Earlier this week the Israel Basketball Association held a special event at its offices in Tel Aviv to celebrate both the boys and the girls U18 national teams qualifying for the men’s and women’s 2025 FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup.

The event was attended by Israeli Minister of Culture and Sport MK Miki Zohar, the Association’s Chairperson Amos Frishman, Senior Board Member and Deputy Chairperson Shimon Mizrahi, U18 Team Professional Manager Pini Gershon and Chairperson of the Professional Committee Gur Shelef.

Of course, members of the U18 teams were present, including boys’ head coach Sharon Avrahami and his assistants Yoav Shinkman and Yoni Funt, Maccabi Tel Aviv junior centers Tamir Gold and Gabriel Artmenko (the latter of whom celebrated his 17th birthday at the event). The team’s star Ben Saraf was not in attendance as he is in Germany preparing for his maiden campaign with Ulm, while the team’s other players, including Omer Mayer, were also unable to attend due to their preparations for the upcoming season. From the girls’ team, coach Roi Aizenberg was joined by his assistant Tali Noy and players Naomi Cohen Mintz, Mai Balco Zemmel, Lee Teichman and Noa Megged.

Zohar, reminisced with a special story in which Maccabi Kiryat Gat Basketball Club – a team which in the past he served as Chairperson – defeated an Ironi Kiryat Ata team coached by Avrahami 3-2 in 2015 to gain promotion to the Israeli Premier League. “Even a Member of Knesset defeated you,” Gershon joked to Avrahami.

Asked how to bring the success of the U18 teams to the senior teams, Avrahami – who was also part of the historic Israel U20 EuroBasket wins – said that he personally believes in the Israeli basketballer, whose youth teams have a tradition of success and skill, that he only needs to put his ego to the side. Zohar added that he believes in the success that will also be achieved by the senior team. We can hope that this will happen, and the events of the 2022 EuroBasket, in which Israel bowed out in the group stage, will not repeat themselves.

Below are the quotes from the event published by the Israel Basketball Association:

• Israel Basketball Association Chairperson Amos Frishman: “Many thanks to the Minister who found time to come here, sitting here are representatives from both of the teams and staff who had a terrific summer, from the best of the Association, two teams which finished in fourth place in the European Championships and earned their places in the World Cup. Only Serbia and France have done this and it is an honor to be on that list. In the Air Force the pilots say that they are not worth anything without their technicians, also here, the teams succeeded with the support of the Association, from the coaches and the staff. Today I think the Minister of Sport, I don’t think that there has been a Minister who has given and supported sport like you, well done! Beyond the large crisis that the Association finds itself in, also the 3×3 men’s and women’s teams earned their places in their respective World Cups. We must get help from the Ministry of Sport and other sources. It is an amazing achievement to represent the State and I believe that you will find the way to help. In conclusion, well done to everyone and to the players!”

• Israeli Minister of Culture and Sport MK Miki Zohar: “Something good is happening in Israeli basketball at youth level, the outline that I brought to the young Israeli player is the cause of us having seen many young people playing in the Premier League. For me, the players here are a credit to that decision. We want to see the Israeli player blossom and that is improving and I am happy to see it. We doubled our efforts in women’s sport, no less than this. Our effort that women’s sport will also bring success in Europe, because they will also bring local success. The Basketball Association is one of my most important partnerships, we will find the solution and not delay success. I undertake to be an integral part of the help and support that you will receive to continue to bring success. You were called to play in the tournament and you succeeded in a big way. When a young girl saw you she goes to her parents and says that she wants to play basketball. In the end that brings a population that wants to play sport. You have a big part in this, to strengthen these areas as much as possible and the fact is that we have something to offer and we are winning. Than you to the players, the staff and the Association.”

• Girls’ U18 Coach, Roi Aizenberg: “I want to thank everyone from the Basketball Association who supported and helped. We received what we needed and the perfect preparation with the U18 team. Of course, to the incredible girls who did something big here, we wanted to make the quarterfinal and the World Cup in general was the biggest of dreams. But we believed, we defeated hosts Portugal. We are excited to meet the best teams in the world, we hope that we will meet our goals there as well. In terms of achievements, this is the biggest women’s achievement ever, certainly in the youth teams. We had only one player who was in the Premier League last year, but I have no doubt that we will see them more in the future. Other than France, we felt that we were equal to all other opponents, also in the last game we felt that we missed an opportunity against Serbia for third place. Also in the U20 team we saw success and today all our teams are ranked ion Group A and want to defeat every team.”

• Boys’ U18 Coach, Sharon Avrahami: “We had the honor of being with the girls in training camp and two World Cups have come from it. I want to thank Amos Frishman who brought me into the national teams 11 years ago, to Pini and the rest of the members of the Association. Achievements don’t just come; they are a result of good work. Most of the players are now in training, but they get huge credit, it’s a huge honor to represent the country, of course these days, also in the World Cup.”

The Men’s FIBA U19 World Cup 2025 will be held next summer in Lausanne, Switzerland, while the FIBA U19 Women’s Basketball World Cup 2025 will be held next summer in Czechia.