New York Knicks to Play Tel Aviv Israel Maccabi Team

By Joel Leyden
Israel News Agency

Jerusalem ----June 12.......Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv, a five-time Euroleague basketball champion team from Israel that has sent players such as Anthony Parker, Sarunas Jasikevicius and Tom Chambers to the NBA, will meet the New York Knicks in an Oct. 11 pre-season game at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan.

The basketball game, to be announced this afternoon at a Madison Square Garden news conference, will be the first between the two franchises, and will benefit Migdal Ohr, which runs a network of schools and a foster home village in Israel to help disadvantaged children and families.

Winner of the Euroleague championship in 2005, the Israeli team has played several NBA teams, and became the first European team to win on an NBA floor when it beat Toronto, 105-103, on a shot by Parker - who now plays for the Raptors.

It also beat the Suns and Nets in 1984 to win a tournament in Tel Aviv and defeated NBA-champion Washington in 1978 and an NBA All-Star team featuring Julius Erving three years later.

The Basketball League in Israel started in 1954 and Maccabi Tel Aviv were the first champions. They have dominated the championship ever since, winning the title 46 times, including a run of 23 titles in a row between 1970 and 1992, most probably a world record. The team has also won the national cup 36 times. Maccabi is considered as Israel's national sporting representative in the world.

Another unique record was the fact that during the seventies Maccabi Tel Aviv had three teams playing in the national league: two in the men's and one in the women's.

Since 1969 Maccabi Tel Aviv has been sponsored by ELITE, Israel's largest food company and it also carries its name. Since 1963 the club’s home court has been the NOKIA Arena in the Yad Eliyahu area in Tel Aviv.
It started as an open air court for 5,000 spectators. Now a days it is a modern arena with a capacity of 11,000.

Most of Maccabi head coaches, were ex-players at the club: The late Yehoshua Rozin was involved with the club for 40 years; Ralph Klein started as an 18 years old player and later had several spells as a coach and led the club to its first European title in 1977. Zvi Sherf played for Maccabi's second team and coached the team on three spells. Pini Gershon played in the Youth Section and as a coach led Maccabi to three European titles in 2001, 2004 and 2005.

Maccabi Tel Aviv has always been proud to provide the national team with a large number of players. Five of Maccabi players, headed by the late Avraham Shneur, were on the team which represented Israel in its first European Championship in 1953 in Moscow.

Tanhum Cohen-Mints was one of Europe's top centers in the sixties and was selected for the first European All Star Team which played in Madrid in 1964. Mickey Berkowitz, Motty Aroesti, Lou Silver and Eric Minkin, played a major part in winning the silver medal in the European Championship in 1979 in Torino.

Doron Jamchy played 16 years for the national team and holds the record for appearances (191 international games) and points scored (3,515).

Six of Maccabi players are members of the actual national team : Captain Tal Burstein, Yaniv Green, Sharon Shason, Yotam Halperin, Jamie Arnold and Lior Eliyahu.

Maccabi Tel Aviv was the first Israeli club to enter the European Cup for Champions in 1958. Since then they have played 602 games in European competitions and were the first and only Israeli club to play in a Final (1967 Cup Winners Cup) and to win the Champions Cup on five occasions (1977, 1981, 2001, 2004, 2005). So far Maccabi has played in 12 Champions Cup Finals. In 1967 they were the losing finalists in the European Cup Winners Cup. In 1980 Maccabi won the Intercontinental Cup.

In 1994 and 2004 Maccabi Tel Aviv Basketball Club organized the European Final Four in Tel Aviv.

In the 2002/03 season, Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv participated
in the Adriatic League and reached the Final Four which was to be played in Tel Aviv. But because of the war in Iraq it was switched to Ljubljana. Maccabi reached the final but lost 88-91 to Croatian club KK Zadar.

European All Star Selections played four times in Tel Aviv in honor of Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv players: Tani Cohen Mints, Tal Brody, Lou Silver and Mickey Berkowitz. Seven of Maccabi Tel Aviv players played for European All Star Selections: Cohen Mints, Brody, Silver, Berkowitz, Jamchy, Nadav Henefeld and Oded Katash.

Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv was first Israeli team to take part in the McDonald Championship, in London in 1995. In December 1997 the club organized the FIBA Eurostars in which top European players clashed in the game between East and West selections. Five of Maccabi Elite players were selected to play in the Eurostars games: Nadav Henefeld, Oded Katash, Doron Sheffer, Randy White and Rashard Griffith. Captain Gur Shelef & Nikola Vujcic appeared In October 2002 in the Euroleague All Star team in an exhibition game in Madrid as part of Real Madrid Centenary celebrations. Maccabi Tel Aviv played in December 2002 in Madrid in the final event of those celebrations.

The Miami Heat, who played in the NOKIA Arena in October 1999, was the fifth NBA team to play vs Maccabi in Tel Aviv. Maccabi played six times in the USA vs NBA teams. In October 2005 Maccabi became the first non Ameican team to beat an NBA team on North American soil, when they beat the Raptors in Toronto 105-103.