{"id":500465,"date":"2017-03-27T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-03-27T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8080\/maccabi-launch-first-jr-nba-league-in-israel\/"},"modified":"2017-03-27T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-03-27T09:00:00","slug":"maccabi-launch-first-jr-nba-league-in-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/maccabi-launch-first-jr-nba-league-in-israel\/","title":{"rendered":"Maccabi launch first Jr. NBA league in Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"
\tThe National Basketball Association (NBA) and Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv today announced a new partnership to create the first Jr. NBA Maccabi Tel Aviv Basketball League, an after-school basketball league for boys ages 10-11.\u00a0 The announcement was made today at the Maccabi Tel Aviv Hall of Fame by NBA EMEA Vice President, Basketball Business Operations Jesus Bueno and Maccabi Tel Aviv Deputy CEO Eli <\/span>Drikes<\/span>.<\/p>\n

\tThe Jr. NBA Maccabi Tel Aviv Basketball League will feature 450 boys from Maccabi\u2019s academy competing on 30 teams for the league championship in June.\u00a0 Each team will represent one of the 30 NBA teams and will receive corresponding NBA team-branded jerseys for their games.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cWe are pleased to partner with the country\u2019s most iconic basketball club, Maccabi Tel Aviv, to launch our first Jr. NBA league in Israel,\u201d said Bueno.\u00a0 \u201cThis program will provide a fun environment for children to compete against one another and not only learn the game of basketball, but also important life skills like teamwork,<\/span>leadership<\/span> and respect.\u00a0 We look forward to crowning the first Jr. NBA Maccabi Tel Aviv Basketball League champion in 2017.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cWe are excited to co-organize the first Jr. NBA league in Israel together with the NBA,\u201d said Maccabi Tel Aviv Sports Director Nikola Vujcic.\u00a0 \u201cLeading clubs and organizations should promote the game for the younger generations, bringing them closer to sports, and I think this league will fit perfectly with our academy and the many teams we have catering to children of this age all over the city of Tel Aviv.\u00a0 Kids will be excited to wear jerseys with both our logo and the logos of NBA teams and will enjoy this unique experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tThe Jr. NBA, the league\u2019s global youth basketball participation program for boys and girls, teaches the fundamental skills as well as the core values of the game at the grassroots level in an effort to help grow and improve the youth basketball experience for players, coaches and parents.\u00a0 Since the 2015-16 season, the NBA has engaged more than 12 million youth through its basketball participation efforts, with Jr. NBA programs in more than 50 countries.<\/p>\n

\tSimilar to the NBA, teams will be divided into two conferences.\u00a0 The Jr. NBA Maccabi Tel Aviv Basketball League\u2019s regular season will run from April through May, with the top eight teams from each conference qualifying for the playoffs.\u00a0 The top two teams from each conference will then meet in the championship game in June to determine the first Jr. NBA Maccabi Tel Aviv Basketball League champion.\u00a0 The championship games, as well as select regular-season and playoff games, will be played in the Hadar<\/span>Yossef<\/span> facility where Maccabi\u2019s senior youth teams compete.<\/p>\n

\tLeveraging the excitement of the NBA, the league will also promote shared values of teamwork, leadership, fitness and healthy living through competitive league play and Jr. NBA youth clinics.<\/p>\n

\tFor more information on the first Jr. NBA Maccabi Tel Aviv Basketball League, please visit www.maccabi.co.il\/JrNBA<\/p>\n

\tFor more information about the NBA, fans can visit NBA.com, Facebook.com\/NBA<\/span>and<\/span> @NBA on Twitter.\u00a0 Fans can download the NBA App for news, updates, scores, stats, schedules, videos and more.<\/p>\n

\tFor more information about Maccabi Tel Aviv, fans can visit maccabi.co.il, Facebook.com\/maccabitlv<\/span>and<\/span> @maccabitlvbc on Twitter.\u00a0 Fans can download the Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball App for news, updates, scores, stats, schedules, videos and more.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NBA and Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv basketball club launch first Jr. NBA league in Israel. Inaugural League for 450 Boys from Maccabi\u2019s Academy to Take Place in Tel Aviv<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":500464,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"custom_author":[],"class_list":["post-500465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-youth"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500465"},{"taxonomy":"custom_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/custom_author?post=500465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}