Israelis Win European Basketball Tourny Two Years Running
The official Euroleague website reports,
For the first time in a generation, Europe has a repeat champion, and it goes by the name of Maccabi Tel Aviv. [The team] downed [Spain’s] Tau Ceramica 90-78 in the 2005 Euroleague Final on Sunday before a sellout crowd of 13,300 at Olympiysky Arena in Moscow, Russia.
Full story. View video highlights from the match on the site’s homepage, here.
Amidst all the handwringing about the evil of the Jews and their nationalist project, nobody even stops anymore to recognize the ugly irony that Israel, by virtue of the fact that a majority of its citizens are Jews, is considered to be part of *Europe* for such matters.
Which league do you think they will put East Jerusalem’s team in when the time comes?
It’s not only because they are Jews that they’re in the European league, it’s also because they have a democratic system of government and a Westernized culture and population.
If Israel were a member of Middle Eastern nation’s sports federations, all those forfeits would sure translate into a lot of championships…
And they would have a free ride to the World Cup every four years.
And, the Israeli national ice hockey team won their division in the world championships.
http://www.iihf.com/Hydra/Tour…
Which means they’re getting promoted to Division I status for next year’s tournament.
I cannot speak for how it happened in basketball, but in football (soccer), Israel was a founding member of the Asian Football Confederation. They played in the AFC until the Arab states blackballed them. Israel bounced around and played in other regions, including Oceania, for a while. It has been playing in Europe since the 1990s, and is much more competitive for it.
Even with peace, I don’t see Israel returning to the Asian sport confederations soon. It’s just too lucrative to remain in Europe.
Anyway, it’s been a GREAT run for Maccabi, but it wouldn’t surprise me if this is it for a while. Some of those players may be leaving for greener pastures very soon.
Notice that Elite Chocolate company which pays almost $2 million to Maccabi for sponsorship did *not* have its logo displayed in the cup award pics. Dumb.