I dont know how many people watch the NBA minor league draft, but I definitely do not. In case you missed it like I did, Ryan Turell the star of the Yeshiva University basketball team that went on an historic 50 game win streak, has been drafted by an NBA minor league affiliate team - the affiliate for the Detroit Pistons.

I am sure he is great, but come up with a new nickname already please! I am tired of every Jewish kid who can play good basketball is called the Jewish Jordan.

Congrats to Yeshiva University men’s basketball team for 50 consecutive wins, the longest active winning streak in men’s college basketball. https://t.co/1E6f3dMKLe

— NBA (@NBA) December 27, 2021

Yahoo News has the story of  Ryan Turell, an Orthodox Jew learning and studying in Yeshiva University. 

wait for it... wait for it..

The Sports Illustrated Daily Cover featured an Israeli basketball player the other day.

Deni Avjida is expected to be a top draft pick in the NBA and also to be a top star player in the NBA.

My kids who have watched him play say he is phenomenal.

I just hope Avjida does not get the famous SI curse from this daily cover.

a fellow Jew, a MOTT, a bro, could be voted hero of the week, but he needs your votes... it is basketball hero of the week,, but still..

As of this writing, Gabriel Leifer of Yeshiva University is in the lad with 776 votes. The guy behind him is a non-Jew maybe he is Jewish too. His name is Parker Davidson) with 613 votes. How does that work out?

There are also a couple other names in the list of athletes with names that could very well be Jewish as well.

Since when were Jews such great athletes?

Anyways, get in there and help a bro out. Go vote for Leifer!

Reportedly, Israeli NBA athlete Omri Casspi has agreed to terms and signed a deal with the Champion Golden State Warriors.

Obviously Casspi will be a bench player, but he might become the first Israeli to "bring home the gold" from the NBA..

Mazel tov and hatzlacha!

The City of Jerusalem is sponsoring a basketball tournament specifically for the haredi community. Registration costs 50nis per person. All you need to do is put together a team of at least 7, fill out a registration form, and everything else will be taken care of by them - referees, organization, uniform shirts and gyms will be provided by the city.



While I would think that this initiative is specifically for the days of bein hazmanim, no tournament dates are mentioned in the flyer.

I wonder how many will register and compete. This can be a good initiative, to get people physically active, to keep people mentally active and not bored during a long bein hazamnim, and in general to let people see that playing with a ball does not mean the end of the world is on its way.

I wonder how quickly the condemnations will come, and when the yeshivas will ban their students from participating, and when people will start asking in shidduch investigations if the bochur had participated in these tournaments.

Cleveland just lost a lot of Israeli fans, the moment they fired David Blatt from the head coach position.

Cleveland was never a team I liked, considering I am a Bulls fan. Most of the time they weren't even decent enough to be disliked, but when they were good, they were disliked. When they hired Blatt, they adopted a lot of new fans from Israel, and even I was happy to see them win under his tutelage.

While I don't understand why they would fire a coach that has them in first place, and has brought them to the Championship game in his first year, that is behind us now. The Cleveland Cavaliers can go back now to their natural position in ours Israeli minds...

Goodbye Cleveland. We won't miss you. The Bulls won't be winning it this year, even with their good team, but we Israelis will we'll continue cheering for Omri Casspi in Sacramento and we'll definitely be rooting for Golden State over Cleveland this time, and  I can promise that.

our favorite Jew, Israeli, in the NBA had a monster night the other night...

עצרו הכל! בית הכנסת ניצנים גברו על בית הכנסת ישראל הצעיר 55:53 בגמר ליגת בתי הכנסת של העירייה. הפרס? סיר קוגל! pic.twitter.com/pISOtG6OeO

— ניר ברקת (@NirBarkatHebrew) July 13, 2015

Mayor Barkat is congratulating one shul for beating another to take the championship in the inter-shul tournament.

The prize? a pot of kugel.

I love it!

even though it was against the Chicago Bulls, I am happy Israeli coach in the NBA got his first NBA win..

this is the highlight clip of an exhibition played by the Cleveland Cavaliers, coached by Israeli David Blatt, against Maccabi Tel Aviv.. forget about who won, I don't even see a single highlight shown of Maccabi Tel Aviv....

Mazel tov to David Blatt and to the Cleveland Cavaliers...

Blatt, formerly the coach of the Macabbi Tel Aviv basketball team for the past four years, is the first israeli, actually the first foreign coach, to become head coach of a team in the NBA..

the Israelis are taking small steps to a successful takeover of the NBA... now we have 2 players on NBA teams and a head coach...#justkidding

I wish Blatt well, and I hope he can bring some success to Cleveland... I do find it hard to believe, as successful as he was in Europe and Israel, that he can coach a team n the NBA.. the level of play in the NBA is entirely different to Europe and Israel.. but I wish him luck...

maybe in his spare time he will check out Telshe Yeshiva!

this is definitely a BDS fail!

I am not quite sure how this works, and maybe more knowledgeable readers can help with more accurate details. If an Israeli grows up abroad, let's say, for example, that a couple decides to move abroad and raise their child there. Technically, when that child turns 18 he is supposed to join the IDF draft just like any other Israeli.

Some people want to. They are raised with motivation to serving in the IDF, and at 18 they join, as they always wanted and planned to.

Others, who perhaps see less of a value in serving, especially since they do not live in Israel, or maybe they give priority to other plans, or maybe they don't want to serve for a variety of reasons, can find a way to avoid it by not stepping foot in Israel.

Back in my yeshiva days there were always some guys in yeshiva who came to Israel a bit older because of "army problems". Some had to make special arrangements to come to Israel and not be taken to the army. There were even some who took the drastic step of renouncing their citizenship.

The common denominator was that they did not really have to deal with the issue, if they did not want to, and I may be wrong about this, until they planned to travel to Israel.

Interestingly, a young Israeli has made the news on ESPN for having to give up his college basketball career in the US due to turning 18. He now has to give it up and join the IDF. After working out a brief postponement, it is now time for Tom Maayan to quit his basketball team and join the IDF.

I do not know why he could not avoid it and delay it simply by not planning any trips to Israel, and then joining the IDF at a later time. Maybe he wanted to, but it seemed he really wanted to continue playing basketball but had to stop.

From ESPN:

Israel is one such place, and far more famous for it than the Swiss. At the age of 18, Israeli citizens are required to report for Israeli Defense Forces enlistment and training. Males are required to serve for three years; females for two. As the Star-Ledger's Brendan Prunty reports, one of those males is Seton Hall guard Tom Maayan, whose redeployment to the IDF cut short his basketball career in rather sudden and emotional fashion Tuesday night.
Why so sudden? Maayan was originally ordered into basic training this summer. But through "lobbying and politicking with the Israeli government," Prunty writes, SHU and Maayan's guardian were able to get an exemption to play for the Pirates this season. In November, that exemption was shortened to 120 days. Seton Hall kept up its push, but the reprieve officially ended Tuesday night after the Pirates' win over NJIT. Coach Kevin Willard made the news public after informing an "emotional" locker room.
"I think the yo-yoing was tough for everybody," Willard said after in the hallway of the Prudential Center. "It was tough for him -- those are his teammates, his family. His extended family. Leaving them wasn't easy. It wasn't easy last time and it wasn't easy this time, either. But it is what it is."
"We knew about it, but it was definitely tough," [teammate Sterling] Gibbs said. "Tommy's like a brother to us. It's like losing one of your brothers."

Serve well, Tom. Best of luck. You probably would have liked to earn a mention on ESPN for a great game and great skills. You earned it for other reasons, but at least you earned it.

In the school basketball league, religion trumped basketball yesterday.

In a match between Elitzur Ranaana's team, and Alfei Menashe's team, the Ranaana team protested that a girl was on the Alfei menashe team. As soon as the cosh saw that a girl was on the team, he went over to the referees and told them his team cannot play, because there are some religious boys on the team and they are not allowed to touch the girl - they are shomer negiah.

After some discussion and debate, the game was canceled, with Ranaana's team being declared the technical winner of the game, after Alfei Menashe refused to play under proposed conditions.
(source: Nana News)

I don't know if the demand was right or wrong, appropriate or inappropriate, considering the circumstances (i.e. these religious boys are participating in a league that allows girls to be on the teams - if they have a problem, they shouldn't play in this league, or make demands of others, perhaps something like this should be taken care of in advance and not on the court at gametime, consider the age of the kids, etc.). I don't know. I can't fault these kids for wanting to keep halacha, but if playing in this league doesn't allow them to, and they know this in advance, maybe they should not play in this league but find a different one - but I am not sure hurting the feelings of other people, or preventing other people from enjoying their same right to play, is the correct way to go..

Either way, I do not understand why Ranaana was declared the winner of the game with Alfei Menashe being the forfeiting team. Alfei came to play, under the terms and conditions set by the league. Even though they did not accept Ranaana's conditions, it was really Ranaana forfeiting the game, as they were not willing to play with Alfei Menashe sporting a female player. It is all nice and wonderful to have ideals and to stand up for them, but part of that is also respectably paying the price for such ideals.

Many athletes throughout history could not play baseball or other sports professionally, due to the issue of Shabbos observance. Those who were concerned about the issue, those who stood strong on their ideals of Shabbos observance, were also willing to pay the price - they did not play professional ball. These kids are wonderful, but other people should not have to pay the price for these kids standing up for their ideals. They should find, or create, an all-male league to play in, and in the meantime, they should be taking the losses in such games..