Beat Qiryat Ata after slow start... got some meaningful minutes...

Sorry for the delay, I was going to post yesterday, but ended up going to Tel Aviv with a couple of my teammates to shop and try some restaurant.  It was a good decision as we hit up this restaurant called Dixie's, and they had the best chicken wings everrrrrrr.  Anyway, we played Qiryat Ata two nights ago (Sunday night).  Once again, we had a real slow start (we can't seem to break that habit), and were forced to dig ourselves out of an early hole.  By half-time, we had taken a small lead, but this was a team that we really should have handled from the get-go.  In the third quarter, one of our guards had a injury which finally gave me the opportunity to play some meaningful minutes in a league game.  Fortunately for myself, I took advantage of the opportunity and played pretty well, making the only shot I took, and providing the team with pretty good energy.  Hopefully this will be the start of other opportunities to continue to prove myself in games.  Only time will tell.  This is going to be a busy week for a number of reasons.  I leave for the states next Monday night, so this is the week I gotta get ready, and get packed to head home for about 10 days! I really can't wait, it will be pretty awesome being home and seeing everyone I have been missin' for the past 3 months... but before I go home, we gotta finish business over here, and win our last league game before break against Givat Schmuel.  If we are able to beat them, we will be 6-2 heading into the break, which would be a very good start.  

Slow week so far... Qiryat Ata this Sunday

This week has been going very slow, and probably for a couple different reasons.  First off, the weather is finally starting to cool down, which I can't really complain about because it did take until the first week of December for that to happen!  Secondly, we played on Saturday last week, and then don't play again 'til Sunday this week, so there is one extra day of practice in there that we usually don't have, and at this point in the season those practices add up.  I think guys are getting a little fatigued right now (myself included) because it has been a grind to this point, and we haven't really had any extended time off yet, but this is the exact time when we need to get tough because these next two games are going to be huge for us.  We have a legitimate chance of going into the break with a 6-2 record, which would be exactly where we want to be.  

This weekend we play one of the lower tiered teams in the league called Qiryat Ata.  We have a huge advantage going into this game because it will be relatively a home game for us.  We have been practicing in their gym for the past two weeks because something is going on at our gym, and we finish this stretch out to the break on a three game road trip.  So basically we are playing a road game, that isn't really a road game.  

Besides basketball, there really isn't that much going on right now over here.  The novelty of being in a new place has started to wear off, and people aren't doing as much as they used to in terms of going out, and everything else.  It isn't a problem though, as I never have trouble keeping myself busy at the apartment.   That's all for now, I will give a brief pre-game breakdown either tomorrow or Saturday.   Hope everyone is having a great week, and I'll be back soon.  Later.

Big Win in Nahariya, Back to 4-2 in League

Last night we were on the road in Nahariya, trying to get things back on track.  We had lost our previous two league games, so this was definitely a game we needed to win, or else we would have been in some serious trouble.  It was obviously not a great situation to be in because it is very difficult to win games on the road, no matter what the level of basketball.  Early on we started out pretty slowly, and had some tough stretches that lead to a 9 point deficit at half-time.  It looked like it was going to be the same story as the last two league games, but we were able to right the ship in the second half.  As usual, the turnaround started with defense.  The truth of the it is we have not been playing well offensively for about a month, so we really needed to get defensive stops to give ourselves a good chance to win, and that is what we did in the second half.  We allowed only 20 points in the second half, which was a very impressive effort.  We hit some big shots to extend the lead, and it never got closer than 8 in the last 5 minutes.  We needed this win to have a chance moving forward, so it is a very good thing we were able to get it done.

After the game, I went to Tel Aviv with five of my teammates (the American dudes and Moshe Mizrahi).  It was the first time I had been out and about in Tel Aviv.  I had a good time hanging with the guys for sure, but since it was a Saturday night (basically like Sunday night in the states, because the Israeli workweek starts Sunday morning) there was not a whole lot going on.  We ate at this cool little spot in the city, and checked out a couple bars.  It was a good first night in Tel Aviv, not too crazy, but not too boring either.  This week should be pretty relaxed, because there is not a whole lot going on.  

What I am really excited about is come Monday, it will be two weeks on the dot from the time I will be getting to the BAY.  Can't wait to go home for a bit.  I'll be back later this week, hope yall enjoy your Sunday!

Sorry For the Delay... It's Been a Busy Week

First off, before I start, I wanna wish my sister a happy 21st birthday!  Tate turned 21 on Tuesday, and celebrated by going out to the bars for the first time...legally.  This week has been pretty hectic, and as you know during hectic weeks time flies.  It all started with the fashion show on Monday.  To see pictures from that, click the link at the bottom of this blog.  They are pretty cool, so check 'em out.  After that, Tuesday brought me two tough practices.  I was pretty sure tough practices were on their way after two league losses in a row, and in all truthfulness we needed them.  We had become a little content, and we needed a fire lit under our respective asses to get going again.  We practiced much harder, and with more intensity this week, and I really think we will be ready to go come Saturday night (our next league game, against Nahariya).  On Wednesday, I went over to Ido's house for dinner with Doron, and Ido's wife (who is a realllllly good cook) made us some real good soup, salad, and chicken schnitzel.  Thursday brought Thanksgiving, and I was fortunate enough to be invited over to Ben's apartment by him and his family to celebrate the holiday with them.  His parents are over here visiting for the first time, and wanted to spend the holiday with him.  They were nice enough to include me in the festivities, and my hat goes off to Ben's parents because (with limited resources) they made one hell of a meal.  Salad, stuffing, potatoes, Chicken (they don't sell turkeys over here) and gravy, along with some unbelievable pumpkin pie made by Ben's mom Sally.  It was a damn good substitute for not being able to be home, and I want to thank them again for including me.  Last night I went to Tal's house for Shabbat dinner (like usual), and this morning we had shootaround for tonight's game, and then after that went with Tal to his little cousin's bar mitzvah party! Mazel Tov (haha, that's all I really could bring to the table with celebratory phrases).  Now I am sittin' at home, relaxin', gettin' ready to take a nap before the game tonight.  Tonight I think I am going to make my first trip to Tel Aviv with some of the guys, so I am pretty excited for that.  I promise to update you by Monday morning on the result of our game tonight... hopefully I get some run.

That's all I got for now, hope all is well back in the states!  16 days until I will be back in the YAY Area!

Tough One Against Jerusalem, 3-2 now in League

Sunday night we had the opportunity to put ourselves in a great spot in the league.  Before Sunday's games, there were six teams all tied with the same, best record (3-1).  All six of those teams played each other on that night, so with a win, we would at least be in the top 3 in the league.  We played a very good team in Jerusalem who was fresh off laying a beat down on Maccabi Tel Aviv a few days before.  This was a game that was easy to get excited for because of the ramifications of both a win or a loss.  The crowd was unbelievable, even ten minutes before game time, and the atmosphere was wonderful.  We started out the game going back and forth with them, basically all the way through the first half.  We had some opportunities to extend, but like most good teams, Jerusalem didn't let us.  We went into half time a bit stagnant, and trailing by two.  The story was the same in the third quarter, back and forth, back and forth.  Jerusalem's 3-man, this 6'9'' guy who plays a lot like Peja Stoyakovic for those of you who are NBA fans, got it going a little bit, but we kept it close and were only trailing by 6 or so after 3 quarters.  When it was time to grind, we tried our best, but a lot of the guys who have been playing are logging A LOT of minutes, and I am pretty sure they were fatigued.  They extended it to about 12 points, and we started making a late run, cut it to 5 or so, but just didn't have enough in the tank to finish it out.  Now we have lost our last two league games, so we have to soul-search a little bit, and get back to our winning ways.  The final of the Jerusalem game was 80-73.  

If you are wondering why I haven't been talking at all about how I'm playing it's because I'm not really playing at all.  I get spot minutes (actually seconds) every now and then at the end of quarters, but I am working hard to change that daily in practice.  Once I start gettin' more burn I will be sure to inform you all haha.  

Lastly, the fashion show was tonight, and it was a big success.  I will post pictures, and write a brief blog on it tomorrow!  Hope you all have a real cool Monday.

A Win is a Win

As I had mentioned yesterday we played the same team last night that we played last weekend in the 'cup', Galil-Gilboa.  They didn't have their American 4 man, a dude who went to Illinois, but they still played pretty well.  They really don't run any sets besides high pick and rolls, and we still weren't able to stop it, until we nutted-up in the fourth quarter when we needed to.  We were down 2 at half, and they came out blazing in the second half, taking a 14 point lead at one point.  We really just lacked energy, and it was a weird feeling in the gym, but Davon Jefferson really got us going, and we made some big shots down the stretch.  This means that we will now play our next cup game on January 4th. 

Our next game is this Sunday against Jerusalem.  I would say that they have been the best team in our league up to this point, especially after they waxed Maccabi Tel Aviv last night, at one point, they were even leading by 30 points!!  We need to bring a better effort Sunday night compared to the last few games, or we will be in some serious trouble.

Good news on the holiday front! Our coach told us we would be able to stay in the states for Christmas, and catch a flight back the 26th.  Couldn't be any happier about that!

That's it for now, I will let you all know how we do Sunday!

Cup Game #2 Preview: Galil-Gilboa

Tonight (Thursday night) we play the 2nd game of the 'Cup Tournament'.  Our first game was a month or so ago, against a second division team named 'Hapoel Be'eri'.  We won that game real easily, and it set us up for this game tonight.  We are playing the same team that beat us in overtime last weekend, so it will be nice to see how we do now that we get them in our own gym.  We spent a lot of time over the past few days working on stopping a few of their offensive sets that they absolutely murdered us with.  I feel like the coaches did a good job of changing up the game plan to counter their sets, so I think we will be more than ready.  This is going to be a big four days for us because after tonight, we get Jerusalem at home on Sunday.  If we can win both these games it would be a big statement to the rest of the league that we are a legit contender.  I'll be back tomorrow, and let you all know how it went down.  Have a good thursday... only one more day 'til the weekend!

Big Ben's Dilemma, Fashion Show Fitting

Today was the day that my teammates and I went to 'Springfields', the store that is sponsoring the fashion show to try on our outfits.  Ben and I got there at the same time, and we were both pretty interested in seeing what kind of options we would get to rock on the runway.  Ben had a little better foresight than I did, as he was worried that they wouldn't be able to find any clothes to fit his near 7 foot frame.  Obviously this wasn't a concern for me, finding stuff for a 6'2'' guy is not nearly as difficult.  When we got to the store, our teammate Moshe was already trying on some gear, and the lady began helping Ben and I.  The lady gave me a pair of jeans, a nice little red button up, and a black jacket to wear over it.  I went and tried it on, and after trading the jacket for a bigger size, I was ready to go, in and out in no more than 10 minutes.  Well, for Ben, it wasn't that simple.  The first outfit the lady gave him looked like it would have been small for even ME, so you can only imagine what it looked like on him.  The second outfit was much better as she traded a button up for a screen t-shirt, but one problem remained...the jeans.  Ben offered to wear a pair of his own to the show, but the lady said he had to wear something from 'Springfields' since they were the sponsor.  After trying to wear them normal, then trying to roll up the bottoms and go with the 'high-water' look, then simply sagging, we came to the conclusion that Ben might look a little goofy on the runway.  I reassured him, 'bro, don't worry about it... no one from home is going to see you in these clothes... until I post them on facebook HAH!'  Hopefully the ladies working at the store appreciated Ben's attitude, because I know a lot of people who would not been nearly as flexible in that situation.  

As a reminder, we play Galil-Gilboa again, in a cup game, this Thursday at home.  Hopefully we can get a few things straightened out, and then we will be ready to go.

I will update the blog after that game, and let you know how we did.

Game Four: Our First L, to Galil Galboa

Tonight we had the Saturday Night game of the week against Galil Galboa, a team that is located about an hour northeast of Haifa.  They are a guard-heavy squad, and run the crap out of the high pick and roll.  We didn't play our best game, but we put ourselves in a great position to win the game as we were up 5 points with 1:15 to go.  A couple bad lapses on the defensive boards allowed them to tie the game with 28 seconds to go in regulation.  We still were in a great position, ball in hand, tie game, and we got to take the last shot.  Our point guard, Doron, took it strong to the rack, got hit a couple times en route, powered through, but missed a little 10 foot float piece that went in and out.  In overtime they took control, and they extended the lead, and really put us in a hole when their big man hit a step back 3 pointer as the shot clock expired.  They really just wore us down with the high pick and roll, and took advantage of the fact that our guys had piled up a lot of minutes in regulation.  As for myself, I played 4 minutes in the first half, and didn't get any action in the 2nd half, or in overtime.  We are now 3-1, and we are either in 3rd or 4th place now, I'm not sure.  We play Galil Galboa again on Thursday night, this time in a 'cup' game.  Fortunately for us, we get them in our gym, so we can have a lil' homecourt advantage this time around.  Following that, we play Jerusalem on Sunday, so we have two tough games coming up that we need to get ready for.  Hopefully we learn from this, and don't let it effect us in the next game Thursday.

Fashion Day with the Haifa Heat

Today started off as any other Tuesday would... 11am shooting practice, and then straight home to go back to bed.  What made it different from the other Tuesdays was the fact myself and six of my teammates had to go to a local mall to get fitted for a fashion show that we will be participating in a few weeks from now.  None of us had any idea what was going on, so we just went with the flow and showed up.  When we got there, we got fitted for our outfits we will be wearing at the show (and keeping after its over!).  After the fitting, we got introduced to the twenty girls who will be doing the show with us... unfortunately, all these girls are between the ages of 15-18, and I just can't talk myself into talking to an eighteen year old girl, even though it is supposedly 'legal'.  It was actually pretty fun, and all us guys had to practice our runway walks, and our poses at the end of the runway... as you can imagine, we were all very awkward at it.  It's pretty entertaining watching a group of guys who look so fluid and coordinated on a basketball court look so goofy walking in a straight line.  Anyhow, we have a meeting set up to try on our clothes next week so we will surely be ready to walk the runway on the 24th of November, the actually date of the show.  

Back to basketball, we are getting ready for a HUGE stretch in our schedule... we have 3 games in 8 days starting Saturday (two league games, and one cup game).  We play Galil-Galboa on Saturday at their place, and if we can win this one, we will be sitting veryyyy pretty.  Pretty excited for this weekend, it will be another good test for our team to see how strong we really are.

Lastly, a kid who is like a little brother to me, Brandon 'Beezer' Burnam went into the ICU real early this morning.  He is having some really bad problems with his asthma, which has really been a problem for him in his past.  I'm pretty positive he will be all good, but if you could keep him in your thoughts right now it would be much appreciated.  Thanks a lot, and have a great Wednesday!

3-0 Start

Last night we had our first home game of the regular season against the defending champions of the league, Hapoel Holon.  I was pretty excited because everyone had been building up how wild it got at our home games, and they had compared it to college games back in the states.  That made expectations pretty damn high for me because it got crackin' at SMC's McKeon Pavilion.  Just like big games in college, the crowd had already started to arrive, and a buzz was going through the gym an hour before game time.  What's crazy is they let you bring in all types of artificial noisemakers into the game like air horns, drums, and those old school megaphone type things (I don't even know what they are called).  As for the game, we played real well in the first half, and took a 12 point lead into half-time.  It was looking good in terms of 2nd half playing time for me, until we had a real slow start at the beginning of the second half, even giving up the lead for a little bit after they started the half on a 13-0 run.  It went back and forth for a little bit, but once again we pulled away late in the fourth quarter, and ended up winning pretty big.  Right now we are sittin' pretty nicely at 3-0, and we are atop the standings.  The only other undefeated team are the Yankees of Israel, Maccabi Tel Aviv.  We can't look ahead though, because we got a tough game next week on the road, and we gotta try to keep this train rollin'.

Season Gam 3 Preview: Defending Champs Hapoel Holon

Hope everyone is doing well... we have a very important league game tonight, as we host our first league game against the defending champions of the league, Hapoel Holon.  Hapoel Holon beat Maccabi Tel Aviv for the Israeli Championship last year in a huge upset.  Although they don't really return anyone off that championship team, we have seen them on film, and they are pretty good.  They are a real quick, undersized team, who can hurt you by taking you out of your offensive sets, and really trying to get the game going at an uncomfortable pace.  They have quick feet and quick hands, and they utilize those strengths by trapping pick and rolls, and pressuring the ball.  Fortunately for us, we have a bunch of different guys who can handle defensive pressure, so I don't think it will give us as much trouble as it has the other teams.  They are 2-0 in league as well, so whoever wins tonight will be in a first place tie with Maccabi Tel Aviv after the weekend.  It's a late start tonight 8:30pm Israeli time, so I probably won't post an update about the final until tomorrow.  If you want to watch the game, they have video online available at www.trianglefs.com.  The only thing is the game won't be shown until 8 hours after the start time, so on the east coast it will start at 9:30pm, Arizona will be 7:30pm, and Cali will be 6:30pm.  The reason why they do that is because they don't want to compete with NFL games.  Alright, well, I will be back tomorrow with an update, hopefully tellin' you all how we knocked 'em off, and are sittin' on top of the league standings. 

Friday Night Out with the Boss

Usually my Friday nights are pretty consistent.  I will occasionally go out with my teammates for a bit, knowing I have all day Saturday to sleep in, but last night (Friday night) was different.  After our morning practice on Friday our team's owner, Jeff Rosen, asked Ben Strong and I if we had any plans for the evening.  Since both of us aren't exactly 'busy' guys, we didn't have anything planned, so Jeff set up a dinner for all of us, along with Joe Almodovar (the team's GM) later that night.  Ben and I ended up meeting them at 'Dante's'  in Haifa, a very nice Italian restaurant right in the center of the city.  It was a great opportunity for everyone involved because Ben and I were able to ask Jeff questions that we had, and he talked with us about different ways to market the team, and we brainstormed ways to get the word out, all over some really good food.  It is really assuring that the owner of our team actually cares about our personal successes and growth, along with the success of the team.  After the dinner the four of us went down the street to the bar in Haifa we attend the most often named, 'Levinsky's'.  Techno night made it difficult to hear each other talk, but at the bar we continued conversating about the team, and about the experiences we had in Haifa to this point.  It was a very cool night, and Ben and I really appreciated the effort Jeff and Joe put out to make us feel welcome and comfortable within the organization.  Tomorrow night we play the defending champions of Israel, Hapoel Holon, and I will write a quick little preview for that game tomorrow.  

Don't Sleep on Those Suns

I followed the first half of the Suns vs. Pacers game on ESPN GameCast last night, and after the first quarter was pretty disappointed.  The whole idea Terry Porter (the new coach) was hanging his hat on was changing the teams concentration to the defensive end.  He figured with top flight offensive talents like Amare, and the real 'Stevie Franchise', that the team would always be able to score enough to win, it was just whether or not they would be able to stop the other team from scoring.  Well, after the first quarter last night the Suns 'O' looked good as they scored 27..but their defensive... well, they gave up 38 points. 38!!! Where was the D Terry?? It was nowhere to be found in the first half, as they were down 7 at the half, but they turned it around, and kept the Pacers pretty quiet in the 2nd half, which allowed the Suns to extend their lead, and win pretty easily.  Although they were AWFUL defensively in the first half, their great OFFENSE saved them.  It wasn't the way Terry Porter wants to win, but I know he will take any W he can get in his first year with the Suns.  

The difference about last night's games from all the others was the absence of Matt Barnes.  He apparently had a family issue, so he didn't play, but it showed how much the Suns rely on him to guard.  Danny Granger, the 3-man for the Pacers, lit the Suns up for 23.  Granger is a very very good player, but his night was made a lot easier having Grant Hill trying to stick him.  Also, it affected the Suns depth.  The depth of the new Suns is the main reason I really think they can compete this year, and Barnes is really the 'x-factor' in that department.  Still relatively young, he can play a lot of minutes, and give more rest to older guys like Raja and Hill.  

Regardless, the Suns have started the year 4-1, and have a good shot to keep this thing rolling.  Now we just got to cross our fingers, and hope that the 'Diesel', 'Stat', and 'Stevie Franchise' can stay healthy.

Outnumbered... by a lot!

I was sitting in the lounge area of our locker room yesterday when one of the members of the management asked me a simple question, 'McCain or Obama?'  I answered, 'McCain', and he echoed my response into the telephone he was on.  After that he asked my other American teammates who all answered, 'Obama'.  That wasn't a huge shock because all but one of my other American teammates are African American dudes, and the one who isn't is half white, half Native American!  So, when he hung up the phone he started laughing pretty hard, and he says, 'Todd, you are the only American in the league that votes for McCain!'  That caught me a little off guard... 'I'm the only American that votes for McCain... wow'.  After thinking about it, it's not THAT surprising.  Looking at the demographic of Americans in this league, I estimate there is 50 Americans in the top division over here, and only 5 of them are White guys.  It's just interesting to think about the election in terms of race.  Using the league as a sample, it seems as if White people are much more willing to vote for Obama, than Black people for McCain.  Not saying either is right or wrong, and I think that is fairly parallel to how the general public feels.  All I know is I will be staying up very very late tonight, hopefully late enough to see who is named the next President of the United States of America.

Obama up 3 with a minute to go...

As for a quick weekend recap, my teams went nearly undefeated.  Obviously Maccabi Haifa beat Rishon Le'Zion on Saturday, the Phoenix Suns beat the Portland Jailblazers on friday night, my North Dakota State Bison won on Saturday (big ups Coop), and the Arizona Cardinals dominated the St. Louis Rams on Sunday.  Only loss on the weekend came by the way of the Oregon State Beavers as they beat the Arizona State football team.  Overall, my squads went 4-1 on the weekend... I will gladly walk away from it with a .800 winning percentage.  This week my lazy day was Sunday instead of today because we played Saturday.  I did the usual which includes laundry and grocery shopping.  The unusual thing that occurred was the viewing of four episodes of the Showtime show 'Dexter'.  I have to add it to my list of favorite shows, it's pretty damn good,  and very very addicting.  Anyhow, while there are elections going on in Israel right now as well, the election I have been following the closest is the presidential election of the US.  I am, by no means, a knowledgeable person when it comes to politics, BUT I have been watching a lot of Fox News and CNBC (the two American news stations I get on the cable package here) so I feel like I have a pretty good idea of what's going on.  I really can't give an educated opinion on the different policies, or the whole 'spread the wealth' argument, but something is happening in the race that can very easily be analogized to a sporting event.   Picture this... an up and coming team who is pretty good, but doesn't yet know how good they are is currently beating an old, veteran team who, with one more loss, will be considered past their prime.  The younger team is executing better, is more athletic, and is clicking on all cylinders in the first half, and takes a big 15 point half-time lead.  In the third quarter, it's the same story, but the older, veteran team keeps hanging around, making shots when they need to, basically just doing enough to stay in the game, and the veteran team then manages to cut the lead to 10 points by the end of the third quarter.  Well, now it's the fourth quarter, and it's  crunch time, and the young, exciting team is 'playing not to lose' the game, instead of doing what they had been the previous three quarters, which was being aggressive, and looking to score, and now they are sitting back on their heels, hoping that something goes their way.  Meanwhile, the old veteran team who has been there before, knew that if they played their game the whole way, they would have a shot to win down the stretch, because they had been through the battle before, and they know what it takes to win.  

That's my personal 'basketball' opinion on the US Presidential election right now... Barack Obama is up 3 points with 1 minute to go... but John McCain has the ball, and if he get's a quick bucket, it's anybody's election to win on Tuesday.   

Hopefully that makes sense to you all, because it makes really good sense in my head! HAHA.  Anyway, I hope you all had a great weekend, and I'll hit you up soon.

Game 2 Review: Big Win on the Road

Like I said in one of my recent blogs we had a real good week of practice, and that translated onto the court Saturday night.  Before the game even started, our coach was stressing to us just how good of a start it would be to start the regular season with two road wins.  It made sense, getting two road wins in this short 24 game season is huge, it gives you a leg up in the standings because it's way more difficult to win on the road than at home, and our guys responded very well to his message. 

Unlike the first regular season game, we started out great.  We were executing pretty well offensively, but that's not what was doing it for us.  The way we were playing defensively, and the way we were controlling the glass is what took us out to our huge lead.  We are a very big team, and when motivated, we don't get rebounded on.  We were limiting them to one shot every time, and it was usually a bad one.  Because of our great rebounding and defense we extended the lead early, and never looked back.  We pushed the lead to twenty at half-time, and even had it to thirty at some stages of the third and fourth quarter.  D-Jeff and BJ McKie led us in scoring with 20 points each, and Ido had a real nice game with 15.  I got some time tonight, but most of it came in the second half when the game was already decided.  Anyhow, I got my first two regular season points from the line in the 4th quarter, and I found my buddy Tal (the young dude) leakin' out late for a lay-up for his first bucket.  Our backup PG Amit Ben-David did a real nice job tonight runnin' the show and filling in for Doron who didn't play that much, mainly because we were out to such an early lead, but also because he's still recovering from that accident earlier in the week.  

Next week we play the defending champions for our home season opener.  I have to imagine it's going to be pretty wild in there due to our very good start.  That's all I got for now, and I will leave you with the final score from the gym last night.  

Maccabi Haifa 81, Rishon Le'Zion 54

League Game 2 Preview: Rishon Le-Zion

We play Saturday this weekend, instead of the usual Sunday game, because we get the Saturday Night TV Game over here in Israel.  It really doesn't make a whole lot of difference to us anyway, because we have already had 5 days since our last game, so we will be more than rested, and more than ready.  The team we play, Rishon Le-Zion, lost their first game of the season last weekend, but we watched 'em on tape a little bit, and they look like they have some pretty good weapons.  It says they have James Lang on their team (a 2003 McDonald's All-American teammate of Lebron) but I didn't notice him when watching the tape.  Either way, if we can win this game saturday, and start the season off with two road wins, it would be a tremendous start to the season, and it would put us in great shape going forward.  

We have had a very good week of practice so far, mainly due to people getting into shape.  I think our squad is reaching the next level because the scrimmaging in practice is improving daily, and people are playing harder, more consistently.  At tonight's practice we will mostly focus on learning as much as we can about Rishon Le-Zion to make sure we are properly prepared for the game.  I'm tryin' to catch a sweet Shabbat dinner at Tal's house after practice, but the likelihood of that happening is not so good due to the late practice.  I'ma keep my fingers crossed because the food at Tal's is amazing, and his family is even better.  I'll let you all know how the game goes tomorrow night.  And to all my people in the states, take as many pictures tonight as possible, I wanna see who has the most creative costume... and also, be safe, Halloween is a crazy night.

Big Ups to the Phils...

Yesterday I made sure I got a good nap in the afternoon, because I wanted to make sure I was awake at 2:35am Israel time for the restart of Game 5 of the World Series.  I was pretty interested in this years WS because of the new teams that were involved with all their fresh faces.  The days of the Yankees and Red Sox year in and year out representing the AL in the WS might be over, due to the unbelievable young talent the Rays have.  And the Phils, once again stormed to the finish in September knocking out the Mets on the last day of the regular season.  I personally thought the Phils would struggle in the post-season because their lack of starting pitching depth, after Hamels, they really don't have much.  Every team in the NL portion of the playoffs had better SP, but the Phils threw it back in my face, and advanced to the WS.  The bottom line is the Phils starting pitching was rock solid, not spectacular, but good enough, and they gave their lineup a chance to win every game... and because the Phils lineup is so good (maybe the best in baseball 1-6) they won the World Series easily in five games.  The Rays were the suprise team in baseball this year, and proved the haters wrong once again when they got past the Red Sox in the LCS.  A big difference in the WS was the managing.  I don't want to say that Charlie Manuel out-managed Joe Maddon because Manuel really didn't do anything spectacular, he just did his job.  On the other hand, I think Maddon (who had managed very well all year) did a particularly poor job in the World Series.  The main example that keeps coming to my head is starting Balfour in the 6th inning of the game 5 restart.  Balfour had been very good all season, but he had the most untouchable pitcher on either team's staff withering away in the bullpen, David Price.  It seems as if Maddon was managing for a game 6 and maybe even a game 7 without realizing he needed to get a W in game 5 to even get to that point.  If I was Maddon, I would have started Price and let him go until his arm fell off.  I don't know if he was being 'careful' with him or what say you, but the bottom line is it was the WORLD SERIES.  That is the ultimate goal to win the World Series right??? Who cares if David Price wins 20 games next year, they had a great opportunity to win it this year, and they didn't.  Price eventually came in with the Rays down 1 in the bottom of the eighth and pitched a scoreless inning striking out 2.  He looked great, and I think Maddon will look back on the game, and realize he should have been called upon before all three relievers (Balfour, Howell, and Bradford).  Anyhow, the Rays were unbelievably fun to watch this season, and their fearless attitude against Boston in the LCS was impressive for such a young group of guys.  Unfortunately, it will be hard for them to live up to the high expectations they will have put upon them next year, but it will be mighty fun watching them try.

'Manch Pizza' a great find...

For people who don't keep 'kosher' coming over to Israel could be a little difficult when trying to find the foods you're used to eating back home.  Even though I'm Jewish, I have never really kept 'kosher'... not because I don't believe in the tradition, it's just the fact that I have always liked cheese in my steak burritos, and pepperoni on my pizza.  It was real difficult to find places over here that were not 'kosher', as most of the restaurants (especially the mom & pop type places) do not serve meat and cheese.  A lot of the coffee shops will not serve meat period, end of story.  You can go in and get pasta, but not with bolognese sauce, or with chicken.  After settling for a pizza spot, seriously no more than a three minute walk from my house, that made a mean cheese pizza with corn on top (don't knock it 'til you try it, it is actually pretty damn good), my teammate Tal, took me to this place by his house called, 'Manch Pizza'.  'Manch' is a non-kosher pizza place, about ten minutes from my house, that I probably still wouldn't know about if it wasn't for my boy Tal.  We went there to eat one day after practice one day, and while it isn't on the same level as my favorite places from Phoenix and the Bay, it is a cheap place that serves big pizza with lots and lots of pepperoni.  Now my teammate Ben and I frequent that restaurant at least once a week (ok, more like twice a week).  Starting my third month on Israeli soil Monday, I have found a couple different Italian places that are like the one's back home, and that makes the transition much, much easier.  Now... if I could only find a restaurant over here like Chipotle...

It Ain't Like the States...

Before I came over here, a lot of people I knew who were familiar with Israel told me how crazy Tel Aviv is.  They would talk about how the clubs and bars really don't get going 'til 1 or 2am, and how the clubs don't close til 6 or 7am.  Ever since I arrived, I've been wanting to make the hour trip south to visit Tel Aviv, but I wanted to go during the day first, to kinda get a feel for it, so I would have a better idea of what was going on and what to expect when I made it down there at night.  Well, it took me a little longer than I expected to get settled in Haifa, so I haven't made it down there, except for a preseason game, but I didn't get to spend any time in the city, so to me, that doesn't count.  After our game Sunday, a couple of my teammates invited me to roll with them to Tel Aviv for the night because it was only 15 minutes from the gym we had just played at, and we didn't have practice the next day, so there was no rush to get home.  I was thinking about going with them, until I realized I came to the game in sweats (not exactly the Tel Aviv nightlife attire).  After thanking them for the invite, I got back on the bus, and headed to Haifa, as they went out for a night in the big city. 

 I called my teammate BJ late last nite to ask him how it went, and he said, 'man, it was goin alright until about 2am...we were leaving a club, and we were tryin' to catch a cab...Doron (Perkins) flagged one down, and started walkin' around the back of the cab to get in the other side...I don't know what the hell the cab driver was doin', but he just started backin' up all fast, and BAM, he ran right into Doron...'

Thankfully, Doron is alright.  Apparently he got a pretty good sized laceration on the side of his face (he was told to just rest at his apartment this morning instead of coming to shootaround), and might have jacked up his finger pretty bad, but obviously we are all pretty thankful that more damage wasn't done.  BJ stayed with him all night in the hospital in Tel Aviv, and they didn't end up coming back to Haifa 'til 4pm or so Monday afternoon.  

What people in the states don't realize is how different the nightlife is out here from back home.  There are no clubs or bars back home like the places in Israel.  They are extremely fun and wild, but at the same time you have to be careful, because it's just so different.  People drink in the parking lots outside the clubs like it isn't a big deal, right in front of the police!  But to the police here that is nothing out of the ordinary, and they are more focused on sending people through metal detectors, or patting people down as they come into the club.  In the states, if you tried to have a little pre-party in the parking lot outside the club, you would end up pre-partyin' at the police station.  It's just a completely different lifestyle, one I'm still getting used to.  And you best believe I will be making a day trip or two to Tel Aviv before I try to hang with the big boys for a night out in the big city.

Gotta Love Mondays...

Mondays for me in Israel are great.  While most people are going back to work after a long weekend of partying and watching football, dreading the next five days until they can do it all over again, I am waking up (usually at noon) looking forward to having a full day of NOTHING.  Monday is our day off, meaning no practice, no meetings, no workouts, no nothing!  It's a day for us to basically rest our bodies, and get ourselves prepared for the week ahead.  Our coaches stress to us the importance of taking the day off, telling us that we cannot work out even if we want to.  The reason they do this is so they can say they gave us all of Monday off if any of the players complain later in the week about tough practices.  I actually think it's a good idea, because it really lets the player get away from basketball for a day, and concentrate on getting rested up, as well as taking care of other things that we might not have time to do during the week (like laundry, grocery shopping, etc.)  It's already three o'clock in the afternoon here, and I haven't done anything except some laundry, as well as caught myself up on some TV Shows from the states (Entourage, Californication, Cold Case).  I am waiting until 4:30, because that's when the bank opens back up, and I need to get some of those US Dollars (we get paid in USD) exchanged for some shekels, so I don't have to dip into my US Wells Fargo account which is just sittin' there chillin, waitin for me to come back for that December Break.  After the bank, I'll run over to the mall, pick up some necessities that I'm running low on, and then hit the grocery store on the way home.  Some may call it a boring day, but to me, it's the best day of the week!  Tomorrow we have two practices (shooting workout in the morning, real practice at night) so you best believe I will be chillin' at the crib all night.  Nothing else major is going on, just excited to get back to practice, obviously gotta' change some opinions about what I'm capable of doing, but I'm not too worried... it's nothing I haven't had to do before.

Game One Win...But No Burn for T-Go...

Tonight I got my first taste of what the regular season is like in Israel.  We played at Ramat Gan, and they have a very small gym, but our fans known as the 'Green Apes' were there in full force.  Traveling about 100 deep, all wore green, and those who didn't... well they weren't wearing shirts, going nuts from 15 minutes before the game til the final horn sounded.  It really is great having fans like them because even in a road game tonight, we had our own 'home court advantage' in a way.  So first things first, I wanna give a shout out to them, and make sure the 'Green Apes' know how much we appreciate them!  Now to the game... after playing so well in the 'cup' game earlier this week, and then backing that up with two real good days of practice, I thought I was in line to get some solid playing time in this game.  I wasn't expecting anything like the twenty minutes I got the other night, but I thought the ten minute range was a reasonable expectation.  After not getting in the game during the first half, I knew it was less than likely I would make any meaningful appearance at all, because the game was still close until about seven minutes left in the game.  Ramat Gan started the game as expected, full of energy on their home court, and executing the side pick and roll really well.  We did a pretty decent job weathering the storm early, and we only trailed by four at the end of the first quarter.  We played real well in the second quarter, and their shots weren't falling nearly as often, and we took a five point lead into half.  During the third, we missed some good opportunities to extend the lead, but at the same time our defense was really picking up, and we were giving them NO SECOND CHANCES on the offensive glass.  In the fourth quarter Doron Perkins hit two threes back to back, and Gur Porat hit a big three to extend the lead to a comfortable margin, and I think we ended up winning by about fifteen.  Another thing that is different in this league from any league in the states is it matters how much you win by.  A five point win is not the same as a nine point win, therefore, coaches are much more reluctant to take the starters out even when the games are decided.  The point differential matters when it comes to tie-breakers at the end of the season (lame rule, but the way it is...).  As for my playing time, I really don't know why I didn't get even a sniff, especially after the week I had put together, but all it means is I have to get better, and play even better in the next week of practices.  Even though it was pretty disappointing not getting any clock, we did still get the win, and we are off to the best team start any one can ask for, a 1-0 record.  

Season Game 1 preview: Ramat Gan

Tonight is our first regular season game, and I'm pretty pumped about it.  As I tried to explain before, the game last wednesday was not a league game, it was a 'cup' game, so the game does not go on our record, but if we win the cup, we get a significant bonus, therefore, it was a very real game with true significance.  Tonight we play Ramat Gan at their gym, which is about an hour trip south towards Tel Aviv.  I guess I'm going to have to get used to bus trips, because I think most of the away games are an hour or more away.  It really isn't a big deal though, all I gotta' do is bring my iPod Shuffle so I can jam out, and bring the portable DVD player so I can watch 'Curb Your Enthusiasm'.  The team we are playing, Ramat Gan, does not really have any 'big name' foreigners like most of the other teams do.  We watched film on them last night, and they got some guys that can really shoot it, and have no conscience, meaning they will put it up early and often, and not care whether it's goin' in or not.  It's a win lose situation with those teams because on any given night anything can happen... they can either give you a lot of problems if they are shootin' the ball well, or you can really pound them because they have no offense to hang their hat on.  We had a real good couple of days of practice going into this game, so I am pretty confident that we will play well.  The game starts at 19:35 Israeli time, which is 10:35am Cali time.  I am not sure if there is a link to watch it, and even if there is, the game won't be broadcast live anyhow.  I'll put a post up tonight when I get home from the game, and let y'all know how it goes.  Until then, enjoy your Saturday night's sleep! 

U of A hires Russ Pennell... Really??

When I woke up this morning I signed online to ESPN.com, expecting to see Mike Dunlap had accepted the job as University of Arizona's new head coach on an interim basis.  See, when I went to sleep the reports were saying that Dunlap wanted to sleep on it Thursday night, before he made his final decision.  To me, there wasn't much of a decision to make! Dunlap was being offered the head coaching position at one of the most storied basketball universities in the whole US.  Really, what is there to think about? The reports state he turned down the offer because U of A's AD Jim Livengood was unwilling to give Dunlap any future security as the head coach past this season, because, after the season, he wanted to open it up and do a national search for the university's next head coach, and the whole Kevin O'Neill situation turned out so poorly.  This is the part that makes no sense to me.  Why is Dunlap staying on staff as associate head coach then?? Why is that job more secure than the head coaching position? If anything, he is completely pushing the ball out of his court by staying on as the associate head coach, because anyone who knows the ins and outs of coaching KNOWS that whoever the next head coach is, will NOT keep Dunlap on his staff.  The only way this really could have worked out well for Dunlap is if he had accepted the interim head spot, and impressed people by winning some games, and then made a little run in the tourney with this pretty talented wildcat team (they return two possible first round picks with Buddinger, and Jordan Hill, and a solid PG in Nic Wise).  If that were to happen, who knows?? Livengood could have felt comfortable with the direction Dunlap took the program, and offered him a multi-year contract.  What was the worst that could happen?? He get fired? Oh well, he is not going to be around next year anyhow!! After being part of the Saint Mary's basketball family for five years, I was around a head coach who ALWAYS made the best out of the opportunities presented to him in Randy Bennett, and I know if RB was in Dunlap's position, he would have accepted the job on an interim basis and never looked back.  Obviously Arizona is not in nearly as good of shape as it was 5-10 years ago, but it is still a tremendous job with unbelievable resources, a job that most any other college coach in the nation would jump at.  And now that job is being held by Russ Pennell, a man who was coaching AAU BASKETBALL in Arizona for the past two years... I'm being serious, that's not a joke.  Maybe Pennell can surprise some folks, and get these guys to play hard, but my guess is Arizona will have a lackluster season, and the AD open's it up to a national search next Spring.  Some of the names they are already talking about are Gonzaga's Mark Few, and Pitt's Jamie Dixon, but I'm going to be the first to throw out a dark horse candidate... don't sleep on SMC's Randy Bennett.  

Picture:  New U of A interim Head Coach Russ Pennell

'Hold up... We aren't gonna be home for Christmas!?'

Happy Friday to all, most of you back in the states haven't even started your days yet, and for myself, well... I have already finished mine... I'm just chillin' at the apartment doing some laundry, thinking about an interesting conversation that took place in the lounge area of our locker room last night.  I walked into the locker room about 10 minutes early and said 'what's up' to one of our Americans BJ McKie.  When he didn't say anything back, I looked at him again, and said, 'bro, you alright?'  He says to me, 'hold on man, I need to get my mind right.'  I asked him again, 'what the hell is the matter with you, we haven't even practiced yet!?'  He looks at me and says, 'they told me we aren't gunna be home for Christmas, I have never missed Christmas with my son.'  After a few more minutes of back and forth, BJ explained to me that since our last game before our break is December 14th, they were going to give us the 15th-22nd of December off.  While 8 days is a great amount of time to have off, it really defeats the purpose with the American players (including myself even though I'm Jewish) because we will be missing Christmas in the states.  Obviously missing Christmas is not nearly as important to me as the other 5 Americans on our team, but growing up in America, Christmas is the ONE TIME in the year, when you know your friends and family will be around.  Being home on the 22nd of December doesn't guarantee anything to our American players in terms of seeing all their family members, or there close friends who they have been away from for at least 4 months.  So what I suggested to BJ (BJ is basically the voice for us American guys since he is 31 years old, and the longest termed veteran out of us all) that he and I go to speak with our coach (who finalized the decision on when we are supposed to be back) and try to get it extended until the 26th.  The reason I suggested myself going with him, is I feel like being an American Jew, I could be an intermediary of sorts, and I can help explain to the coach the importance of the holiday considering I grew up around it my whole life.  It's not that I think the coaches and management aren't respecting the holiday, but I think they just might not be completely aware of it's importance to our guys.  From the coaches perspective, he wants us here two weeks before our next game (which could be the 4th or 11th of Jan depending on whether we win our next 'Cup' game or not).  I realize the importance of getting back early, because in all honesty I don't know how many of us American guys will be working our asses off to stay in shape when we are at home, but at the same time, two weeks early might be a little much, and I don't think that missing Christmas is fair either.  I think the best solution for us in the meantime, is to do everything in our power to win these games on the early part of our schedule, because anyone who has ever been around sports realizes the coaches and management are much more likely to be lenient with the time off if our record is 6-2 rather than 2-6.  Either way, I think if us players approach the situation in a mature manner, I think we can get the date pushed back a little bit, and I really hope we can, 'cuz I wanna be chillin with my man Coop in P-Town on December 25th.  

Making the transition...

When I first got over here, I wasn't so sure I was going to like it.  It's not that the team was disorganized, but to put it lightly, things were not falling into place.  My car wasn't ready, the internet was not hooked up yet, and I hadn't been taken to get a phone.  I was stuck in my apartment with no means of communication for about 4 days.  I would just have to wait in my apartment, having absolutely no idea what the hell was going on, until someone from the team's management would come pick me up for practice.  I was so far out of my comfort zone, I was doing things I never do... like... READ!!  It was a pretty difficult time to say the least, considering it was my first time out of the states without people I knew, and away from all my homies, and my family.  Obviously things got easier once the internet started working (Skype is a damn lifesaver), and getting a car made it nice, because I didn't have to rely on another person to pick me up and take me places.  But getting the car turned out not to be the best thing in the world for me, because I had no idea how to get around.  There were a couple times where I got so damn turned around that I was just driving in circles looking for something that looked familiar.  But just like everywhere, the longer you're there, the easier it is to find your way around, and it took me about a month to get geographically comfortable over here.  I gotta give a lot of credit to my teammates though, for really going out of their way to help me out.  See, when I got here I was interested to see how the relationships would be between the native Israeli players and the foreign Americans.  It's common knowledge that American players are paid much much more than most of the Israelis, so I didn't know if that was going to be an issue ya know? Something that might keep our team from bonding as well as we should.  And I didn't know where I would fit into that equation, because I am considered a dual Israeli/American citizen, but to the Israeli guys on my team, I am as American as the others.  I can't speak hebrew, I can barely read it, but I don't have any idea what the hell I'm reading, and I can't really understand it when spoken to me.  Well after 2 months, I can honestly say that the Israeli guys on our team have been awesome.  They are hard-working, no nonsense guys who practice hard everyday, and never complain.  All of them have been great, but three imparticular have gone out of there way in terms of helping me out.  Tal Azulay is our youngster, very young kid, born in 1990, has a lot of talent, and is on the team so they can basically work with him on a regular basis to make sure he is ready when his time comes.  Well Tal and I have become pretty close, and he and his family have me over for dinner every Friday night.  His parents and family are great people, and in broken english his dad always says to me, 'In Israel you my son, In America your dad is Tal dad.'  Even though it's not grammatically correct, I know exactly what he means, and I'm diggin' it.  Ido Kozikaro has been unreal as well.  He's either 29 or 30 years old, and he's our captain.  Ido plays for the Israeli national team, and has been around the block, and is pretty damn knowledgeable in terms of everything that goes on over here.  He also has had me over for dinner a bunch, and tells me if I ever need anything just give him a call.  It's nice to have someone like him to rely upon if I ever do catch myself in a bind.  Lastly, I can't forget my man Moshe Mizrahi.  'Slow-Mosh' is a 28 yr old, who is a very popular figure in Israel.  He is basically a celebrity over here.  He used to own a bar in Tel-Aviv named 'Ego', and apparently before he sold it, they were clearin' big time cash outta there.  The only reason he got rid of it was he got offered a pretty damn good deal to go play in Paris, France last year... I don't blame him for takin' that contract...Paris seems like it would be a cool place to play.  Anyhow, 'Slow-Mosh' always hits me up when he goes out to invite me, and I've been over to his place a few times as well.  The thing that I appreciate the most is that these dudes don't have to do this shit.  They could just handle their own business, come to practice, work hard, and go home, but they have all gone outta their way to help me because they know I'm new over here by myself... their efforts are very much appreciated.

Photos (Left to Right): Ido Kozikaro (the captain), Moshe Mizrahi (Slow-Mosh). Tal Azulay (young buck)

Maccabi Haifa 97, Hapoel Be'eri 51

As I had told you all, today was our first cup game.  To clarify, the 'cup' and the 'season' are two different things, but they go on at the same time.  Basically speaking, the 'cup' is a tournament (still not sure if it's single elimination or not) and the 'cup' games are played on weeknights, so they don't interfere with the 'season' schedule (only one game a week, every Sunday).  Anyhow, every first division team starts the 'cup' tourney with a second division team at their gym.  They do it like that to give the second division team some sort of fighting chance to pull off an upset, and apparently for the past few years, there has been at least one or two upsets in every year.  Fortunately for us, no upset occured...nor was it even close.  We bussed down south  to the city  Ashkelon at 10am, ate lunch when we arrived there at 1pm, and then had a couple hours of rest in a hotel, before traveling 30 minutes to the gym in Be'eri.  As I said yesterday this town is located way too close to the Gaza Strip for anyone's liking.  I would have preferred to play in the North for my first ever game in Israel, because I didn't like the idea of a rocket hitting the gym during warmups, but unfortunately for me, I don't make the schedule.  

As for the game, We starting bombing away early and...ummm, lemme try that again, we started out hitting all our deep targets...uhhh, neither of those are probably the most appropriate considering where we played the game.  What I am trying to say is that we shot the hell out of the basketball, and really shared the ball well against their weak zone defense.  We took a big lead early into half time, I think we were up by 20 or so, and in the 2nd half we really clicked offensively, hitting 10 threes, after hitting 6 in the first.  I gotta give my Player of the Game award to Gur Porat, our backup 3-man who was strokin' it from deep.  I am pretty sure he finished the game with 6 threes, and had about 24 points (I forget to check him on the box score, so I can't say for sure).  As for myself, I played by far my best game since I've been over here.  I hit my first three point attempt in the first half, and that really gave me the confidence to get it going for the rest of the night.  I finished with a new Israeli career high with 11 points (4-5 fg, 3-4 3pt fg), 4 assists, 2 rebounds, 1 steal, and 1 Turnover, in 20 minutes.  Hopefully I can carry this over to Sunday when we start the season at Ramat Gan.  I'll be up late tonight considering it's already 1am, and I got the World Series game starting at 2am... it don't get much better than a W on the court, and a little baseball on the TV... 

Also, I'ma try to put some pictures up a bit later, but it's not workin right now, so I will see what I can do.

First Cup Game Preview: Hapoel Be'eri

Tomorrow we meet at the gym at 10 in the morning to catch the team bus to drive 3 hours south to play Hapoel Be'eri.  My teammate Doron Perkins (Santa Clara alum) asked my other teammates Tamir Goodman (aka 'The Jewish Jordan'), 'what city are we playin' in man?'  Tamir responded, 'It's actually on a kibbutz (basically a village) in the far south in the city of Ashkelon...actually it's pretty close to the Gaza Strip.'  Doron responded with, 'Uhh... that's not good, right?'  Tamir Goodman one of the nicest, soft-spoken guys I have ever met told Doron, 'Don't worry, we will only be there 4 hours or so'.  I wasn't very comforted by his answer, but hey, what can ya do?  This team we are playing, Hapoel Be'eri is a 2nd division team, who can only afford one American import.  To put it in perspective,             My Jersey (Golden in Hebrew)

you won't find any teams in the top division with less than 5 or 6 imported players.  The top division in Israel has good money... the other divisions... don't.  The coaches scouted this team just like they would top division opponents, and sitting through that scouting session made me realize the season was finally here, after 7 weeks of practice.  It was a damn long training camp.  I'm definitely looking forward to playin' in a real game, and hopefully I will get some solid playing time.  Anyway, I won't put anything else up until I get home from this mini-road trip, which will be about 2am Israel time tomorrow night (basically 24 hours).  Hopefully the next post will be breakin' down a 4o point blow out.  Until then... be good.

History of the Club: Maccabi Haifa Heat

I am pretty fortunate to play for Maccabi Haifa for a bunch of different reasons.  First, and foremost, the club has a great history that dates back a longggggg time.  Maccabi Haifa was one of the original eight teams that made up the 1st division which originated in 1953.  Maccabi Haifa was basically a middle of the pack club making it to two 'State Finals' (Israeli Championships) in 40 years, losing to Maccabi Tel Aviv both times.  The club then ran into some financial issues, and was not winning games, so they got bumped down to the 2nd division in 1993, then got even worse, eventually slipping down to the 3rd division in 1995 (yes, there are 3 professional divisions in Israel, and I haven't seen any of those games, but my guess is the level of play is not the best).  After making it's way back to the 2nd division the club was purchased by a very very very very wealthy American Jew named Jeff Rosen.  His family created the company 'RoseArt' (the company on the label of my kindergarter crayon box) and they were very successful financially.  After Rosen bought the club, he promised the fans in Haifa that the club would make it back to the first division after his first year of ownership.  It was not looking good after the team started the regular season 3-6, but they found a way to sneak into the playoffs (top 4 made it) with a record barely over .500.  The way it works is the top 2 teams from the 2nd division can move up after the season if they can afford it.  Well the money wasn't the issue, but beating Netanya in a best of 5 series was.  Netanya finished the regular season with a record of something like 21-2.  After losing game 1 of the 5 game series, Maccabi Haifa pulled off one of the greatest upsets in Israeli basketball.  They went on to win the next 3 games of the series, and made it to the championship of the 2nd division.  They eventually lost, but they did all the damage they needed to.  Rosen accepted the invitation to elevate the club to the top league, and now we are in the 1st division.  Our owner realized that he would need to reshape the team if he wanted to compete at the top level, and reshape he did.  He only brought 1 guy back off last year's team (25 yr old, Kobi Izik).  There's a little history lesson for ya, our first 'cup' game is tomorrow night against Hapoel Be'eri.  They are a 2nd division team, and I have no idea where they are located in Israel.  Kinda just going with the flow on that one.

Pictures: Left (Head Coach Avi Ashkenazi with Owner Jeffrey Rosen), Right (Maccabi Haifa Heat Logo)

Best Rapper Alive?? No Doubt.

The self-proclaimed 'Best Rapper Alive' found out this weekend that BET agrees with him.  The BET Awards were held this weekend, and 'Wayne' got nominated for 12 (yes 12) Hip-Hop Awards.  I haven't seen the award show yet, still waiting for it to download, but what I do know is that he walked away from the show with the Hip-Hop Triple Crown winning, 'Hip-Hop MVP', 'Lyricist of the Year', and the 'People's Champ' awards.  Other rappers up for these awards were DJ Khaled, Kanye, and TI.  Some people might argue that either Jay-Z or 50 is the 'Best Rapper Alive', but to me, it's not really an argument.  Jay-Z is past his prime, he is 2 months away from turning 40, and can't keep up with the constant heat that 'Wayne' brings.  50 is obviously good, I just am not a big fan of his style, and I feel like 'Weezy' is way more creative.  Apparently BET agrees. 

Here is 'Weezy's' performance from last year's BET's.  I was a little disapointed with his MTV performance with T-Pain, and haven't been able to find this weekend's performance yet, so check this one out where he performs 'Gossip', a bonus track off 'The Carter III'.

'Weezy' performs 'Gossip' (Live), BET Awards '07

Best Show on TV???

Like I mentioned in my 1st blog, I have tons of free time.  One thing I like to do during the late morning, early afternoon (when all my people in the States are sleepin') is get onto www.sidereel.com, and watch TV Shows from the States.  Since 'Nip/Tuck' still hasn't started showing new episodes, and 'Entourage' seems to be stuck in a little rut (last night's episode was actually better than the previous three), I want to nominate my choice for 'Best TV Show' of 2008.  In the middle of it's second season, little known 'Californication' never seizes to amaze.  For those of you who haven't seen it, it is about a struggling writer Hank Moody (who is played by real life sex fein David Duchovny), who can never seem to make the right decision, whether it be involving females, drugs, or dealing with cops.  He is always trying to salvage his relationship with the mother of his daughter, Karen, but right when it's looking up, Hank makes a dumb-ass decision, or something bites him in the ass from his past.  I just finished watching Episode 4 of Season 2, and it might be the best episode of 'Californication' I have ever seen.  If you don't have Showtime on Demand, or DVR, below is a link to the episode that you can watch online.  Check it out, it's twisted like Nip/Tuck, but more cleverly written.

'Californication' Season 2, Episode 4

You Gotta Start Somewhere...

Anyone who watches ESPN's 'Sportscenter' knows Stuart Scott.  Joining ESPN in 1995, Scott has made a name for himself with his hip-hop style of announcing daily highlights, as well as trying hard to reach the younger demographic through his energetic, in your face approach.  Known for his hard-hitting punch-lines like, 'Just as cool as the other side of the pillow,' and 'BOO-Yah!,' it can be argued that Scott has turned into the most recognized personality on the ESPN team.  Well, as it usually goes, Scott did not just burst onto the 'Sportscenter' scene out of nowhere.  Like most of us, he started very low on the totem pole, and worked his way up, slowly... very slowly.  His first job in television was as a weatherman in the same state where he went to college, North Carolina.  If you have seen Stuart Scott just once on TV, check out the link below...well even if you have never seen him, still, check it out... as Bill Simmons would say, 'it reaches a 100 on the unintentional comedy scale.'

Stuart Scott the weatherman

Shalom (Hello) to the Blog!

If you are close to me, you are well aware that I have a lot of extra time on my hands now that I live in the motherland.  Lifting four times a week in the gym, and going to the court in the morning for extra shots still leaves an inordinate amount of time for me until our daily 8pm practices.  There are only so many American TV shows I can catch up on, or video games that I can play before I get pretty damn bored.  Constantly thinking of ways to keep myself busy, I came across some blogs on the Internet, and thought to myself, 'Why not??'  So from now on, starting with this first post on October 18th, I decided I am going to start my own blog, and talk about whatever the hell I want, when I want.  I titled my blog, 'Basketball and Life in Israel,' because that's what I'm going to write about.  I am not limiting myself to only 'hoops' related topics, because if I did that, I would be cheating everyone as well as myself in terms of sharing my different experiences over here in Israel.  My goal for this blog is to keep all my people back in the states a way to keep up with me, a way for me to share my different adventures as I acclimate myself with an incredible and different country, and most of all, a way to give my friends who have 'real jobs' a 15 minute span of joy as they sneak away to my blog at their work desk.  Thanks for reading, and come back soon.  Shalom.