Maccabi Tel Aviv (basketball)

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מכבי "עלית" תל אביב Maccabi “Elite” Tel Aviv

Founded	1932
Arena	Nokia Arena (also known as Yad Eliyahu)
City	Tel Aviv
Team Colors	Yellow/Blue
Owner
President	Shimon Mizrahi
Head Coach	Neven Spahija
Assistant Coaches	Guy Guddes Danny Gut
European Championships	5
Israeli Championships	46
Israeli State Cups	36
Address	293 HaYarkon Street Tel Aviv 63504 Israel
Official Website	http://www.maccabi.co.il/

Maccabi “Elite” Tel Aviv (Hebrew: מכבי ”עלית“ תל אביב) is a basketball team based in Tel Aviv, Israel. It is part of the Maccabi Tel Aviv sports club. The team has been sponsored by the Elite Confectionery Company since 1969, and therefore also includes "Elite" in its name.

1 Overview
2 Trophies and Titles
3 Current roster
4 History
5 Controversy
6 Famous past players
7 Former Maccabi Tel Aviv players who have moved to the NBA
8 External links

[edit] Overview

The club dominates Israeli basketball, having won 46 national championship titles (including 23 in a row between 1970 and 1992) and 36 national cups. Maccabi is also among Europe's best basketball teams, having won the European cup five times since 1977, and finishing second a further seven times.

Maccabi Tel Aviv's fan base is by far the largest in Israel, and a large number of Israelis support Maccabi Tel Aviv in international competition as representing Israel.

[edit] Trophies and Titles

Domestic championships: 46 (1954, 1955, 1957-59, 1962-64, 1967, 1968, 1970-92, 1994-06)
Domestic cups: 36 (1956, 1958, 1959, 1961, 1963-66, 1970-73, 1975, 1977-83, 1985-87, 1989-91, 1994, 1998-06)
Domestic National State Cup: 1 (2001)
European championships: 5
- 1977, 1981 - Victories in the European Cup, the direct predecessor to today's Euroleague, officially recognized by FIBA and ULEB as Euroleague titles.
- 2001 - Suproleague title.
- 2004, 2005 - Euroleague titles.
European finals: 12 (1977, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1987, 1988, 1989, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2005, 2006)
Intercontinental Cups: 1 (1981)

[edit] Current roster

Maccabi "Elite" Tel Aviv Current Roster
4	Will Bynum	Shooting guard
5	Noel Felix	Power forward/Center
6	Derrick Sharp	Shooting guard
7	Nikola Vujčić	Center
8	Lior Eliyahu	Power forward
9	Jamie Arnold	Power forward
10	Tal Burstein	Point guard/Shooting guard/Small forward
11	Sharon Shason	Small forward
12	Regev Fanan	Point guard/Shooting guard
13	Simas Jasaitis	Small forward
14	Yaniv Green	Center
15	Goran Jeretin	Point guard/Shooting guard
21	Yotam Halperin	Point guard
	Neven Spahija	Coach

_{Updated: March 19, 2007}

For a listing of past rosters, see Maccabi Tel Aviv Past Rosters.

[edit] History

Maccabi Tel Aviv's home court, the Nokia Arena.

Maccabi Tel Aviv sports club started its basketball activities in the mid-1930s. In 1954, the Israeli Basketball League was founded and Maccabi won the first championship. They have dominated the League ever since, winning 46 national championship titles (including 23 in a row between 1970 and 1992) and 36 national cups. The team has never finished below the third place in the national league.

Maccabi Tel Aviv's traditional rival is crosstown team Hapoel Tel Aviv, however the last time "the Reds" won a national title was in 1969. Since then, the only team to have defeated Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Israeli championship was Hapoel Galil-Elyon in 1993, led by Doron Sheffer and coached by Pinhas "Pini" Gershon. Eventually both Sheffer and Gershon joined Maccabi.

In 1958, Maccabi Tel Aviv joined international competition and became one of the best basketball teams in Europe. As at August 2005, Maccabi Tel Aviv had played 577 games in European competitions and won 359 of them, scoring 50,012 points to their opponents' 48,150.

The club's first European championship came in 1977, under coach Ralph Klein. In the final game in Belgrade, Yugoslavia Maccabi Tel Aviv 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 greater symbolic value was the semifinal win over CSKA Moscow. In the eyes of the whole country, it was not only an important win, but a form of 'revenge' on the Soviet Union, the country that provided support to Israel's enemies. "We are on the map," - proclaimed captain Tal Brody after the game, - "And we are staying on the map, not only in sports, but in everything". Maccabi Tel Aviv indeed stayed on the European basketball map, and in 1981 it won another Championship Cup, this time defeating Sinudyne Bologna 80:79.

During the 1980s, Maccabi Tel Aviv reached -- but lost -- the European finals five times.

The 1990s were Maccabi's "black decade", with the team managing only one Final Four appearance in 10 years and even losing the local title in 1993. In 1998 Pini Gershon, then considered one of the most vocal of the "anti-Maccabists" in Israel, became the head coach, thus inaugurating arguably the best period in the club's history. The team reached the Euroleague final in 2000, falling to the highly touted Panathinaikos in a close game (ironically, former Maccabi Tel Aviv and Israeli national team star Oded Katash proved the decisive player in the final game). The following year the teams met again in the Suproleague finals in Paris, and the Israeli club, led by Ariel McDonald, Anthony Parker and Nate Huffman, avenged the loss 81:67.

Gershon decided to retire, but came back for the 2003/04 season, Anthony Parker also returned for the second stint with the club. Lithuanian star Šarūnas Jasikevičius (known as "Sharas" in Israel) also joined the team, and Maccabi Tel Aviv was the form team of the 2003/04 season, defeating Skipper Bologna in the Euroleague final game (held in Tel Aviv) in an unprecedented landslide (118:74), in the process setting 11 Euroleague records.

The team returned to the Euroleague Final Four (held in Moscow) in 2005, facing tough odds due to the rise of the dominant CSKA Moscow club that was favored to win. In the semi-final Maccabi Tel Aviv was once again matched against rivals Panathinaikos, known as one of the best defenses in Europe. In a scenario that few in European basketball community envisioned, TAU Cerámica stunned CSKA Moscow and Maccabi Tel Aviv celebrated yet another victory over the Greek team, then proceeded to defeat TAU Cerámica in a very competitive final (90:78) on May 8, 2005.

On October 16, 2005, Maccabi Tel Aviv 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, the first win over an NBA team by any Euroleague team in 17 years, and the first ever European win over an NBA team on North American soil. Anthony Parker's jump shot with 0.8 seconds lifted the Euroleague champion over Toronto 105:103.

In the 2005/06 season, Maccabi finished with two domestic titles - its 46th championship and 36th State Cup, both after wins over Hapoel Jerusalem. During Euroleague's Final Four, Maccabi Tel Aviv met TAU Cerámica in the first semifinal game, and won the game 85-70. Maccabi Tel Aviv faced CSKA Moscow in the final on April 30, 2006, losing 73:69.

During the summer, its "dynasty" ended as Anthony Parker and Maceo Baston followed Jasikevičius and left for the NBA, leading to a major overhaul of the club's roster, and a (thus far) mediocre 2006/07 season (although the team still qualified for the quarterfinals).

Maccabi has hosted the European Cup final in 1972 and the Euroleague Final Four twice (1994 and 2004), and has hosted European All Star events four times. Seven Maccabi players have been selected in the European All Stars: Tanhum Cohen-Mintz, Tal Brody, Lou Silver, Miki Berkovich, Doron Jamchi, Nadav Henefeld and Oded Katash.

[edit] Controversy

Part of the basketball community in Israel sees Maccabi Tel Aviv's dominance as a root cause of various problems of Israeli basketball. Some claim that the lack of competitiveness in Israeli basketball causes fans and investors to "migrate" to football (which is also very popular in Israel). 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. The European and local success of Hapoel Jerusalem (2004 and 2007), and the increasing competitiveness of clubs such as Hapoel Galil-Elyon and Bnei HaSharon seem to support the Pro-Maccabists' arguments.

From time to time, ideas arise for reform in Israeli basketball that would prevent Maccabi from dominating the rest of the league and/or would ensure more playing time for domestic players. Most radical of the proposals feature laws similar to those of by the NBA, such as a salary cap or draft; Maccabi has objected to all such proposals. So far, the most significant change was the introduction for the 2006/07 season of a rule (widely referred to as the Russian law) which obliges each team to have at least two Israeli players on court at all times, a move countered by Maccabi's signing of the best local talent.