Austin Wiley landed in Israel and the Hapoel Jerusalem center was met by the media as he spoke about the upcoming campaign with the desire to make amends to not having finished off the championship series which was canceled due to the war with Iran when it was all knotted up at one game a piece against Maccabi Tel Aviv.

אוסטין וויילי נחת בישראל ופגש את אוהדי הפועל ירושלים!🔴 pic.twitter.com/fn2nVxI0Y2

— Sports Rabbi (@thesportsrabbi) August 17, 2025

“I’m super excited,” Wiley began. “We are going to have a really good team this year and we want to finish things that we started last year. I had a good offseason and I know my teammates and coaching staff are going to be ready so everybody is going to be ready for a special season. It gives you motivation because we wanted to win the championship last season and now we have a whole new team and a whole new hunger.”

The big man spoke about the new players that joined the squad, “All of them are good, management did a great job recruiting and I think they are going to help our team really well. We are are going to be very successful in my opinion.”

Austin Wiley – Photo credit: Yehuda Halickman