Pick-and-deli-roll? Brooklyn Nets draft Jewish duo back-to-back in an NBA first
The Nets selected Ben Saraf and Danny Wolf — both Israeli citizens — with the 26th and 27th picks
Danny Wolf with his mother Tina, his father Joe and ESPN’s Monica McNutt after being his selection by the Nets. Image by screenshot/ESPN
By Louis Keene June 25, 2025
After Zohran Mamdani won the Democratic primary Tuesday, some Jewish New Yorkers openly pondered leaving town.
The Brooklyn Nets just gave them two reasons to stay.
In a span of five minutes late Wednesday night, the Nets drafted Israeli point guard Ben Saraf and University of Michigan seven-footer Danny Wolf, taking the two Jewish prospects with consecutive picks in a five-minute span.
In Brooklyn — where Orthodox fans can frequently be seen courtside — Saraf, who plays in the German league, and Wolf will form the first Jewish NBA tandem since 2017. They are also the second pair of teammates in NBA history to hold Israeli citizenship; Wolf, who grew up in the Chicago suburbs, acquired his in 2024 to play for Israel’s under-20 team.
That Saraf, a 19-year-old described by The Ringer’s draft preview as a “lefty jitterbug,” was picked before Wolf came as a surprise, with most predictions ranking Wolf higher as a prospect. After Saraf was selected 26th overall, Wolf, who was projected to go several picks — perhaps a full hour earlier — earlier, was shown on the ESPN telecast struggling to hold back tears.
But before the born hooper could contemplate a career in law or medicine, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver called Wolf’s name a few minutes later. After hugging his three brothers, Wolf donned a Nets cap and ascended the podium to shake Silver’s hand.
“It’s a dream come true,” Wolf told a reporter afterward, standing alongside his beaming parents. “It’s really hard to put into words. I’ve worked so hard to get here, I’ve had such a great support system. I’m excited to work, and I hope Brooklyn knows what they’re getting.”
Wolf’s mother, Tina, told the reporter New York was the destination her son wanted.
Meanwhile, the 6-foot-6 Saraf had a good excuse for missing the big night: His current employer, Ratiopharm Ulm, is playing in a winner-takes-all Game 5 in the Bundesliga championship.
The selection of two Jewish players completes a reversal of sorts for the Nets, who in late 2022 became embroiled in an antisemitism scandal after star point guard Kyrie Irving posted a link to a film that denied the Holocaust, blamed Jewish people for slavery and accused them of usurping Jewish identity from Black people. For days, Irving refused to apologize, ultimately leading the NBA to suspend him; the franchise traded him in February 2023.
The Nets newcomers are joining a franchise in the throes of a post-Irving rebuild. The team finished fourth-to-last in the Eastern Conference last season, and some anticipate a trade of the best player from that roster in pursuit of more trade assets. The franchise’s selection of Wolf was their fifth of the first round — the most one team has ever made.
It was conceivable, then, that Saraf — who wears the number 77 because it is the Jewish numerical value of mazal, the Hebrew word for luck — might be allowed to continue developing overseas with so many young players on the Nets’ roster. But almost immediately after his selection, ESPN’s Jonathan Givony said the team plans to bring him over.
Born to parents who both played professional basketball in Israel, Saraf grew up roughly 18 miles northeast of Tel Aviv in the village of Gan Yoshiya. He started playing organized basketball at age 8; recognizing his talent, his parents hired a personal trainer and a strength coach not long after to accelerate his development.
Both picks were regarded favorably by draft analysts. ESPN’s Jay Bilas called Wolf — who transferred from Yale after his sophomore season — “very, very skilled, an excellent rebounder and a very creative passer who can be a facilitator.”
Raised in the Chicago suburbs, Wolf attended a Solomon Schechter Jewish day school and his family kept a kosher home, according to the Detroit Free Press.
He celebrated his bar mitzvah in Israel and later became an Israeli citizen so that he could play for the under-20 national team. He led that team in points and rebounds as they won silver in the 2024 European Championships.
Wolf has been open about his religious identity in interviews with local and Jewish media.
“The most beautiful thing about Judaism,” he told the Free Press in a wide-ranging interview earlier this year, “is the way it connects me with my family. It transcends other things and brings us together.”
Wolf, 21, told the Free Press‘s Mitch Albom about his experience as a college athlete after the Hamas-led attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, which occurred when he was still at Yale.
“Now that I’m on a national stage and in the spotlight, you have ill-minded people that have some not great things to say,” he said. “It’s all around me, on social media, I get it all the time just in my DMs and on comments and whatnot.”
In a game against Dartmouth, Wolf said, more than 80 fans who came to the game “disguised” revealed Palestinian flags shortly after the game started. He said he had learned to push through those incidents.
“It may be corny to say, but I’m just trying to be the bigger person,” he said. “Nothing I can do in the moment will be good for me. Anything I say won’t impact me or them, and it might cause more harm than good.
“Honestly, even with non-Jewish hate, there’s a lot of it out in the world. I’d like to use it as motivation just to try and prove myself right and prove other people wrong.”
Wolf and Saraf are set to enter an illustrious history of Jewish basketball in New York. The first basket in league history was scored in 1946 by the New York Knickerbockers’ Ossie Schechtman, who was Jewish, and played along coreligionists Sonny Hertzberg, Stan Stutz, Hank Rosenstein, Ralph Kaplowitz, Jake Weber, and Leo “Ace” Gottlieb. The league they played in, the Basketball Association of America, later became the NBA.
Omri Casspi and Jordan Farmar became the first pair of Israeli teammates on an NBA roster when they played for the Sacramento Kings in 2017. Casspi is Israeli-born, and Farmar, who was born in the U.S. to an Israeli mother, immigrated before playing in the Israeli league.
In the ranks of active Jewish NBA players, the Nets duo are joining the Portland Trail Blazers’ Deni Avdija and the Sacramento Kings’ Domantas Sabonis, who was reported in 2023 to be converting to Judaism; a third, Amari Bailey, played in 10 games last season and is now in the NBA’s developmental league, the G League. At least two other active players, the Miami Heat’s Kevin Love and the New York Knicks’ Jalen Brunson, have Jewish spouses.
The last time two Jewish players were picked in the same draft was 2006, when Lior Eliyahu and Yotam Halperin both went in the second round. Neither played a game in the NBA.
Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated the first pair of NBA teammates to hold Israeli citizenship. It was Jordan Farmar and Omri Casspi. Ben Saraf and Danny Wolf are the second such duo.
