Maccabi Tel Aviv Rules Euro Hoops

By Jake Fox
Love of Sports Correspondent

“Dynasty” is a word that’s highly overused in sports. Athletes and the media are constantly looking to give teams the label, and it’s often undeserved, especially within the scope of some of the more successful sports clubs in the world.

There are few teams more worthy of the term “dynasty” than the Maccabi Tel Aviv Basketball Club. Although not well known in the United States, this Israeli team has dominated its league like no other club in the history of sports!

Maccabi Tel Aviv has won an astounding 47 domestic titles in Ligat Ha’al (also known as the Israeli Basketball Super League), Israel’s top division of professional basketball.

Since the league was founded in 1954, Maccabi’s been champion all but seven times, and they were runners-up in five of those seasons. The team won 23 league titles in a row from 1970-92, then another 14 consecutive championships from 1994-07.

In addition, Maccabi’s won 36 Israeli Basketball State Cups, a yearly tournament featuring teams from Ligat Ha’al and the second division.

Maccabi’s also one of the top performers in the elite Euroleague, a yearly competition featuring the top club teams in Europe. Although Israel’s located in the Middle East, its top teams play in the Euroleague, whose skill level is said to be higher than Division I men’s basketball in the U.S.

In addition to their own league titles, Maccabi Tel Aviv’s been Euroleague Champion five times and runner up on eight other occasions, including this past season.

Maccabi’s team often features former NBA players and top draft picks who didn’t pan out for whatever reason. Their roster currently features Marcus Fizer, who was the fourth overall draft pick by the Chicago Bulls in 2000, as well as Vonteego Cummings, a former star at Pittsburgh who played three seasons in the NBA. Will Bynum, who helped lead Georgia Tech to the Final Four in 2004, is Maccabi’s backup point guard.

Current Toronto Raptors shooting guard Anthony Parker also spent five seasons with Maccabi, in which he enjoyed incredible success, winning league and State Cup titles every season, as well as two Euroleague championships. He was twice named Euroleague MVP and is listed among the league’s 50 greatest players of all time.

In 2005, Parker hit the game-winning shot for Maccabi in an exhibition game against the Raptors in Toronto. It was the first time a European team beat an NBA team on its home court. Parker was signed by the Raptors three months later.

As with every great dynasty, Maccabi Tel Aviv has plenty of naysayers and detractors. Ligat Ha’al has no salary cap, and Maccabi always outspends its competitors. Like another “Evil Empire” this country is well aware of, the club’s been able to sign players to more lucrative contracts than other teams can afford and have been known to “take” players from their closest rivals.

In 2007-08, Maccabi lost the Ligat Ha’al final to Hapoel Holon, a team that was just a season removed from the second division. Maccabi quickly signed two of Holon’s best players in the offseason.

Despite what critics say, however, it’s difficult to argue with the results; Maccabi Tel Aviv’s had an unprecedented run of continued success for more than half a century, making the team the epitome of what a sports dynasty is and should be. The Bandwagon overseas is probably pretty full already, but it’s time for us in the U.S. to jump on it as well, ‘cause they’re as dominant as any team over here has ever been, and it’s time to give them the recognition they deserve.