By Steven Scheer
JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Its season delayed by war for two months, Israel’s professional basketball league tips off on Monday but Hapoel Jerusalem was scrambling to field a team after its seven foreign players chose not to return because of the security situation.
The season began on Oct. 6 but was delayed when the next day Palestinian Hamas gunmen attacked Israel, triggering a war in the Gaza Strip. Security officials gave the OK to resume play in arenas with no more than 1,000 people – players, fans and media.
Hapoel’s November “home” games in the European Basketball Champions League (BCL) were held behind closed doors in Belgrade, where rival Maccabi Tel Aviv plays its EuroLeague contests. Hapoel has posted a 3-1 record in BCL play and needs one more victory to move to the next stage.
With its Israeli season due to begin on Tuesday, all of Hapoel’s players planned to fly back last week. But the mainly U.S. foreign players, led by University of Alabama alumnus Levi Randolph as well as its Serbian head coach Aleksandar Dzikic, opted to stay in Belgrade after a Hamas shooting attack in Jerusalem on Thursday in which four Israelis were killed.
“The players expressed their deep concern about the security situation in Israel and said that they do not feel safe playing in Israel as early as next week,” the team said in a statement on Saturday.
As a result, Hapoel, which plays in the 13-team premier league, will be without its foreign players for both of its domestic games this week. Its next BCL games are on Dec. 13 and Dec. 20.
“It’s not a good situation for the league, but we know that they did everything to get the players to come, but they are afraid and don’t want to come,” an Israeli basketball league spokesman said. “We have no doubt that as the league progresses, the situation will become clearer and players will come.”
Roi Cohen, Hapoel’s spokesman, said the team had four senior and two junior Israeli players and was “checking the market”, including the second division, for players.
“We hope it’s just a temporary situation and just those two games … We are going to do our best to have our full roster back,” he said.
In an X post, Hapoel later said it had signed three players – forward Joe Alexander, centre Storm Warren and guard Arad Harari – to one-month contracts to play in upcoming league games and they had already joined teammates at practice.
Cohen said Hapoel’s Israeli players had returned home because they were used to security issues and going into shelters when rockets were fired into Israel.
“But for foreigners, American guys, they don’t have to put themselves in that situation and expect them to come back to Israel, which is in a state of war,” he said.
None of Hapoel’s foreign players have asked to leave permanently. Cohen said many foreign players who signed to play in Israel this season have already left. Another team, Hapoel Holon, said this week that French power forward Amine Noua had left the team for security reasons.
Maccabi Tel Aviv said none of its foreign players had left, but the team plays a heavy slate of EuroLeague games.
(Reporting by Steven Scheer; editing by Howard Goller, Mark Heinrich and Alex Richardson)
