Lurking behind Yeshiva University’s 50-game win streak is a detail its detractors love to cite: the Maccabees haven’t faced a single opponent in Division III’s Top 25 since the streak began. They finally will on Thursday night when No. 4-ranked Illinois Wesleyan University visits New York City for a showdown that will either fortify Yeshiva’s…
For the grandson of a Holocaust survivor, the irony of Dan Grunfeld’s first contract offer to play professional basketball was a bit on-the-nose. It was not just that it came from Germany. The team that wanted him was from Oldenburg — the first state to put the Nazi party in power. Grunfeld’s new book, By…
The whole video lasts less than 30 seconds, but it elicited fierce discussion among fans and players alike. Was Devin Booker right to complain about being double-teamed in a pickup game — where 1-on-1 matchups rule the day — or was a double-team not only fair, but a sign of respect? It was the Great…
(JTA) — How do you follow a coaching legend? Jon Scheyer, a one-time Jewish basketball star at Duke University who went on to play for the Israeli powerhouse Maccabi Tel Aviv, will find out soon enough. Scheyer, 33, is the pick to succeed Mike Krzyzewski, the winningest coach in Division 1 college basketball history, who…
Georgia Tech’s Josh Pastner became the first Jewish head coach to lead a college basketball team to win an Atlantic Coast Conference championship, topping a division that includes titans Duke and North Carolina and becoming another example of the renaissance for Jews in American sports. Pastner, 43, a native of West Virginia, had already won…
You’re reading DENI DIARY, the weekly dispatch from Deni Avdija’s rookie season by Louis Keene. Want these posts in your inbox? Click here. So, after starting the season with five straight losses, the Washington Wizards strung together a pair of wins against Minnesota and Brooklyn last weekend. But Deni Avdija has seen his minutes decline…
This is the second installment of Deni Diary, a new weekly report about the rookie season of Deni Avdija, the Israeli basketball phenom who plays for the NBA’s Washington Wizards. Want these updates in your inbox? Click here to subscribe. December 25, 2020: The cedar of Lebanon The Washington Wizards have seven foreign-born players —…
This story was updated to reflect breaking news. Deni Avdija, a 6’9” forward for Maccabi Tel Aviv, was selected ninth overall by the Washington Wizards at NBA Draft 2020, becoming the highest-drafted Israeli player ever and just the second Israeli player to be drafted in the first round of the NBA Draft. Avdija told a…
100% of profits support our journalism
