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JP Tokoto – Photo Credit: Yehuds Halickman<\/p><\/div>
\nAs the team celebrated yet another win to move the top division newcomers into 3rd place overall in the league standings, the ever so humble Tokoto didn\u2019t want to make to much of the dunkaroo, \u201cIt\u2019s just another basket for me and it\u2019s something I am used to doing, if I have a fast break I am going to dunk the ball. So that\u2019s nothing new for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
JP Tokoto arrived in Israel back in 2018 when he joined Hapoel Eilat after having played in the G-League as well as in Australia and a love affair with the Holy Land was born. After featuring for the Red Sea squad, Tokoto played with Nes Ziona which was followed by three seasons at Hapoel Tel Aviv before joining Ramat Gan this year.<\/p>\n
Following his team\u2019s 11th win of the campaign, Tokoto spoke to The Sports Rabbi about the club\u2019s successful season thus far, the desire to play for the Israel National Team as well as the various people who have helped take Ramat Gan to the next level as they compete for the championship.
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JP Tokoto – Photo Credit: Yehuda Halickman<\/p><\/div>
\n\u201cGetting back in the win column was what we wanted to get back to,\u201d Tokoto said after the victory over Beer Sheva which came after a home loss to Maccabi Tel Aviv the prior week. \u201cPlaying the way we know how to play, having fun with it and protecting home court. We have a great record this season and I hope I am not jinxing it, at home taking care of business and even on the road. In my mind, we haven\u2019t lost two in a row so that is something we want to carry forward which is our winning mentality.\u201d <\/p>\n
Ramat Gan moved up to the top league from Israel\u2019s Leumit League this season and has surprised many by not only being competitive game in and game out but by sitting with an 11-6 record good for third place and also most probably a bye through to the quarterfinals of the Israel State Cup. <\/p>\n
Tokoto, however, says that although they may be back in the Premier League for the first time in over a decade they have a tremendous amount to offer, \u201cWe are a new team but we have a lot of experience so that is not something new for us. Yet it is a new team coming into the first division from the second but we also have guys that compete hard, that want to play together, that love to play together, share the ball and play really good basketball. So really it\u2019s nothing that we are surprised about at all.\u201d
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Shmulik Brenner – Photo credit: Yehuda Halickman<\/p><\/div>
\nRamat Gan Head Coach Shmulik Brenner has seen plenty of basketball in his 43 years on this earth as both a player and as a head coach having been in charge of the club since March of 2021. One of the qualities that Tokoto so much appreciates is how the lines of communication between coach and player are always open.<\/p>\n
\u201cShmulik is an awesome coach, his ability to communicate with his players, his level of caring is something that I think is a little over looked because you don\u2019t get that from every coach. I\u2019ve got guys playing in various countries who are having trouble talking to their coach and I can go to Shmulik in the middle of the game and tell him, hey check this out, or this is going on, or try this or what do you think of this. He has an open line of communication which most coaches don\u2019t have.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cI have only had that in Israel with Danny Franco and I also had it when I was Hapoel Eilat when I was with Sharon Drucker who are both amazing coaches and I keep in touch with. I believe that Shmulik will take us to the top and he\u2019s been proving that as he\u2019s got us in third place and practically he makes great decisions and adjustments in the game. If he sees something that is working or we have an advantage somewhere that we are going to it.\u201d
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Naomi Kolodny – Photo Credit: Yehuda Halickman<\/p><\/div>
\nOne of Brenner\u2019s most trusted assistants is Naomi Kolodny, the only female coach in the first division. The Brazilian made Aliyah before the turn of the century and played professionally in the Holy Land between 1999-2015 before embarking on her second career on the bench. <\/p>\n
Tokoto is one of Kolodny\u2019s biggest supporters, \u201cEven putting aside International Women\u2019s Day and that she is a woman in our league coaching, which of course there is not many, with all that put aside, her knowledge of the game, the way she communicates with players and just her level of caring because I see it, I talk with her and she talks with other players. She could be a head coach and have her own club and she has been one of my favorite people to be around and work with aside from the fact that she is one of the only women in our league that is coaching. She has been hands down amazing, one of my favorites.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Tokoto mentioned, Ramat Gan has a number of veteran players including Kendale McCullum. The point guard joined the team over the summer and played in the preseason Winner Cup tournament but left to Poland and Slask Wroclaw when the war broke out. However, things didn\u2019t work out the way he had hoped and then returned back to Israel to rejoin the team to Tokoto\u2019s joy.
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Kendale McCullum – Photo Credit: Yehuds Halickman<\/p><\/div>
\n\u201cIt\u2019s not so crazy, he missed me! That\u2019s my guy, he missed me. Kendale is a great guy and the situation that he was in wasn\u2019t working out for him and we welcomed him back with open arms. He\u2019s been here before so it wasn\u2019t like we had to add a new guy to the mix like Moshko. Kendale is a great player, a great point guard and he\u2019s going to fit in anywhere. I was surprised that the team in Poland just didn\u2019t work out. That\u2019s a guy you can plug and play.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ramat Gan, who have been striving towards the top decided to make a huge in-season move by signing another guard in up and coming star Itay Moskovits from Hapoel Haifa. \u201cMoshko\u201d as he is belovedly known by his teammates made an instant impact upon joining the team as he has slotted right into Brenner\u2019s rotation with ease. So much so has Moskovits integrated nicely, the 23-year old has already provided some thrills and chills with a pair of killer baskets as time wound down to help Ramat Gan closeout Beer Sheva which to Tokoto was nothing spectacular but expected. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been great as he\u2019s another guy that can come in and help the team and that is nothing we didn\u2019t expect from him, it\u2019s nothing that we didn\u2019t know that we were going to get from him. We knew that \u2018Mosko\u2019 can shoot the ball, pass the ball and he\u2019s a great offensive guy to have on the team. He\u2019s a guy that was brand new, came in and meshed with the guys which is a testimony to the camaraderie we have already with our team. Bringing in someone new and hitting the ground running shows the professionalism and us as team that can bring a guy in right away and integrate him right in.\u201d
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Itay Moskovits – Photo Credit: Yehuds Halickman<\/p><\/div>
\n\u201cThose shots, that\u2019s what he does. For me, I\u2019m not surprised. I\u2019ve known his game and played against him. We expect nothing less from him, but those were tough shots that he made and I am not taking anything away from that. But like I said, he\u2019s a great player and we have a lot of guys that can score the ball and this is what we expect.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tokoto who has been a part of the Israeli fabric sees himself as a true blue Sabra at this point and has fallen in love with everything the country has to offer, \u201cI\u2019ve been here for a very long time and most of the guys consider me Israeli already and I have friends here that feel the same. I\u2019ve got a lot of loved ones here, one in particular so I stayed for them and also this is my home as 8-9 months of the year I am here and that has been the same for the last four years. My family was a little bit worried and while I did go home to workout and get my own gym time and take care of my body with the guys I know back home. With the league not playing it was an opportunity to see my family and I took it. I came right back as soon as the team said we were going to hit the ground and we have been rolling since.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the national team looking to add a naturalized Israeli, Tokoto would be delighted if he could help out the country on the court if that would ever become a possibility.
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JP Tokoto – Photo credit: Yehuda Halickman<\/p><\/div>
\n\u201cIt\u2019s a no brainer. This is a place that I have considered my home and I would have no problem playing for Israel. I have been welcomed with open arms for every club that I have played with from Hapoel Eilat to Nes Ziona to Hapoel Tel Aviv for three years straight to now Maccabi Ramat Gan. Wherever I have been everyone has accepted me with open arms and treated me like an awesome human being. Like I said, this is home and if I was asked to play for the Israel national Team that would be a for sure yes. I know all of the Israeli guys that play for that team, most of them I have played with guys like Bar Timor, Tomer Ginat, Idan Zalmanson these types of guys are great people and of course I would have no problem.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When JP Tokoto picked up a loose ball and saw that there was no one impending his way towards the basket, his eyes lit up like flying saucers as he gracefully made his way towards the hoop and readied himself to do what he does best; put down an otherworldly dunk. To get the fans […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":105795,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[29,1420,5463],"class_list":["post-105755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-holy-land-hoops","tag-israel","tag-jp-tokoto","tag-maccabi-ramat-gan","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n