Once again I bonded with the bus driver, who was a huge basketball fan. He filled me in as follows: Israel has just gone over to a Final 4 championship format to end their basketball season. They used to have a tournament like the NBA where you play 3 out of 5 games, but this is the first time they have gone to a one game and out format. Fans are a little freaked by this. The home team Macabbi T.A. has enjoyed some international success and at times Israel is thought of as a basketball powerhouse, but not often. I asked if the players were professionals and he said they were and that one American was being paid $2M. I asked if they have college basketball and he said they didn't, certainly not like in the U.S. This, of course, is a HUGE, issue. In general, I think the US is the only place in the world where colleges are responsible for producing the professional athletes, but that might be changing. Finally, I asked the driver if he had heard of Amit Tamir who was the Israeli center for the Cal Bears basketball team in Berkeley and he smiled in acknowledgment. The claim is that Amit was the only Israeli to ever play in the NBA, but then I looked it up and he never really played, just worked out with the Miami Heat.
Here is the best money scam ever. In front of the stadium two "Rabbi's" show up with a Torah looking thing and a cup. If you put money in the cup, you can kiss the Torah and presumably pray for your team to win. I assume for an extra shekel you can also pray for peace. In the background is Zebra a fancy women's clothing store located just under the Area, you can even enter the Area from the store. Just before I took this picture I saw 2 women go in and I swear they kissed the Mezzusa (a little prayer thingy on the doors of Jewish homes) So bizzarre.
When I got to the stadium I was told the tickets were sold out and I would have to buy one on the black market; nobody understood the word “scalper.” I said to a guy, “In the US, black guys sell those tickets” and he said in Israel everyone does it. I said, “Jews selling tickets to Jews, cool. Is that better or worse than black guys?” He laughed and said “Worse, blacks are at least honest!” I thought that was a pretty cute reversal of stereotypes. So I spent about an hour walking around with my one finger in the air looking like a Grateful Dead fan trying to score a miracle ticket, but couldn’t find anyone until I saw the ticket booth open, and just like that I bought a real ticket.
I was in the absolute top row, far away, but the view was great.
The inside of the area was everything I thought it would be. Really noisy, lots of intensity. It was kind of a combination of the excitement of a college crowd, but with the organization of a pro-event. Here are some things I noticed, they aren’t especially profound, but they really jumped out at me. The most jarring image was whenever there was a stoppage of play and the ball was laid down on the floor or rolled to a ref or (non-US) player, the person did not pick up the ball with their hands, but did a soccer-thing with their feet to make the ball bounce up to their hands. I know for you non-sports readers that doesn’t seem to be a big deal, but to an American like me that is inconceivable. I was speechless when I saw it happen. There are lots of black players, at one point there were 8 out of 10 on the floor. This is another huge issue, there just aren’t that many 7 foot Israeli Jewish boys; but that said there were two great white point guards who stereotypically could hit a 3-point shot. Neither team had cheerleaders, but there was a fantastic dance group that I think worked for the Arena and they were so good it made me think that they might even have been paid a living wage. Oh, one more thing similar to the “picking up the ball with your feet” observation, occasionally when a player got decked, an opposing player, usually the “decker” would reach down and help pull up the “deckee.” I don’t see that much in the NBA.
This is the loudest area I have ever been in, although I'm told the Warriors in Oakland can compete with anyone. The noise goes on for the entire game even when its a blow-out, especially when its a blow-out.
Best of all, the fans were really knowledgeable, they booed unfair calls, mercilessly jeered missed free throws, and rewarded brilliant plays. At some point it hit me that I was sitting in the middle of about 12,000 Jewish male basketball fans, how cool is that. Of course at the exact same time there were 12,000 beautiful Jewish women attending the Food Faire on the other side of town. As I previously observed at the Food Faire about a third of the fans were always on their cell phone, presumably talking to their women at the Faire, (not!) I did notice that there seemed to be about 5% women, unlike a game in the States, which I think could have as many as 30% women. I don’t fully understand the implications of not having a college sports program, but for most of these fans, their pro-team is the only team they will ever know and cheer for. That’s kind of weird. Maybe that’s why the University’s don’t have sweatshirts with their names on it or a dedicated following of die-hard alumni. I really can’t imagine a world in which there are no college teams with which to associate; it would feel like something important was missing on a Saturday afternoon, oh, right that’s the Sabbath and things are supposed to be missing. In conclusion Maccabi’s won by 2 points, the crowd went wild and even though I didn’t have a “dog in that fight” I had a great time.
The cheerleaders performed about 20 separate very professional routines at each intermission, the music for this one was the Village People singing. YMCA. (enjoy)
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