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Page 12 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE November 28, 1986
Israeli basketball
Role of U.S. players creates dilemma
by David Landau
JTA
—J ERUSALEM
Israel is slowly emerging from
a profound but ultimately cathar
tic dilemma posed by the sudden
appearance here of Michael Ray
Richardson, an American bas
ketball star.
Richardson’s desire to play in
Israel forced not only the bas
ketball fraternity, but the general
public, to confront the issue of
foreign stars and their role in the
local sport.
Richardson’s case was particu
larly poignant and complex. The
former New Jersey Nets star is
barred from playing in the Na
tional Basketball Association
(NBA) for two years because of
drug abuse. One of the highest-
paid players in the NBA, he took
a massive salary cut in his hope
to spend his enforced exile con
tributing his talents to Israel’s
lowly Hapoel Ramat Gan team.
Had the plan succeeded, it
would have been a great coup for
Ramat Gan’s energetic manager,
Avraham Chemmo. His team,
languishing at the bottom of the
Israeli National League, could
well do with a true star.
Chemmo argued that his
scheme was in the nature of a
double rehabilitation: of Hapoel
Ramat Gan and of Richardson,
who had publicly forsworn drugs
and pledged to reform his life.
On the other side of the great
debate—which reached the Knesset
at its peak—sports leaders and
other public figures contended
that to permit Richardson to
play would turn the country, and
its basketball, into a haven for
drug addicts and other criminal
types who had justly been sus
pended.
The controversy was scuttled
by a ruling from the Federation
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of International Basketball As
sociations (FIBA) to the effect of
barring a player censured by his
own league.
But the Richardson contro
versy served to reignite a year
long debate in Israel over whether
the local sport is becoming “too
Americanized’’ with the absorp
tion of what many feel is a dis
proportionate number of Ameri
can players into local teams.
There are 43 American-born
players on the 12 National League
teams, an average of 3.5 players
per team. Many of the 43 are
bona-fide Israelis: born Jews or
serious converts to Judaism who
have settled here, done their army
service and in many cases mar
ried and set up Israeli homes.
In some cases, however, con
versions are widely thought to
have been less-than-sincere, and
marriages more a matter of con
venience than love.
One former Maccabi Tel Aviv
star, Aulcie Perry, converted to
Judaism in the U.S., took Israeli
citizenship—and became a na
tional hero. Now he is back in the
U.S., where he has been arraigned
on heroin charges in a New York
court.
Until last year, the Israel Bas
ketball Association (IBA) permit
ted only one foreign player per
league team, then the ceiling rose
to two. Usually the American
players are past their prime, in
the stage where they would nor
mally drop out of the NBA, or
never were good enough for the
world’s best basketball.
In Israel, there is no longer
even a sham of amateurism. Pay
ments are made openly and pub
licly, without any pretense. The
premier club, Maccabi Tel Aviv,
is offering its two American con
tract players $120,000 each this
season.
Indeed, it is Maccabi which
sets the pace. Championship
winners for the past 20 years, the
Tel Aviv team is still unchal
lenged inside Israel and is a major
force on the European basketball
scene.
For years it has had American
players—some of them short-term
guests, others eventual immi
grants. Tal Brodie, longtime team
captain, was one of the first and
best known of the Americans.
His comment on Maccabi’s win
over CSKA Moscow in 1977 is
immortalized in Israeli folk-his
tory: “Anahnu al hamapa” (we
are on the map), he declared in
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his heavily accented Hebrew.
Today Brodie runs a lucrative
sports business while the Mac
cabi flame is carried by skipper
(and homegrown star) Mickey
Berkowitz. The overseas com
ponent of the club is represented
by Kevin Magee and Lee Johnson.
The main goal of Maccabi and
other top Israeli teams is to play
in Europe; the standard at the
European championship level ap
proximates good American col
lege basketball. The top four
clubs from each country qualify
for the European championship
opening rounds, and the best six
on the continent play each other
through the season on a double
round-robin basis leading up to
the championship.
Despite Soviet and Eastern
Bloc opposition, Israel’s place is
firmly established in the Euro
pean framework (unlike in soccer,
where Israel is kept out by the
Soviets, and has to made do with
Asian football.) Maccabi itself
has qualified for the best six
terms in Europe for the past 11
years. Twice it won the European
cup, twice more it was in the
finals.
The Soviets refuse to come to
Tel Aviv; Israel’s home games
wi*h them are played, therefore,
at a neutral site in Western
Europe. Thousands of Israeli
tourists and emigrants often make
a point of attending to cheer the
Tel Avivians on a bleak winter
night in Brussels or Amsterdam.
For the country as a whole—
even for people who have never
seen a game or held a basket
ball—Maccabi Tel Aviv has be
come a concept laden with patri
otic pride. Families gather’round
their TV sets most Thursday eve
nings during the winter to watch
the matches with nail-biting con
cern. The next morning the entire
nation discusses like experts the
finer points of a pass, fake or
basket.
Thanks to Maccabi—and
thanks, arguably, to the foreign
players who gave the team its
edge over the years—basketball
is on the map in Israel itself,
threatening to displace soccer as
the most popular spectator sport.
The richer clubs have built fine
stadiums (Maccabi’s facility in
Yad Eliahu, a Tel Aviv suburb,
seats 2,000 comfortably). Most
kibbutzim, too, boast well-
equipped basketball halls. Some
teams, though, are still confined
to inadequate and elderly facili
ties.
Ticket prices, moreover, are in
line with the game’s burgeoning
popularity—though some would
argue they are way out of line for
wage-earning families. At a recent
match in the capital between
Jerusalem Hapoel and Maccabi
Tel Aviv, fans were required to
pay $15 for a seat.
This year’s European nations
competition provided what many
here believe is an indication—
and vindication—of Israeli bas
ketball’s growing success. The na
tional team was a highly respect
able fifth. All the players were
native Israelis—the rules in the
international tournament are es
pecially strict on this point—save
for Lavon Mercer, an American
who converted to Judaism and
•settled m’Israel four years ago