![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/IMG_8792.jpeg\")
Jordan McRae – Photo credit: Yehuda Halickman<\/p><\/div>
\n\u201cI\u2019m doing well, everything is good,\u201d McRae began. \u201cExcited to be back and everything feels great. This is a familiar place and I\u2019m excited.\u201d<\/p>\n
McRae is not the only player who arrived in Holon that has been in Israel before as Xavier Munford is also here in Israel while a former teammate in big man Idan Zalamnson are on board together with coach Franco.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe preseason has been going been well. As a team we\u2019re learning each other for the first time, we got a lot of guys meeting for the first time so it\u2019s going to take some time, but I think it\u2019s going well. But it\u2019s also good to always have somebody that you\u2019re familiar with as a coach, myself and X are really close off the court and Zali, being able to have him, I know what he can do and have another familiar face in the locker room.
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/IMG_20240316_225354_541.jpg\")
Danny Franco – Photo Yehuda Halickman<\/p><\/div>
\nFranco is a coach who very much values players that have been in Israel before as they understand the league and in McRae\u2019s case, he also is familiar with the bench boss and what he expects of his team. While there may be a reunion at Holon, it\u2019s a totally new season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to come back. I had some other offers, but I talked to X and we wanted to team up again. Obviously Danny was a big part of that with him being the coach, so for myself to come back with X (Xavier Munford) and Danny, it was a no-brained.\u00a0I think that year at Hapoel Tel Aviv was a fantastic. But I think we want to create our own magic here in Holon. What we did in Hapoel is in the past, so we\u2019re just trying to create something new and exciting here.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the third consecutive season, Holon will be playing their games in Europe away from the friendly confines of the Holy Land due to the ongoing conflict with Hamas after they brutally attacked Israel on October 7, 2023. For the 34-year old, this will not be unfamiliar territory as he also played with no fans during the 23\/24 season with AEK.
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/IMG_8794.jpeg\")
Jordan McRae – Photo credit: Yehuda Halickman<\/p><\/div>
\n\u201cIt is what it is,\u201d McRae said. \u201cWe already went down there for five days to kind of get familiar with the area and everything, so with us being able to be there for five days to get comfortable was big for us. It affects the game, of course, but we got a lot of vets on this team so in those kind of games we have to create our own energy and I think that will be a big thing for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
When McRae was with Hapoel, they were knocked out of the EuroCup quarterfinals and will play them once again now with Holon. However, he doesn\u2019t feel that there is any unfinished business. <\/p>\n
\u201cNo. We just know that they\u2019re a really good team, they\u2019re a Spanish team so they have really good experience and are really good, so just going into every game in the BCL is important because it\u2019s a six game thing, you have to go into every game and know that every game is really important.\u201d
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/IMG_8777.jpeg\")
Jordan McRae – Photo credit: Yehuda Halickman<\/p><\/div>
\nLast season, McRae played for Scafati Basket in Italy but he had some issues throughout the year, \u201cI was battling through an injury the whole year, I wasn\u2019t who I normally am. I played on a torn meniscus for about 3-4 months, I tried to do it as long as I could and honestly I couldn\u2019t do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Today, Hapoel Tel Aviv is a Euroleague team but back when McRae was playing for the Reds it was just a dream. With that there is no question that the 22\/23 season set the foundation for what was to come just a few years later, McRae explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would like to feel like I was part of it. I feel like what we did that year kind of put them on a launch pad for what they are today. I\u2019m happy for them, I\u2019m here at Holon and I\u2019m trying to create that magic here.\u201d
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/IMG_9880.jpeg\")
Jordan McRae – Photo Credit: Yehuda Halickman<\/p><\/div>
\nAs for memories from one of the great finals series back in 2022\/23, McRae had a huge performance in game 2 that was a win at the Drive In Arena but on the other hand, the heartbreaking loss at the end of game 3 was devastating.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were so close to making history then,\u201d McRae recalled. \u201cWe fought as hard as we could, playing on the road with a game three is tough. There is nothing much you can say about it, we were inches away, but it didn\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of McRae\u2019s teammates that season was Jaylen Hoard who now plays for Maccabi Tel Aviv and it was the forward who was able to give him a bit of advice and tips here and there in order to help him with his game.
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/IMG_7406.jpg\")
Jaylen Hoard – Photo credit: Yehuda Halickman<\/p><\/div>
\n\u201cI don\u2019t want to take credit for his career, but him and myself are still close friends, he actually came to my house this summer. He\u2019s a basketball guy, loves to watch it and talk about it, me and him are talking during the year and he sends me highlights of stuff he is doing throughout the year, so that\u2019s like a little brother of mine.\u201d<\/p>\n
McRae played for a bit in the Euroleague back at the start of the 2017\/18 campaign but never had another chance to show his wares at the top level of European hoops despite having played in the NBA.
\n\u201cI\u2019ve done a lot of great things in my career, I\u2019m 34 and playing well, but at this point of my career I\u2019m just trying to do the best things possible with where I am and whatever happens the following year, I\u2019ll worry about it then.\u00a0<\/p>\n
McRae is one of the few NBA champions that have graced the courts across Israel having been a part of the 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers team that won the title with one of the greatest players in the history of the league, LeBron James.
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/IMG_8805.jpeg\")
Jordan McRae – Photo credit: Yehuda Halickman<\/p><\/div>
\n\u201cThat was an amazing time in my career, I might have been like 24-25 or something. To have a chance to be on a team like that that will always be talked about in the history of the NBA feels good, no matter what role I played on that team I can always tell people I was on that team. I came back from 1-3, something that has never been done in the history. So just being able to be a part of that is amazing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Seeing how LeBron James plays the game day in and day out was a special opportunity for McRae, \u201cIt sounds cliche, but just how he approaches the game, how he\u2019s at the gym four-five hours early, how he works. It\u2019s inspiring seeing him still do the same things that I\u2019ve seen him do almost ten years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
LeBron even gave McRae a special mention at the championship parade, \u201cIt felt good. That was a very close team that we were on, so being able just to be a part of that and part of history, the fact that we\u2019re still talking about it now in 2025 and it happened in 2016, it\u2019s crazy.\u201d
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/IMG_8797.jpeg\")
Jordan McRae – Photo credit: Yehuda Halickman<\/p><\/div>
\nAs for goals this season, McRae was straight and to the point, \u201cPersonally I don\u2019t have any personal goals. I want to stay healthy throughout the whole year, I feel like that\u2019s first and foremost, but other than that just trying to get Holon back to where they were, trying to be part of that and like I said you want to make history wherever you go. We\u2019re trying to strive towards that.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for being the league\u2019s scoring leader, stuff like that I don\u2019t really get into. I\u2019ve been a scorer throughout my career, but whatever\u00a0it takes to do to win, whether it would be scoring, rebounding, passing, defense – I\u2019m willing to do. Those are young goals, when you\u2019re 25-26 you want to do things like that. My focus is that I\u2019m trying to win at all costs.\u201d<\/p>\n
McRae also spoke about what it\u2019s like being a father and where he sees his post-playing career, \u201cOne of the biggest things I enjoy doing now is being a father. Those moments in the summer where you\u2019re with your kids – they don\u2019t care if you score 20 or 2, so just being with them takes the pressure off of everything. In the games where you have 20,000 people and you don\u2019t play well and you are getting all kind of messages on Instagram and you call you\u2019re kids – they couldn\u2019t care less. That\u2019s just something that\u2019s amazing. After my career? I put some thought into it, but I\u2019m still trying to figure out what it is that I\u2019m trying to do.\u201d
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/IMG_8786.jpeg\")
Jordan McRae – Photo credit: Yehuda Halickman<\/p><\/div>
\nBeing a coach is an option McRae explained, \u201cThere is a chance. I find myself that the older I get the more I can talk to a coach and being able to talk to Danny – we\u2019re talking about different things on the level of schemes, defenses and stuff like that, so I love the game, the game has been very good to me, so if that happens I would love it.\u201d<\/p>\n
McRae does love Israel and considers it a very special place, \u201cIt\u2019s a lot. I love the food, the people, the atmosphere of the basketball games, the basketball, the style in Israel. I really love the food in Israel, there\u2019s so many different things you can have. Israel, like I said before, is another place I call home.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hapoel Holon gets their Basketball Champions League campaign for the 2025\/26 season underway on Wednesday night when they face Bursaspor in Szombathely, Hungary which has served as the club\u2019s home away from home since the outbreak of the war with Hamas. The purples under Head Coach Danny Franco\u2019s tutelage have put together a squad that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":157834,"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":[53,5322],"class_list":["post-157863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-holy-land-hoops","tag-hapoel-holon","tag-jordan-mcrae","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n