Israel youth basketball’s summer in the shadows of the Olympic Games has had one of its most successful runs in history, with both the men’s and women’s Under-18 teams advancing to next year’s U19 World Championships for the first time in the country’s history.
The World’s features some of the best players under the age of 19, including many who will one day play in the NBA or in the Euroleague.
Men's team led by Ben Saraf
The blue-and-white men’s team was led by Ben Saraf, who will be playing in Germany with Ulm this coming season, while the women’s saw Gal Raviv, who will be at Quinnipiac University this fall, take the baton and help lead the squad to the promised land. Prior to each of their respective tournaments, they both spoke to The Jerusalem Post about their careers to date as well as their dreams and desires for success, which they unquestionably have accomplished so far with flying colors.
The 18-year-old Saraf has been moving up the ranks in Israeli hoops and is no doubt the next Sabra who will enter the NBA Draft, most probably in the summer of 2025. In this summer’s Eurobasket, in which Israel punched its ticket to the World Championships in Switzerland next year, Saraf was named as the tournament’s Most Valuable Player despite the team finishing in fourth place overall.
Saraf, who was playing under his club team coach at Kiryat Ata in Sharon Avrahami, easily led the tourney in scoring with 28.1 points per game to go along with 5.0 rebounds and 5.3 assists while scoring 40 points twice against Spain and Serbia, against whom the Israel just came up short to in a triple overtime loss in the semifinals. Due to his showing, Saraf’s stock shot up on the draft charts as he is now a legitimate prospect who performed extremely well in money time right in front of many of the NBA scouts and executives in attendance.
Saraf’s generational run at the European Championships not only allowed him to lead Israel to its first top-four finish since 1972, it also established him as one top international with his multi-level scoring, secondary passing and perimeter defensive contributions.
The other star on the men’s team was Maccabi Tel Aviv’s Omer Mayer, who checked in with 18.3 points, 6.6 boards and 5.1 assists and was also phenomenal in the quarterfinal win over France with 31 points to go along with another 31 in the Serbia game as well.
Over on the women’s side, the 17-year-old Raviv was named to the Team of the Tournament with a scoring average of 17.3 points, 5.4 rebounds and 4.7 assists per game to help Israel to a fourth-place finish, and she turned plenty of heads as she is now readying to play college ball. She had three 20+ point performances and played clutch knockout basketball in the quarterfinals, where she dropped 20 points and eight rebounds against Portugal.
Two other players to keep an eye on are Maayan Cohen, who averaged 12.3 points, and Ayala Oren, who scored 11.7 points and grabbed six rebounds per game to help propel the Israeli side to a successful tournament.
Following the tournament accomplishments, both coaches as well as the chairman of the Israel Basketball Association gave oodles of accolades to the pair of teams for making history and demonstrating that the nation can compete with the bigger basketball countries in Europe and the world.
“This was a great tournament and the feeling is absolutely incredible,” Avrahami said. “We beat two huge basketball nations and it’s a real celebration. I hope that we brought some joy to the people of Israel as we made history by advancing to the World Championship, the guys deserved it all.”
Roi Eisenberg, the coach of the women’s team, spoke about his squad’s respective achievement.
“All of the credit has to go to the players who knew how to make history. All along we believed that we could do something big this year and we did by having advanced to the semifinals of the European Championship and securing a ticket for the World Championships. It is definitely something really, really big.”
Israel Basketball Association Chairman Amos Frishman added: “We are very proud to be the most successful sport in Israel. Reaching the world championships with both the men’s and women’s youth teams is a tremendous achievement, especially in these days when the people of Israel are looking for reasons to be happy.
“We will continue to promote youth basketball, increase the base of the pyramid to grow more and more talent and I am convinced that we will also know how to translate these achievements to the senior national teams in the not too distant future. We will continue to pray for the quick return of all the hostages.”