The Israel National Basketball Team moved to within one game of qualifying for,the 2025 Eurobasket as they did what they had to do against Ukraine in the first game of two between the teams. The blue-and-white can seal the deal with another win on Monday when they tip-off off once again versus the likes of Oleksandr Kovliar and Artem Pustovyi in Riga making the final two games of the qualification campaign in February moot.

That would be the best case scenario for head coach Ariel Beit Halachmi as he looks to guide the national team not only into the group stages of the European Championships but into the knockout rounds as well which will be played in the same arena that they are in now in Latvia.

Ukraine gave Israel all they could handle in the first half as they dictated the play from the get go and caused all kinds of issues for Yam Madar, Tomer Ginat and company. But the blue-and-white were able to stay close, make a run in the second half of the third quarter and polish off the game in fine style in the final frame. It wasn’t easy, but they certainly made it easy in the second half to roll to the win.

Israel will need to do the same on Monday night if they want to punch their ticket to one of the four nations that is hosting the Eurobasket group stages but they’ll need to be focussed on the task at hand and play a complete forty minutes against a Ukraine team that will be battling for their lives at 0-3. With a 2-1 record, Israel sports the same amount of wins and losses that both Slovenia and Portugal have, the other two teams in their group.

Beit Halachmi handed the keys to the car to Yam Madar who has not featured much for Bayern Munich this season after not having made much of an impact under Saras Jasikevicius at Fenerbahce last year once the Lithuanian took over the reins of the Turkish team. But with Beit Halachmi, Madar Oz the one who controls the pace of play and manages the offense just as he did when he along with Deni Avdija helped propel the Under-20 squad in 2019 to the European Championship title.

There’s no question that Madar has talent; he wouldn’t have been selected in the second round of the 2020 NBA Draft by the Boston Celtics had he not. But the key for Madar is the chance to play, play on a regular basis and be trusted with the responsibility to run the the team, be that floor general that Israel so much needs.

It took him a bit of time to figure that out against Ukraine and he looked somewhat lost in his role for a good part of the first half. He was playing as what can be described as “Balaganist Basketball” or in English, chaotic, confused and basketball in disarray. Madar looked the part to a “T” turning the ball over, pounding the ball and drilling down the shot clock, throwing cross court passes and moving in and out and in and out again into the paint.

But just as it took the national team a bit of time to get things rolling, Madar found his way and put in a dynamic second half performance that spurred Israel to the win and also showed that he has tremendous, tremendous ability to be a bona fine star. The key to his success is to have a coach that truly understands what he can do, give him the confidence to perform and trust him for the entire length of the game.

Beit Halachmi is clearly one of the coaches but for some, it may just be too much for them to handle. As a colleague told me during the game, Madar’s bench boss at Bayern Munich, Gordon Herbert, who captured the 2023 World Championship, doesn’t like unpredictable players and it’s clear that Madar can be extremely unpredictable. Some coaches can reign in that balagan and benefit from it, while others, well it’s just not their style and that’s fine.

Not to compare Madar with Allen Iverson, but AI was a master of Balaganist Basketball and took a Philadelphia 76ers team to the NBA finals and became a superstar. He was talented and needed to find the right coach to be able to manage that talent, which ended up being Larry Brown.

Madar’s Brown is no question Beit Halachmi and he’s going to stick with him from beginning to end no matter what and that’s perfectly okay. Can Madar take Israel to the promised land which in their case would be the knockout stages of the Eurobasket?

Madar will also have his partner in crime in Portland Trailblazers forward Deni Avdija for the EuroBasket and if the two can respect what they were able to accomplish at the 2019 U20 European Championships then Israel will be in good shape.

But ultimately, Beit Halachmi will need to find the right mix of players to surround the dynamic duo and that is where his real challenge will lie. Sure Tomer Ginat, Roman Sorkin and newly naturalized Khadeen Carrington will be important contributors to the team but after that, there are plenty of question marks. But should Israel win on Monday night, the bench boss will have an extra pair of games to try and find the right mix of players that he will take into battle come the late summer.

However, make no mistake as to whose basketball team this is and whose imprints will be all over the court. Yam Madar will be the engine that will make Israel run with Beit Halachmi playing the role of conductor. Everyone else will be the supporting cast that will benefit from Madar’s play from Avdija to Sorkin to Ginat.

He’s without question the little engine that could.