Tagged Maccabi Tel Aviv

JERUSALEM (JTA) – Jerusalem basketball fans know that when the owner of their team tweets a smiley face, the signing of a new player is about to be announced. The day before Amar’e Stoudemire made the surprise announcement that he would be leaving the NBA to play for Hapoel… Read more »

LeBron James, shown at the Cleveland Cavaliers' media day in suburban Cleveland on Sept. 26, 2014, will make his return to his hometown team with a preseason game against Maccabi Tel Aviv. (Jason Miller/Getty Images)

TEL AVIV (JTA) – The carnival’s coming to Cleveland, and the Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball team has a front-row seat. In fact, the 2014 Euroleague and Israel Super Basketball League champions will be participating. On Sunday, Tel Aviv will present the inaugural challenge for NBA superstar LeBron James as… Read more »

After coaching Maccabi Tel Aviv to a European Championship, David Blatt appears headed to the NBA. (Moshe Shai/FLASH90)

  LOS ANGELES (JTA) — In 1981, David Blatt moved to Israel in pursuit of a path of lifelong worship — to play professional basketball.Now, more than 30 years later, Blatt is leaving Israel to make a different, and totally unprecedented, form of aliyah — to leave the ranks of Israeli basketball to… Read more »

Might the Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball team someday be lifting the nBA championship trophy, as its players and others did here after winning the 2012 Israeli Basketball Super League title? (Flash 90)

BALTIMORE (JTA) – Maccabi Tel Aviv reportedly is heading back to the United States this fall for its first exhibition games against NBA teams in five years – but greater developments appear to be in the works for the iconic franchise and Israeli basketball. For one, how about NBA… Read more »

Fans of Beitar Jerusalem FC celebrate a win in the State Cup in Ramat Gan Stadium on May 13, 2008. (Kobi Gideon/FLASH90/JTA)

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Sports fans aren’t the only people lately paying attention to Israeli soccer. A string of ugly incidents has caused Israelis to focus on the problems of violence and racism within the sport. In mid-March, thousands of Hapoel Tel Aviv fans rioted on the field after their… Read more »

Former Duke University basketball star Jon Scheyer, who will be playing pro ball for Maccabi Tel Aviv, at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel following his group aliyah flight, Aug. 30, 2011. (Sasson Tiram)

The night after the National Basketball Association season was scheduled to begin, Jon Scheyer, perhaps the best Jewish basketball player of his generation, was in his Tel Aviv apartment talking about Israeli cuisine and hoops in the United States and the Holy Land. “It’s nuts,” he said last week… Read more »

Former Duke University basketball star Jon Scheyer, who will be playing pro ball for Maccabi Tel Aviv, at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel following his group aliyah flight, Aug. 30, 2011. (Sasson Tiram)

JERUSALEM (JTA) – Call it circumstantial Zionism. There’s been a recent uptick in North American aliyah — of basketball players. More than a dozen North American players have become Israeli citizens and joined professional Israeli basketball teams and second division squads in the past few years. It’s not exactly… Read more »