Maccabi’s chairman, Mr. Shimon Mizrahi and the club’s legend Tal Brody addressed their nomination to the basketball hall of fame: “It needs to be remembered that Maccabi has putted European basketball on the US map as well”
“I received this message in total shock, at the night of the game against Zalgiris”, said Maccabi’s chairman Shimon Mizrahi. “This is a great opportunity to thank to all of those who were involved in making this nomination possible. It’s an honor for the Israeli basketball and it needs to be remembered that Maccabi has putted European basketball on the US map as well when Maccabi played against an NBA team in Israel and in the United States of America”.
“The connection we formed was excellent”, chairman Mizrahi added. “It’s important to note that Tal Brody has completely changed the Israeli map of basketball. He played in the USA and also played for the United States army, needless to speak of the connection between European basketball and the basketball in the United States and this nomination shows exactly that. I am very proud to be standing at the head of a basketball club such as Maccabi Tel Aviv”.
“In the past five years I’ve been nominated and this a great honor, as big as it gets”, said Tal Brody. “The fact that my career is being acknowledged, I won the high school championship without losing a single game, and then when I played for the University of Illinois we were the number three seed in America and we won the BIG 10 and every other big tournament”.
“When I graduated they hanged my jersey at the rafters of the University of Illinois and I was selected to one of the best 10 players in the USA at the time”, Brody mentioned. “I was the 12th overall pick of the 1965 draft. I actually gave up the chance to go and play with my class who became some of the best players in the history of the NBA, I’m the only one that didn’t go and play in the ABA or the NBA and came here and I’m proud of it”.
“When you take into consideration, how was basketball in Israel when I came here, it’s very exciting”, the former Maccabi captain admitted. “They see how the Israeli basketball progressed since then and Maccabi’s achievements, when in my first season here with the Badalona miracle we made it to the FIBA’s European Cup Winners’ Cup and 10 years later we’ve beat CSKA of the USSR. In the United States they know how powerful of a team they were and they know how to appreciate it”.
“Everyone sees that the journey that has started there continued with Six EuroLeague Championships, the Intercontinental Cup and so on and so on”, Brody concluded. “We are the first team that the NBA chose from all the teams around the world to play against, not Real Madrid or CSKA, not teams from South America, they chose us. This is year both Vlade Divac and Toni Kukoc are on the list. It’s an honor to me and it says what they think of us”.
About Shimon Mizrahi, Brody added: “In Shimon’s category, Basketball management wise, and owning a basketball team, I have no doubt he should win, he deserves it. If you look at his resume, it’s amazing, it’s unprecedented, there’s no one who accomplished what Shimon has”.
