Israel Basketball

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.

The club dominates Israeli basketball, collecting 45 national championship titles (including 23 in a row between 1970 and 1992) and 35 national cups. Maccabi is also among Europe's best basketball teams, having won the European cup 5 times since 1977, and finishing second 6 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, almost every Israeli identifies with Maccabi during international competition as representing them. The club became something like second national team, and much more successful than the official one.

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.

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 50012 points to opponents' 48150. 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.

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.

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 moved to Tel Aviv.

Gershon, considered then perhaps the most vocal "anti-maccabist", came to the town in 1999. The Gershon era in Maccabi proved to be a fruitful one. 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 in Suproleague finals in Paris, Panathinaikos tried again to stand between Maccabi and the championship, but this time Israeli club, led by Ariel McDonald, Anthony Parker and Nate Huffman, downed the Greeks (81:67). The rivalry continued in 2002, when Panathinaikos stopped David Blatt's Maccabi in semifinal.

Before 2003-04 season coach Gershon came back from retirement, Anthony Parker from Italy, 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. They were also matched in the semifinal against Panathinaikos (once again), known for one of the best defenses in Europe. However, in a scenario that few in European basketball community envisioned, TAU Cerámica stunned CSKA and Maccabees celebrated yet another victory over the Greeks. Maccabi proceeded to defeat TAU Cerámica in a very competitive final 90:78 on May 8, 2005.

Coach Gershon benefited greatly from the last Euroleague title, his third, and has become one of the most sought-after coaches in Europe, not to mention a national hero. However, Gershon has signed with the club for one more season. Meanwhile, Šarūnas Jasikevičius, a key contributor, went to the NBA and several other players left the team.

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.

"Pro-" and "anti-maccabists"

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, both as a street game and as a pro sport). 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 protect domestic players. Some proposals featured measures similar to those introduced by the NBA, such as salary cap or draft. However, so far no significant changes have been made.