|
|
50 Years interview: Tal Brody, Maccabi Tel Aviv
|
 Among the signature players in the rise of Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv to the status of European basketball superpower, Tal Brody has to head the list as captain of the club's first continental title team, in 1977. Brody had arrived in Tel Aviv a full decade earlier from his native New Jersey, having been named both a university all-American and a high NBA draft choice just months before. Playing on outdoor courts and watching a country fall in love with basketball, Brody found a permanent home. With his talent and enthusiasm, the arc of Brody's career matched that of Maccabi's, both reaching a high point together in that 1977 season, when he memorably pronounced Israel to be on the map, in basketball and everything. To this day, his adopted countrymen quote him, just as he remains inspired by Maccabi's role in the country and in the growth of European basketball. As he prepared to celebrate Maccabi's legacy in a 50 Years celebration in Tel Aviv, Brody spoke with Euroleague.net: "Where Maccabi Tel Aviv came from and where it is today has been a beautiful ride to see it all happen."
Hi Tal. You arrived from the United States to play for Maccabi in 1966 and immediately helped the club reach the continental final. What are your first memories of European basketball in the 1960s?
"First of all, arriving to Maccabi and taking up the challenge with a team that never got past the first round of the European Cup. That's why I came and it was a challenging opportunity. I remember very well my first season, playing in Greece or behind the Iron Curtain and all over Europe. The best leagues at the time were in Spain with Real Madrid and Italy with Varese. I remember it always being tough playing against the Italian and Spanish teams, also the Belgian teams were good. Our games were even outdoors at the time. We didn't have an indoor stadium to play our games in. So sometimes, playing in the conditions in the winter, we were used to it and the other teams weren't used to it. So it was very different, especially coming from the United States and from the University of Illinois, where we had a gymnasium for over 16,000 a game, then coming in and playing outdoors, sometimes with the rain, sometimes with the dust, sometimes the games being cancelled because of the weather. So it was very different."
Did you think then that over the next 30 years Maccabi could go on to become the European basketball dynasty that it has?
"For Maccabi, the big game as far as excitement in Europe was when we lost by 32 points at Joventut Badalona and we came back to Israel and won by 32 points. At that time, Joventut had very good teams, with Nino Buscato. So we won by 32 and then we had a third game, which we won by 26. For Israel, this was more or less the game which put the stamp on basketball. That gave the pride and hope that Israeli basketball needed. Basketball took over the excitement of the soccer fans and basketball became the leading sport in Israel. The excitement of Maccabi going all the way to the finals, with the prime minister at the time, Levi Eshkol, coming to the games and the chiefs of the army. The most prestigious thing in Israel became watching the games on Thursday night on TV. And you have to understand that Israeli TV didn't come until after the Six Days War in 1967. So at first everyone was listening by radio, since the stadium only had 5,000 seats. Now all this excitement helped basketball in Europe, because whenever we traveled to Europe, the Jewish community came out to support our teams and that brought greater amounts of fans and greater excitement to European basketball. I think the excitement pooled over time and Israeli basketball within the European community became very exciting. Now our basketball grew in relationship to the level as Greek and Turkish basketball did. And with the Italian and Spanish teams and the former Yugoslavia and the Russians leading up to 1977. So as the years went by, the excitement expanded. And the fact that the Greek fans went on with the Israeli fans and the Turkish fans created a wider scope for basketball coming into all of Europe. The fact that the Russians came in 1977 and our victory over CSKA helped the game grow in Israel to the point when we became one of the few teams, if not the only team, that could bring I think 7,000 or 8,000 fans decades later to the Final Fours later in Paris and again in Prague."
Did you see the potential for the basketball growing in Europe the way it has?
"Today the Euroleague has helped spread basketball around Europe. And the Euroleague itself has done a lot as far as bringing in entertainment to basketball, things like cheerleaders and music at the arenas. All the things that are around the game that make it much more interesting for fans to come to the games. Also increasing the quality of the stadiums. And of course the level of the players kept growing and growing. And also the developing of the Internet has allowed young fans to see what's going on more, not only for their teams but for other teams, and to learn about the players' backgrounds. So the Euroleague made it more exciting."
Your path to Maccabi was an unusual one. A collegiate all-American and a high draft pick in the NBA, after visiting Israel for the Maccabiah Games you decided to join Maccabi Tel Aviv. Why?
"When you are drafted 13th or 15th in the draft in the NBA and after being chosen as an All-American among the 10 best players in the United States with guys like Rick Barry, Bill Bradley and Cunningham and that group of guys, who I always see and am in contact with, I went to Baltimore at the time and after going through rookie camp, I went to the Maccabiah Games with the United States team. Through playing in the games, which at the time I got permission from the Bullets to do, Maccabi Tel Aviv and the Minister of Sports presented me with a challenge and Baltimore was not giving no-cut contracts at the time. And Jerry Sloan was their first draft pick. And they had some good guards already. So I said I'll take a year out of my life and go to Israel, see what it's like to live in a foreign country. Because I have a Jewish background, I decided to take up that challenge. But by taking up the challenge I saw what the result was and I saw the vision of what we could do, of what the impact of what it did to the country whenever we beat another team in Europe. I felt it was bigger than myself and felt it had to be continued, because I saw what the results were."
 After that breakthrough first season, 10 years passed before Maccabi again reached the title game and won its first European crown in 1977. Where surprised you more, that first season's success or the 10-year wait to play again for the title?
"It took 10 years because we had to build a team, until 1977, when we had a good center like Aulcie Perry, which made a big difference in our team. We never before had a player who could face the basket and play center and run the floor and block shots and play defense. I think the game we won against CSKA pushed us and gave us the hope morally and spiritually that we could win the European championships because we had lost twice that same year to Varese. And playing them the third time and the fact that we were able to win 78-77 was an unbelievable feat for us. After we beat CSKA there were 150,000 people in Rabin Square and when we beat Varese there were 200,000 celebrating in the National Park, so I saw what exactly basketball meant to the country."
Although you had the honor of lifting that title in 1977, you are perhaps best remembered for what you said at the end of the classic semifinal win over CSKA Moscow that year: "We're on the map!" Tell us about how that came about.
"Before we played CSKA, when it was decided that we would play on a neutral floor, even though we would have preferred to play in Tel Aviv and Moscow, we saw a video of their game against Real Madrid. At that period of time it was very difficult to win in Madrid, as they had great teams with Brabender, Szczerbiak and Corbalan. And we saw that CSKA won in Madrid. And about six or seven of those guys from CSKA were on the Olympic team that beat the United States in the Olympics. So the hopes weren't that high as far as the public was concerned. Our first concern was not to be embarrassed. We never saw them individually before, so we didn't really know. I knew Belov because we played against each other at the world championships in 1970 in Yugoslavia and I knew some of their players and I knew they were good. I didn't think we couldn't win, but the general opinion was not to be disgraced. And when we went to this town of Virton, Belgium and we went into the small gymnasium that was there and as captain of the team I walked in with the flag alongside Belov. And I saw we were going to exchange flags for the first time. And when I walked into the stadium and was greeted by so many Israel flags and singing, it gave our team a real adrenaline shot. I saw that CSKA felt a little bit shattered by the fact that everyone was rooting for us. And I think we played above and beyond and they didn't play as well as they could and we won the game by 12 points. And this game was the second landmark after the miracle of Badalona where basketball in this country was heading. At the end of the game as we were going off the floor with all the excitement after the victory and people dancing around. The announcer came to me with the microphone and the feeling was after beating the Russians that we are on the map, we are staying on the map, not just in sports, but in everything. It meant that here was the hope that we could accomplish things in every field like we did in basketball. It just came out of my heart at that instant."
|
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Frankie Sachs, Euroleague.net
|
|
|