Maccabi Tel Aviv (basketball)

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Maccabi Tel Aviv

Arena	Nokia Arena (commonly Yad Eliyahu) Tel Aviv, Israel
Club colours	Yellow and Blue
President	Shimon Mizrahi
Head coach	Neven Spahija
Assistant coach(es)	Guy Goodes
Address	293 HaYarkon st. Tel Aviv 63504 Israel Tel: 972-3-6059333 Fax: 972-3-6059992
Website	www.maccabi.co.il

Maccabi "Elite" Tel Aviv (Hebrew: מכבי תל-אביב) is a basketball team based in Tel Aviv, Israel. It is part of the Maccabi Tel Aviv sports club, and their main sponsors since 1969 have been the Elite confections company, so Maccabi also carries its name.

1 Overview
2 History
3 Controversy
4 2005/6 Season
5 Trophies and Titles
6 Current roster
7 Famous past players
8 External links

[edit] Overview

The club dominates Israeli basketball, collecting 46 national championship titles (including 23 in a row between 1970 and 1992) and 36 national cups. Maccabi is also among Europe's best basketball teams, having won the European cup 5 times since 1977, and finishing second 7 other times.

Although within Israel there are many fan communities behind Hapoel Tel Aviv, Hapoel Jerusalem, Bnei HaSharon, Hapoel Galil Elyon and several others, Maccabi Tel Aviv's is by far the largest, and except for a few hard-core fans of other clubs, a large number of Israelis identifies with Maccabi during international competition as representing them.

Maccabi's arena

[edit] History

Maccabi Tel Aviv sports club started its basketball activities in the mid-thirties. In 1954, the Israeli Basketball League was founded and Maccabi won the first championship. They have been in control ever since, collecting 45 national championship titles (including 23 in a row between 1970 and 1992) and 35 national cups. The team never finished below the third place in the national league.

The crosstown nemesis Hapoel Tel Aviv have been considered the most bitter rival of Maccabi for a long time, but the last title of the "reds" came in 1969. Since that year, the only team to challenge Maccabi successfully in the Israeli championship was Hapoel Galil Elyon in 1993, led by Doron Sheffer and coached by Pinchas "Pini" Gershon. Eventually both Sheffer and Gershon joined Maccabi.

In 1958, Maccabi joined international competitions and gradually became one of the best basketball teams in Europe. As of Aug 2005, Maccabi played 577 games in European competitions and won 359 of them, scoring 50,012 points to opponents' 48,150.

The first European championship was the Championship Cup in 1977, under coach Ralph Klein. In the final game in Belgrade, Yugoslavia Maccabi edged Mobilgirgi Varese 78:77, thanks to Jim Boatwright (26 points), Miki Berkovich, Aulcie Perry and the rest of the team. But perhaps of even bigger symbolic value was the semifinal win over CSKA Moscow. In the eyes of the whole country, it was not only an important win, but kind of revenge on Soviet Union, the country that provided support to Israel's enemies. "We are on the map," - proclaimed captain Tal Brody after the game, - "We are staying on the map, not only in sports, but in everything". Maccabi indeed stayed on the European basketball map, and in 1981 it won another Championship Cup, this time defeating Sinudyne Bologna 80:79.

Arguably the most successful period in the history of the clab began in 1999, when Gershon, then considered one of the most vocal "anti-maccabist" in Israel, became the head coach. The team reached the Euroleague final in 2000, falling to the highly touted Panathinaikos in a close game (ironically, former Maccabi and Israeli NT star Oded Katash excelled in the Greek club). Next year the teams met again in the Suproleague finals in Paris, and the Israeli club, led by Ariel McDonald, Anthony Parker and Nate Huffman, avenged the loss (81:67). Gershon decided to retire, but came back for the 2003-04 season, Anthony Parker also returned for the second stint with the club, Sarunas Jasikevičius joined the team and in May 2004 Maccabi also came back - to the top of European basketball - trouncing Skipper Bologna in the Euroleague final game in an unprecedented landslide (118:74), in the process setting 11 Euroleague records. They returned to the Euroleague Final Four in 2005, facing tough odds due to the rise of the dominating CSKA Moscow club that was favoured and was also hosting the event. In the semifinal Maccabi was once again matched against Panathinaikos, known for one of the best defenses in Europe. In a scenario that few in European basketball community envisioned, TAU Cerámica stunned CSKA and Maccabi celebrated yet another victory over the Greeks, then proceeded to defeat TAU Cerámica in a very competitive final 90:78 on May 8, 2005.

Twice (in 1994 and 2004) Maccabi hosted the Euroleague Final Four and four times European All Star event. Seven Maccabi players participated in European All Star Selections: Tanhum Cohen-Mintz, Tal Brody, Lou Silver, Miki Berkovich, Doron Jamchy, Nadav Henefeld and Oded Katash.

On October 16, 2005, Maccabi set another milestone in their basketball history when they beat the NBA's Toronto Raptors. It was their first win in over 27 years over an NBA team, and the first win over an NBA team by any Euroleague team in 17 years. Anthony Parker's jumper with 0.8 seconds lifted the Euroleague champion over Toronto 105-103.

[edit] Controversy

Part of basketball community in Israel sees Maccabi's dominance as a root of various problems of Israeli basketball. Some of them claim that the lack of competitiveness in Israeli basketball causes the fans and the investors to "migrate" to football (which is also very popular in Israel). Others say that Maccabi signs the most talented local players to more attractive contracts than any other team in Israel can afford and then gives them limited playing time and limited roles behind the stars (mostly of American or European origin), thus hindering the development of domestic talent.

"Pro-maccabists" counter that it is Maccabi's high-level basketball and international success that creates the fan base and that Maccabi gives young players an opportunity to play alongside and against some of the brightest stars of European basketball.

From time to time, ideas arise of reform in Israeli basketball that will prevent Maccabi from trampling the rest of the league and/or will ensure more playing time for domestic players. Most radical of the proposals featured laws similar to those of by the NBA, such as salary cap or draft, to all of which Maccabi has objected. So far, most significant change was the introduction from the 2006-07 season of a rule (widely referred to as Russian law) which obliges each team to have at least two Israeli players on court at every given moment.

[edit] 2005/6 Season

Maccabi finished the season with two domestic titles - its 46th championsip and 36th cup, both after wins over Hapoel Jerusalem.

In the Euroleague, after a disappointing start the team has finished first both in group B and in Top 16 group E. Then the club met Olympiacos Piraeus for a best from 3 quarterfinal series, won 2-1 and saved the ticket to the final four in Prague. On Friday, 28 April 2006, Maccabi met TAU Cerámica in the first semifinal game, and won the game 85-70. Maccabi faced CSKA Moscow on the final on 30 April 2006 and lost 73:69.

[edit] Trophies and Titles

Domestic championships: 46 (1954, 1955, 1957-59, 1962-64, 1967, 1968, 1970-92, 1994-06)
Domestic cups: 36 (1956, 1958, 1959, 1961, 1963-66, 1970-73, 1975, 1977-83, 1985-87, 1989-91, 1994, 1998-06)
Domestic National State Cup: 1 (2001)
European championships: 5
- 1977, 1981 - Victories in the European Cup, the direct predecessor to today's Euroleague, officially recognized by FIBA and ULEB as Euroleague titles.
- 2001 - Suproleague title.
- 2004, 2005 - Euroleague titles.
European finals: 12 (1977, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1987, 1988, 1989, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2005, 2006)
Intercontinental Cups: 1 (1981)

[edit] Current roster

4	Will Bynum	Point guard
5	Noel Felix	Power forward
6	Derrick Sharp	Shooting guard/Point guard
7	Nikola Vujcic	Center
8	Lior Eliyahu	Power forward
9	Jamie Arnold	Power forward
10	Tal Burstein	Point guard/Shooting guard
11	Sharon Sasson	Small forward
12	Regev Fanan	Point guard/Shooting guard
13	Simas Jasaitis	Small forward
14	Yaniv Green	Center
15	Rodney Buford	Shooting guard
21	Yotam Halperin	Point guard
Updated September 19, 2006