having such a short rotation which ended up helping us finish off the game.” As for challenges, I asked Katash if this has been his biggest challenge since he arrived after having a very good and big squad the past two seasons, “The most challenging time that I had at Jerusalem was when I arrived in the middle of the 2017/18 season. Over the last two seasons we’e had sone injuries but our squad was much longer. Right now we are dealing with a number of difficulties.” It will be interesting to see Katash continues to find ways to win with Maccabi Haifa coming up on Thursday and Hapoel Holon on Sunday with no relief in sight.

3) As for the players perspective, Chris Kramer was one of the seven who played serious minutes in the win. With four players chalking up over 30 minutes and with two more games to come in the next six days, how will the Reds cope with it all? I think it just comes down to our conditioning. We worked hard to get to this point. These games we have to win whatever it takes. 5,6,7 guys it’s whatever it takes. We need to recover now towards next game,” explained Kramer. “It will be tough for sure. We are professionals. We need to eat right. We need adequate sleep and give our bodies the best go for the next games in the next four of five days. Your mind is so much stronger than our bodies. The last game against Holon will be a big mental test for us.” As for his future with the team as he is on a contract which includes and out clause on both sides at the end of the month, “At this point I have no idea and I am playing with Hapoel Jerusalem. That’s all I can say and I can’t tell the future. I just have to go out there and play as hard as I can and I have to be better than I was this past game. That’s the bottom line.”