{"id":21414,"date":"2020-09-29T09:14:48","date_gmt":"2020-09-29T09:14:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/?p=21414"},"modified":"2020-11-26T13:04:43","modified_gmt":"2020-11-26T13:04:43","slug":"geoff-grays-holy-land-hoopster-diary-i-can-tell-you-one-things-this-team-feels-special","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/geoff-grays-holy-land-hoopster-diary-i-can-tell-you-one-things-this-team-feels-special\/","title":{"rendered":"Geoff Gray&#8217;s Holy Land Hoopster Diary &#8211; &#8220;I can tell you one thing, this team feels special&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Geoff Gray is beginning his second year as a professional in Israel and will give The Sports Rabbi an exclusive view each week into what it&#8217;s like playing ball in the Holy Land! <\/em><\/p>\n<p>For those who don\u2019t know me, my name is Geoffrey Gray and I\u2019m a 23-year-old Jewish-American from Boston, Massachusetts. After having a successful four-year career at Division Three Emerson College in downtown Boston, I decided I wanted to pursue my dreams of playing professional basketball. Upon graduating from Emerson in the Spring of 2019 with a degree in Marketing Communications and minor in Sports Communication, I put my Jewish heritage to work and obtained my Israeli passport by \u201cmaking Aliyah,\u201d giving me dual citizenship between the United States and Israel. At that point, all I had to do was wait for my agent, Matan Siman-Tov of 2Talent Sports, who I signed with that previous April, to find me a deal and I was moving on from living in the Boston area for the first time in my life. <\/p>\n<p>Come late August, we were presented with an opportunity from Hapoel Eilat of the First Division, and after sitting on it for a couple days, I was set to begin my professional career. Playing in Eilat was a unique experience, both on and off the court. From playing against guys like Omri Casspi and NBA 3-Point Contest Champion Daequan Cook, to playing with guys that played for the same Celtics that I grew up obsessing over. Being a part of something like that was special, but I\u2019ll save those stories for another time. For now, we can dive into a day in the life of a second-year pro during the novel Coronavirus.<\/p>\n<p>After the pandemic put a halt to our season in mid-March, I returned home to Boston. The Winner League managed to formulate a restart to complete the season in the Summer, but I elected to stay home and assist my parents because of their limited options brought on by the Coronavirus. However, with the help of my current teammate and roommate Elijah Hirsch, another D3 second-year Jewish-American from Berry College, Matan was able to get me a deal with Ironi Kiryat Ata of Liga Leumit, Israel\u2019s Second Division. I signed in late July and after a brief stint in Atlanta to work out with Matan, Deni Avdija, Shelvin Mack, John Jenkins, and other pros, I was off to Israel for the second time in late August. <\/p>\n<p>The first two weeks were somewhat interesting, as every player coming from the States had to quarantine and therefore had to practice separately from the other Israelis. Once that was completed, we got to join the rest of the team and I was playing full court for the first time since March, and man did that feel good. Unfortunately, due to the countrywide lockdown, teams have had to close their gyms, but hopefully that doesn\u2019t last long. I\u2019ve been on some really good teams in my life and after getting in a couple weeks worth of scrimmages and practices here, I can tell you one thing, this team feels <em>special<\/em>. There\u2019s nothing quite like playing with a great group of guys, living by the beach in warm weather all year long, having an abundance of free time, and getting paid to do what you <em>love<\/em>. If we can get past the obstacles brought on by the pandemic, it could be a great year. Stay tuned&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Geoff Gray is beginning his second year as a professional in Israel and will give The Sports Rabbi an exclusive view each week into what it&#8217;s like playing ball in the Holy Land! For those who don\u2019t know me, my name is Geoffrey Gray and I\u2019m a 23-year-old Jewish-American from Boston, Massachusetts. After having a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":17671,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[175,36,183],"class_list":["post-21414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-holy-land-hoops","tag-eilat","tag-geoff-gray","tag-kiryat-ata","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Geoff Gray&#039;s Holy Land Hoopster Diary - &quot;I can tell you one thing, this team feels special&quot; - Sports Rabbi<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/geoff-grays-holy-land-hoopster-diary-i-can-tell-you-one-things-this-team-feels-special\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Geoff Gray&#039;s Holy Land Hoopster Diary - &quot;I can tell you one thing, this team feels special&quot; - Sports Rabbi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Geoff Gray is beginning his second year as a professional in Israel and will give The Sports Rabbi an exclusive view each week into what it&#8217;s like playing ball in the Holy Land! For those who don\u2019t know me, my name is Geoffrey Gray and I\u2019m a 23-year-old Jewish-American from Boston, Massachusetts. After having a [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/geoff-grays-holy-land-hoopster-diary-i-can-tell-you-one-things-this-team-feels-special\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sports Rabbi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-09-29T09:14:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-11-26T13:04:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/4d6edfb6-20df-4aea-879b-8330771d0789.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"435\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Joshua Halickman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Joshua Halickman\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/geoff-grays-holy-land-hoopster-diary-i-can-tell-you-one-things-this-team-feels-special\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/geoff-grays-holy-land-hoopster-diary-i-can-tell-you-one-things-this-team-feels-special\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Joshua Halickman\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/10150053309b5bf124d40c3812a32bf0\"},\"headline\":\"Geoff Gray&#8217;s Holy Land Hoopster Diary &#8211; &#8220;I can tell you one thing, this team feels special&#8221;\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-09-29T09:14:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-11-26T13:04:43+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/geoff-grays-holy-land-hoopster-diary-i-can-tell-you-one-things-this-team-feels-special\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":599,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/geoff-grays-holy-land-hoopster-diary-i-can-tell-you-one-things-this-team-feels-special\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/01\\\/4d6edfb6-20df-4aea-879b-8330771d0789.jpeg\",\"keywords\":[\"eilat\",\"Geoff Gray\",\"Kiryat Ata\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Holyland Hoops\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/geoff-grays-holy-land-hoopster-diary-i-can-tell-you-one-things-this-team-feels-special\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/geoff-grays-holy-land-hoopster-diary-i-can-tell-you-one-things-this-team-feels-special\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/geoff-grays-holy-land-hoopster-diary-i-can-tell-you-one-things-this-team-feels-special\\\/\",\"name\":\"Geoff Gray's Holy Land Hoopster Diary - \\\"I can tell you one thing, this team feels special\\\" - Sports Rabbi\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/geoff-grays-holy-land-hoopster-diary-i-can-tell-you-one-things-this-team-feels-special\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/geoff-grays-holy-land-hoopster-diary-i-can-tell-you-one-things-this-team-feels-special\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/01\\\/4d6edfb6-20df-4aea-879b-8330771d0789.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-09-29T09:14:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-11-26T13:04:43+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/10150053309b5bf124d40c3812a32bf0\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/geoff-grays-holy-land-hoopster-diary-i-can-tell-you-one-things-this-team-feels-special\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/geoff-grays-holy-land-hoopster-diary-i-can-tell-you-one-things-this-team-feels-special\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/01\\\/4d6edfb6-20df-4aea-879b-8330771d0789.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/01\\\/4d6edfb6-20df-4aea-879b-8330771d0789.jpeg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":435,\"caption\":\"Dov Halickman Photography\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/\",\"name\":\"Sports Rabbi\",\"description\":\"The Home of Israeli Sports\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/10150053309b5bf124d40c3812a32bf0\",\"name\":\"Joshua Halickman\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/12\\\/WhatsApp-Image-2020-12-08-at-10.13.06-150x150.jpeg\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/12\\\/WhatsApp-Image-2020-12-08-at-10.13.06-150x150.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/12\\\/WhatsApp-Image-2020-12-08-at-10.13.06-150x150.jpeg\",\"caption\":\"Joshua Halickman\"},\"description\":\"Joshua Halickman, The Sports Rabbi is the founder of the website and has been covering Israeli sports since 2004. The Sports Rabbi has gone to over 4,000 live sporting events in 25+ countries looking for the most exciting and intriguing stories. Josh has lectured to tens of thousands across the globe about the Zionism through Israeli Sports. You can follow Josh on Twitter @thesportsrabbi\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/author\\\/thesportsrabbiisrael\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Geoff Gray's Holy Land Hoopster Diary - \"I can tell you one thing, this team feels special\" - Sports Rabbi","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/geoff-grays-holy-land-hoopster-diary-i-can-tell-you-one-things-this-team-feels-special\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Geoff Gray's Holy Land Hoopster Diary - \"I can tell you one thing, this team feels special\" - Sports Rabbi","og_description":"Geoff Gray is beginning his second year as a professional in Israel and will give The Sports Rabbi an exclusive view each week into what it&#8217;s like playing ball in the Holy Land! For those who don\u2019t know me, my name is Geoffrey Gray and I\u2019m a 23-year-old Jewish-American from Boston, Massachusetts. After having a [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/geoff-grays-holy-land-hoopster-diary-i-can-tell-you-one-things-this-team-feels-special\/","og_site_name":"Sports Rabbi","article_published_time":"2020-09-29T09:14:48+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-11-26T13:04:43+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":435,"url":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/4d6edfb6-20df-4aea-879b-8330771d0789.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Joshua Halickman","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Joshua Halickman","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/geoff-grays-holy-land-hoopster-diary-i-can-tell-you-one-things-this-team-feels-special\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/geoff-grays-holy-land-hoopster-diary-i-can-tell-you-one-things-this-team-feels-special\/"},"author":{"name":"Joshua Halickman","@id":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/10150053309b5bf124d40c3812a32bf0"},"headline":"Geoff Gray&#8217;s Holy Land Hoopster Diary &#8211; &#8220;I can tell you one thing, this team feels special&#8221;","datePublished":"2020-09-29T09:14:48+00:00","dateModified":"2020-11-26T13:04:43+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/geoff-grays-holy-land-hoopster-diary-i-can-tell-you-one-things-this-team-feels-special\/"},"wordCount":599,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/geoff-grays-holy-land-hoopster-diary-i-can-tell-you-one-things-this-team-feels-special\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/4d6edfb6-20df-4aea-879b-8330771d0789.jpeg","keywords":["eilat","Geoff Gray","Kiryat Ata"],"articleSection":["Holyland Hoops"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/geoff-grays-holy-land-hoopster-diary-i-can-tell-you-one-things-this-team-feels-special\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/geoff-grays-holy-land-hoopster-diary-i-can-tell-you-one-things-this-team-feels-special\/","url":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/geoff-grays-holy-land-hoopster-diary-i-can-tell-you-one-things-this-team-feels-special\/","name":"Geoff Gray's Holy Land Hoopster Diary - \"I can tell you one thing, this team feels special\" - Sports Rabbi","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/geoff-grays-holy-land-hoopster-diary-i-can-tell-you-one-things-this-team-feels-special\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/geoff-grays-holy-land-hoopster-diary-i-can-tell-you-one-things-this-team-feels-special\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/4d6edfb6-20df-4aea-879b-8330771d0789.jpeg","datePublished":"2020-09-29T09:14:48+00:00","dateModified":"2020-11-26T13:04:43+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/10150053309b5bf124d40c3812a32bf0"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/geoff-grays-holy-land-hoopster-diary-i-can-tell-you-one-things-this-team-feels-special\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/geoff-grays-holy-land-hoopster-diary-i-can-tell-you-one-things-this-team-feels-special\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/4d6edfb6-20df-4aea-879b-8330771d0789.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/4d6edfb6-20df-4aea-879b-8330771d0789.jpeg","width":1024,"height":435,"caption":"Dov Halickman Photography"},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/","name":"Sports Rabbi","description":"The Home of Israeli Sports","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/10150053309b5bf124d40c3812a32bf0","name":"Joshua Halickman","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/WhatsApp-Image-2020-12-08-at-10.13.06-150x150.jpeg","url":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/WhatsApp-Image-2020-12-08-at-10.13.06-150x150.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/WhatsApp-Image-2020-12-08-at-10.13.06-150x150.jpeg","caption":"Joshua Halickman"},"description":"Joshua Halickman, The Sports Rabbi is the founder of the website and has been covering Israeli sports since 2004. The Sports Rabbi has gone to over 4,000 live sporting events in 25+ countries looking for the most exciting and intriguing stories. Josh has lectured to tens of thousands across the globe about the Zionism through Israeli Sports. You can follow Josh on Twitter @thesportsrabbi","url":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/author\/thesportsrabbiisrael\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}