big game

So about two weeks ago, right after my final, Pros got us tickets to the Israeli Basketball Championships Final between Jerusalem vs. and Bnei Hasharon. Jerusalem easily won the game, beating by about 18 points, and leading the whole way. Dalia Itzik, current sitting President of Israel (since the previous one was indited on rape charges) handed out the final trophy (photo below)What was fun about the game was that the fans were totally insane. They had no problem booing and cheering, and the crowd was about 80% Jerusalem fans in red. They would boo every time one of the Bnei HaSharon players had the ball. They booed when they announced the coach of the opposing team, the really booed when Dalia was called up. It was nuts. They were lighting small firecrackers in the stadium, singing, drums, the whole nine... Think a Boca Juniors soccer match in Buenos Aires.

The other interesting thing is that the league in Israeli is supposed to be one of the best non-american leagues. Maccabi Tel Aviv is usually the perennial champ, winning the title in 9 out of the 10 last years (Bnei Hasharon beat them this year in the semi's in a massive upset to advance to the finals). Maccabi Tel Aviv has even won the all Europe league championships twice in recent years. The team is interesting as well, allowing only 4 non-Israelis per team. Of which all 4 all usually large black men from NCAA Div. I teams in the states who play abroad for a few years then try their luck again with the NBA.
Prosnit and I were joking about this one player, this kid named Scott Greenman, who was captain of the Princeton Basketball team last year and was even on the All-Ivy team. He was the 6th man for the Bnei Sharon squad, and he stands at a whopping 5 foot 9 (only two inches taller than me). We were joking because the Israeli Basketball Authority recruited him and put him through the Aliyah (immigration process), technically freeing up another slot for a non-Israeli...

Pros, who knows much more about the teams and the players than I do, wrote about the game as well and has extra photos on his site here.


Back to studying now... Final on Thursday...