Magic Face Israel’s First Basketball Club Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv in Preseason

It all started in the mid-thirties in the center of Tel Aviv as part of the Maccabi Tel Aviv Sports Club (founded in 1906), which has been active in many other sports like Soccer (17 league title), Handball, Volleyball, Tennis, Table Tennis, Track & Field, Swimming, Wrestling, Weight Lifting & Judo (1992 Olympic silver medallist Yael Arad was a member of the club).

The Basketball League in Israel started in 1954 and Maccabi Tel Aviv were the first champions. They have dominated the championship ever since, winning the title 45 times, including a run of 23 titles in a row between 1970 & 1992, most probably a world record. The team has also won the national cup 35 times. Maccabi is considered as Israel's national sporting representative in the world.

Another unique record was the fact that during the seventies Maccabi Tel Aviv had three teams playing in the national league: two in the men's and one in the women's.

Since 1969 Maccabi Tel Aviv has been sponsored by ELITE, Israel's largest food company and it also carries its name.

Most of Maccabi head coaches, were ex-players at the club: The late Yehoshua Rozin was involved with the club for 40 years; Ralph Klein started as an 18 years old player and later had several spells as a coach and led the club to its first European title in 1977. Zvi Sherf played for Maccabi's second team and coached the team on three spells. All of them were also in charge of the national team.

Maccabi Tel Aviv has always been proud to provide the national team with a large number of players. Five of Maccabi players, headed by the late Avraham Shneur, were on the team which represented Israel in its first European Championship in 1953 in Moscow.

Tanhum Cohen-Mints was one of Europe's top centers in the sixties and was selected for the first European All Star Team which played in Madrid in 1964. Mickey Berkowitz, Motty Aroesti, Lou Silver & Eric Minkin, played a major part in winning the silver medal in the European Championship in 1979 in Torino.

Doron Jamchy played 16 years for the national team and holds the record for appearances (191 international games) and points scored (3,515).

Four of Maccabi players are members of the national team : Shelef, Burstein, Halperin & Green .

Maccabi Tel Aviv was the first Israeli club to enter the European Cup for Champions in 1958. Since then they have played 577 games in European competitions and were the first and only Israeli club to play in a Final (1967 Cup Winners Cup) and to win the Champions Cup on five occasions (1977, 1981, 2001, 2004, 2005). So far Maccabi has played in 11 Champions Cup Finals. In 1980 Maccabi won the Intercontinental Cup.

In 1994 and 2004 Maccabi Tel Aviv Basketball Club organized the European Final Four in Tel Aviv.

In the 2002/03 season, Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv participated for the first time in the Adriatic League and ended the regular season in first place with a 17-4 record. The Final Four was to be played in Tel Aviv but because of the war in Iraq, was switched to Ljubljana. Maccabi reached the final but lost 88-91 to Croatian club KK Zadar.

European All Star Selections played four times in Tel Aviv in honor of Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv players: Tani Cohen Mints, Tal Brody, Lou Silver and Mickey Berkowitz. Seven of Maccabi Tel Aviv players played for European All Star Selections: Cohen Mints, Brody, Silver, Berkowitz, Jamchy, Nadav Henefeld & Oded Katash.

Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv was first Israeli team to take part in the McDonald Championship, in London in 1995. In December 1997 the club organized the FIBA Eurostars in which top European players clashed in the game between East and West selections. Five of Maccabi Elite players were selected to play in the Eurostars games: Nadav Henefeld, Oded Katash, Doron Sheffer, Randy White & Rashard Griffith. Captain Gur Shelef & Nikola Vujcic appeared In October 2002 in the Euroleague All Star team in an exhibition game in Madrid as part of Real Madrid Centenary celebrations. Maccabi Tel Aviv played in December 2002 in Madrid in the final event of those celebrations.

The Miami Heat who played in Yad Eliyahu Sports Palace in October 1999, was the fifth NBA team to play vs Maccabi in Tel Aviv.