Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv Endures Enormous Hardship To Reach Quarterfinals of EuroLeague Basketball Playoffs

TEL AVIV — A few months ago, the chances of Maccabi Tel Aviv reaching the quarterfinals of the EuroLeague basketball playoffs seemed minimal considering the incredible adversity it faced in the aftermath of the October 7 massacre and subsequent war between Israel and Hamas.Yet on Tuesday, Maccabi Tel Aviv plays Panathinaikos at OAKA Arena in Athens, Greece, in the first game of a best-of-five series with a chance to reach the EuroLeague Final Four for the first time since it won the championship in 2014.Displaced for virtually the entire season due to the war, Maccabi Tel Aviv (21-14) reached the playoffs for the fourth time in five seasons and the second time in a row under head coach Oded Kattash by defeating Baskonia in a Play-In game April 16 at the Stark Arena in Belgrade, Serbia.“I’m very happy for the players,” Mr. Kattash told reporters after the game. “After all we’ve been through this year, all the difficulties, it’s well deserved. Under crazy circumstances, we found a way to fight and compete.” Joshua Halickman, who operates sportsrabbi.com out of Jerusalem and has covered the Israeli sports scene for nearly two decades, said reaching the EuroLeague quarterfinals given all the club has been through borders on the miraculous.“What they’ve accomplished is incredible,” Mr. Halickman told the Sun. “It’s a credit to the players, the coach and the coaching staff, and all of the organization around them. It’s phenomenal.”Maccabi Tel Aviv, a traditional power in the EuroLeague, hoped to reach the Final Four when the season began in October, but the seven months it endured could have never been anticipated.Maccabi Tel Aviv opened its season in Tel Aviv on October 5 with a triumphant victory over Partizan in front of a raucous crowd of 10,000-plus at Menora Mivtachim Arena. Two days later, its world turned upside down with the Hamas massacre in southern Israel, instigating a war that continues today.“We were at the game,” Mr. Halickman said of the EuroLeague season opener. “It was a great game. Maccabi won. Friday afternoon the Israeli league opened up, then we woke up Saturday afternoon to all hell breaking loose.”The conflict temporarily halted all sports in the country, including soccer, basketball, and Olympic training. Several nervous Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball players were sent to Cyprus to escape harm, while others stayed in Israel huddled with family. Four EuroLeague games were postponed as well as several Israeli Premier League games.Eventually, the decision was made to move the team to Belgrade and play their “home” games at Pionor Arena. The team rented apartments for the players. Cars, meals, and other additional expenses were provided. Instead of enjoying the support of 10,000 faithful fans in Tel Aviv, Maccabi played its games in Belgrade without crowds for security reasons.“We are just doing our best to adapt,” Jake Cohen, an Israeli-American forward, told reporters at the time. “We have a lot of resilient people around us and people who know it’s difficult but we have a job to do and we aren’t just going to sit back and make excuse after excuse.”Even though they were in Belgrade, players struggled to focus solely on basketball amid the escalating war and concerns over the hostages taken by Hamas. “Our head is always in Israel,” Roman Sorkin, a power forward raised in Israel, told reporters in November. “Our hearts are in Israel with the hostages and our soldiers and with the country.”Mr. Halickman, an accountant by trade, lived in New York from 1992 to 2004 and held season tickets for the New York Knicks, New York Rangers, New York Jets, and New York Yankees. Soon after moving to Israel, he began writing sports for the Jerusalem Post. He said the financial impact of the war has been “huge across the board” for all the professional sports teams. Most competition in the various sports didn’t resume until December.Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball suffered the most. Season-ticket holders have access to EuroLeague games, the highest level basketball, and Israeli Premier League games. Instead of 17 home dates for EuroLeague games and playoffs, Maccabi drew revenue for only the opener. Belgrade didn’t allow fans to attend Maccabi games for security reasons.“(Attendance) is a huge part of Maccabi’s revenue and now that’s gone,” Mr. Halickman said. “It was like being back in Covid again. Maccabi Tel Aviv lost millions.”Fan interest dwindled as many of them became involved in the war either physically or emotionally. “They’re concerned with life or death,” Mr. Halickman said.Fewer Israeli Olympians will compete in Paris due to reduced funds diverted to the war. The Israeli contingent was about 100 at the Tokyo Olympics. Mr. Halickman estimated it would be more like 60 in Paris. “There’s just not the funding for more right now,” Mr. Halickman said.Throughout the unprecedented chaos, Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball persevered. It finished seventh in the league with a 20-14 record. Most of the players are living in Israel again, but the team had to return to Belgrade for the Play-In game where Lorenzo Brown (29 points) and Wade Baldwin (26 points) led Maccabi’s win over Baskonia.A former first-round pick of the Memphis Grizzlies, Mr. Baldwin spent three years in the National Basketball Association. He was late arriving in Belgrade for the Play-In game due to an issue with his son’s passport, along with the complications from the more than 300 missiles and drones launched by Iran at Israel on April 13.“We had another 48 hours that’s been crazy,” Mr. Baldwin said, according to SportsRabbi.com. “Our team really appreciates the support that we get from our country and from our fans.”Mr. Brown, who spent five years with four different NBA teams, told the website, “It has been an exhausting long season, but we all have the same mentality for every game which is win or go home.”Maccabi Tel Aviv won the EuroLeague in 2004, and again in 2014 when the team coached by the legendary David Blatt beat Real Madrid in a classic overtime game. Now it’s 2024.“There’s a lot of talk of this being a team of destiny,” Mr. Halickman told the Sun. “Can they win it all? It’s going to be very difficult. But what they did in itself is a massive accomplishment. People will look back in Israeli basketball history and see what type of accomplishment this was.”

Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv Endures Enormous Hardship To Reach Quarterfinals of EuroLeague Basketball Playoffs

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