On the Map (2016) - full transcript
ON THE MAP tells the against-all-odds story of Maccabi Tel Aviv's 1977 European Championship, which took place at a time when the Middle East was still reeling from the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the 1972 Olympic massacre at Munich, and the 1976 hijacking of an Air France flight from Tel Aviv. Through the of lens of sports, ON THE MAP presents a much broader story of how one team captured the heart of a nation amid domestic turmoil and the global machinations of the Cold War.
WEB-DL / WEBRip / WEB
Duration: 1:25:27
FPS: 23.976
I'’ll never forget 1977,
all that excitement,
all that pride.
And it'’s something
that I cherish,
something that I'’ll take
with me until my last breath.
And it was something so
unbelievable, so wishful,
a great, golden place
in sport'’s history.
May of 1948,
a new Jewish state, Israel,
was born in a bath of blood.
As Israel went before the
United Nations
to seek a place
in that world body,
and Middle Eastern Arabic
nations were in violent
opposition.
Newly equipped
with Red-manufactured weapons
the Egyptian army
spearheads the Arab nations,
almost solidly aligned
against Israel.
culminating in an attack
by Israel on Egypt.
Former
Vice President Nixon meets
with Israeli Defense Minister
Moshe Dayan in Tel Aviv,
during a fact-finding
tour of Israel.
The tension
in the Middle East develops
into full-scale war with heavy fighting between Israeli
and Egyptian forces
along the Sinai border.
Israeli Chief of Staff,
General Yitzhak Rabin visits
and inspects troops.
Near the Egyptian border.
When the UN
reject Russia'’s resolution
asking
for condemnation of
Israel as the aggressor
in the Arab-Israeli War.
I came to Israel for
the seventh Maccabiah Games.
Traveling around the country,
I felt that common history,
that common religion.
Maccabi Tel Aviv then
came to me,
and they said, "Look, a Jewish kid from Trenton, New Jersey,
you see that the country is
going through a recession.
People aren'’t smiling.
You know, if a player
like you would come,
you can take our team that never
got past the first round
in the European Championship
games to another level."
I went to college at Rider
College in Trenton, New Jersey,
and this guy was playing
at Trenton Central High School
by the name of Tal Brody,
drafted by the Baltimore
Bullets.
But decides to go over
to Israel to play for
one of the first
Maccabiah teams.
Israeli basketball,
in the 1960s,
that was not something
you'’d like jump up an down
and say, "Boy, I can'’t
wait to be a part of that."
Tal was a member of the US
national basketball team.
I joined that team as
a 17-year-old high school
player,
and he was the leader.
Because of my friendship with
Tal Brody,
I was able to make it through.
Tal turned down everything
from the very beginning
to be a part of something that
is bigger
than just his own life.
And then they got
called up, drafted into
the US Army.
It was the time of Vietnam.
And after I did
two years of service,
that'’s when Moshe Dayan
sent me a note to come back
to Israel and to finish
what I started.
It is a very unusual occurrence
for a player who is projected
as a very high draft pick
to forego an NBA career.
He really was responding
to a higher calling.
And it was amazing,
where all of a sudden,
Levi Eshkol, the Prime Minister
comes to our basketball game.
Moshe Dayan, the defense
minister,
is all the time coming
to our basketball games.
I saw how proud
everybody was every time
that we can win
a basketball game.
He fell in love, and he wanted to do everything
that was possible to promote
that country.
And it just developed
in such a way
that he suddenly had the
vehicle for that.
On the basketball court, in the
short pants and the jersey,
he could make a statement
on behalf of Israel.
We couldn'’t imagine
someone giving up on the NBA.
Someone who'’s coming here
for the Maccabiah says,
"Wow, I see something
so great I'’m staying."
And we looked at ourselves,
you know,
saying we do not look
that great to ourselves.
What is it that he sees in us
that we do not see
in ourselves?
Maccabi Tel Aviv,
they had all these players
that couldn'’t make it at the NBA
level,
and so they came because
of Tal to Tel Aviv.
I played basketball
my whole life,
and I wanted to go to Europe
and play basketball
for a year and possibly come
back and go to law school.
Everybody told me I should go
to Israel,
go see how the Jews lived,
because I'’m Jewish.
They said the weather'’s the
best, and the girls are
the prettiest.
I was an undergraduate
at Columbia in New York.
By my junior year,
I said this is not for me.
I get on a plane.
The idea was that I could
play basketball in Israel.
Up, up, up!
Each of the players
contributed something
different to the team.
Everybody understood
that they had a role.
And as the year progressed,
we fit into these roles
more and more.
Jim was a pure shooter.
So Jim, you know, you could
always count on putting
the ball in the basket.
One of the reasons why he came
to Israel is because he loved
history.
He had just finished
reading Leon Uris'’Exodus,
and when his agent said,
"Oh, I have a team in Israel
who has an opening.
Would you like to try out?"
"Yes."
All of the army still had
their Uzis.
And everywhere we went on the
street, we see the guns.
This is the BBC.
Today, at exactly 12:05 p.m.,
the forces of Egypt and Syria
mounted a major offensive
on the southern and eastern borders of Israel.
It was Yom Kippur
and everything was quiet.
And you could hear buses
in the background
and people on the beach,
someone said"Milchamah!"
Milchamah means war.
There was no basketball.
I had no salary.
The only reason
I survived it was
the local grocery store said,
"Pay us later."
It was a very difficult period
for Israel, probably the
greatest trauma suffered
by the Jewish people
since the Holocaust.
Two thousand six hundred
Israeli soldiers killed in
three weeks.
Everybody knew at least one
person who had died in that war.
Everyone was affected by it.
Egypt President
Anwar Sadat celebrates
his victory over the State
of Israel with his ally,
the Soviet leader, Leonid
Brezhnev.
It seemed at that point
that we could not go any lower
or any darker,
and then suddenly... this.
Nobody remembers
it anymore,
but there were no air
conditioners.
The entire country was
not air conditioned.
We were sweating like crazy,
an entire nation.
It was tough living.
It'’s a country that is still on
a healing process from the Yom
Kippur War.
The economy'’s not doing
that great.
We were more innocent,
and this all came out
from this sensation that we
are doing something right
in a country that is
righteous and going somewhere.
At the same time
that the country went
through its troubles,
there is this basketball team, Maccabi Tel Aviv,
A team is looking for
its identity for 10 years
is just very close
but never touching glory.
And there are these American
players, one of them,
the first one and the most
important, Tal Brody.
That changed the team,
and from that day,
maybe the summit of European
basketball became closer and
closer.
That year, I was
planning to retire,
and I didn'’t want to
retire without that cup.
And I stayed on.
Even though we had the
toughest teams in Europe
to play against,
I felt that we can do it.
The teams consisted
of five American players
who didn'’t make the NBA,
most of them Jewish,
and three Israeli Sabras.
Compared to the other club, we
didn'’t have big names that time,
really big name, no big players,
not somebody from the NBA,
but we came to one unit to fight together for each other,
to fight for the team,
to fight for the country.
We felt that
we had a strong team,
but we were missing
something, and we needed
a big guy in the center.
I had opportunity to
play professionally in '’74,
and I really thought my
career was beginning then.
I was the last one
that was cut in the Knicks.
I went all the way to the end.
The Knicks decided
that they needed a player
with more experience than I had.
So it was September, and I still didn'’t have a job.
I was playing in Madison
Square Garden.
The coach was at the game,
looking for a player.
And he asked me, "Would you like
to play in Israel?"
So at that time,
September with no job,
any job I would'’ve said yes to.
My first thought that I was
going to be doing a lot of
praying,
you know, all the stories
from the Bible and everything.
I knew very little then
about the Jewish religion.
What I remember about
Aulcie was he tall and thin,
but he was very graceful in
his movements.
I was very thin. I was
a good player, but I was very
thin,
and Maccabi wanted a real
center, somebody that was big.
And in the last minute,
they brought in somebody,
the day before I thought
I was flying to Israel.
It took all the wind out of me.
Both of them were good players,
different a little bit in style.
But what it came down to
was the story about the cake.
Remember they had some
cake and coffee out for us.
The players were sitting around the table, all of them,
and there were some
cakes on the table.
Aulcie Perry took just one.
The other guy wanted to eat this and this and that.
And I didn'’t know
at the same moment
that he took those four cakes,
Ralph whispered to Shamluk,
"If he wants all the cakes,
he'’s gonna want
to shoot all the balls."
The management came
to some players and said,
"What is your opinion about
the player that we can choose?"
All of us said, "Aulcie Perry."
You can say that those
cakes changed the life
of Aulcie Perry.
The cakes changed my whole life.
Professionally, it changed my
whole life,
gave me, really, a dream.
And when I got there,
I was really surprised,
because we had three great
playmakers,
which was Motti Aroesti,
Bob Griffin and Tal Brody.
And then I look, and Miki
was also a great player.
Jim Boatwright had the hand
of gold. He just couldn'’t
miss.
And Lou Silver was
one of the smartest players
that I ever been
on the court with.
So inside of me, I realized that
we had a chance to do something.
Maccabi Tel Aviv playing for
the European Cup Championship,
are you kidding me?
I mean, this was always
dominated by Spain, by Italy,
by Moscow and CSKA,
all these incredibly powerful
and tradition-laden teams.
And all of a sudden, Maccabi
Tel Aviv, who are these guys?
The first game was against Varese, the Cup holders.
They had won 10 finals
in a row.
Our games were
a social event.
Everybody wanted to
be at our game.
It'’s like Los Angeles,
where you see Jack Nicholson
and movie stars at the games.
Our games were the
event to be at.
And as usual,
the special guest of honor
was Moshe Dayan,
the Defense Minister.
Moshe Dayan was
the most recognizable face
in the world at the time,
except for Muhammad Ali.
He was at every one of our
games and shaking our hand.
To Jim, to be able to touch and
shake a hand with Moshe Dayan,
it was almost more important
than the game.
Why?
Why, because Moshe Dayan
was Moshe Dayan.
Moshe Dayan was someone
that almost every citizen
of the planet could
put his hand on the eye
and say, "We know who you are."
He was Israel.
Moshe Dayan coming to
shake the other team'’s hand
is intimidation.
And with us,
he'’s saying, "Let's go.
"Let'’s go, let's get '’em."
It puts it in perspective.
I mean,
it'’s not just basketball.
Maccabi Tel Aviv
at that period of time
were strictly
a jump-shooting team.
The Italians came in
and they'’re playing Maccabi
in a sold out stadium of
10,000 fanatical Maccabi fans,
which is like it should be.
- They almost never
made a mistake.
They didn'’t run. They worked
for high-percentage shots,
and they made them.
They had been European
champions five of seven
of the previous years.
And we were just
coming together.
When Mobilgirgi came to
Israel to play against us,
the first game in the
European league, they
beat us badly,
I think more than 20,
25, 30 points.
It was embarrassing for us.
It was what we call
being schooled in basketball.
It was really a great
exhibition of basketball.
They were a far, far superior
team than Maccabi at that time.
A great shock for the Maccabi
players but also a reminder.
-You guys are not
good enough yet.
The only game in
nine years that I lost at
home.
And we lost by 20-something
points.
You have to win at home.
It was like an initiation
into what the European league
was really all about.
I said, "Whoa, this is
what I got to deal with?"
After we lost
that game against Varese,
the practices started to be
very tough,
and I think we started to take the anger out on each other.
Every practice that
we had was a war,
tussling and then hitting,
and everybody wanted to win.
Jim came home and said he
and Miki had gotten in a fight.
Each one of the players
wanted to be a starter,
to play the five starters.
I don'’t like to lose
anywhere, anytime, any place.
Both wanted
to be the best.
Miki jumps on Jim'’s back, and Jim shrugs him off.
And then they'’re running
up and down the floor,
jabbering and jabbering,
and Miki'’s, I think,
threatening Jim, again.
And Jim just turns around and
hit him with such a perfect
punch.
Miki was out for
about 10 seconds.
But then he got up.
And he got up like a lion.
And then he had to be
restrained.
Then I heard people talking
outside.
"Oh, whoa, whoa, Jim and Miki."
They got it
out of their system.
And that was the most
important thing,
that they put it on the table
and said listen,
you'’re an idiot,
because of this one, two, three.
You'’re a moron,
because four, five, six.
I'’m an asshole, because
of seven, eight, nine.
You do whatever you want,
deal with it.
We came to
the locker room.
We and the players talked to
each other and said that,
"Hey, guys, we'’re in a point
that if you would like
to survive
and to change our attitude,
we have to change our system."
Real Madrid
brought European basketball
to a level of continent
acknowledgment.
It was the first club in Europe
that brought American
players to play for them,
and they started to
win and win and win.
Real Madrid
would beat us every year,
because they ran faster
than we did.
It took us a while to adjust
to the way Real Madrid played
and the Italian teams played.
They were better teams
than we were.
Jim Boatwright!
Miki Berkowitz!
And this was
an amazing game.
People could not believe
what they were seeing.
Our team played great.
We played together.
We were fast and furious.
And the Spanish team really
didn'’t know
where we came from with
this type of energy.
Maccabi comes out
and kicks their ass
right in front of 10,000 people,
and their whole season
turned around.
For us to win at
home against Real Madrid
also was a dream.
I didn'’t know the importance of it like Tal,
because he had a lot of
experience with Real.
But just the emotion and the
excitement after the game,
I realized that it was
a huge accomplishment
for us to beat
Real Madrid at home.
Why is it such a big thing?
Because finally...
Jewish teams are kicking ass.
Hop, hop!
Even though we had
the toughest teams in Europe
to play against,
I felt that we could do it.
Tal was the leader of the team, experienced player,
and he decided that we should
give way
to the younger generation
and that a player
like Miki Berkovich will be the
leader of the team without the
influence of Tal.
Everybody told me that
Tal is retiring from
basketball.
And I knew we'’re gonna have
the last one year with Tal.
I was a kid that time.
I had the chutzpah.
I had the confidence that I can
be the leader of the team
for the next 10 or 15 years.
My mom wanted I'’d be an
engineer, to be a doctor.
One of the best
coaches in Israel,
Yehoshua Rozin,
saw that I didn'’t come
to practice for a week.
He said, "Why'’s Miki
not coming to practice?"
They told him that his mother
doesn'’t release him, because he
had bad grades.
They came to my home. I remember
now, he came to my home.
"Why you'’re not letting
Miki go to practice?"
She said I was going to be
an engineer or a doctor.
He told her, "I don'’t think
he'’s gonna be a doctor,
but he'’s gonna be
a professor in basketball."
I was the head of
sports of Israeli
television on the day
that they all came up and said
Maccabi plays with CSKA.
I went and recorded a blessing
saying ,
"Welcome, Moscow,
we are coming."
But no, we are not
going anywhere.
The Soviets say no.
Moscow, CSKA, they would not come to Israel.
There was a real question
whether the game
could even be played.
The Russians said,
"We are not going to play
Maccabi Tel Aviv,
neither in Tel Aviv
nor in Moscow."
We had
no relations with them.
They would not play in
the state of Israel.
We didn'’t exist as far
as they were concerned.
But then FIBA started to say,
"This is not good enough.
We think that the Soviets
in the basketball field
should play Israel."
There was a meeting in Munich.
Shimon Mizrahi, president, was there representing Maccabi.
He says, "We are ready
to go tomorrow to Moscow."
It was Friday night
in Munich.
The Russian delegate said, "We
are not ready to come to Israel.
We are not going to accept
an Israeli team,
Maccabi Tel Aviv in Moscow."
And I said, "You can'’t
involve politics with sport.
You must come,
and you must play in Moscow."
So they came to a compromise.
They agreed to one game.
So technically, they lost one
game, the one in Moscow.
And the game that was supposed
to be in Tel Aviv
will be played in a little,
dark corner,
in a little, little town
named Virton.
The fact that Israel was
playing against the Red Army
was in itself a victory,
irrespective of the outcome of
the game.
This was the Red Army that was
oppressing three million Jews.
The regime that was sending
young people like Natan
Sharansky to labor camp,
because they wanted
to be Jewish,
because they wanted
to be free Jews
in their own country.
I was an activist of Soviet
Jewish movement in Moscow.
And you have to understand the
political importance of this
moment.
For Soviet Union,
Israel was an enemy,
maybe the enemy.
There was very hostile attitude towards the State of Israel.
For Soviet Union,
every expression of solidarity
with Israel by Soviet citizens was almost betrayal.
Israelis demand
that the USSR permit Soviet
Jews to immigrate to Israel.
The activists call on
all civilized nations
to take up arms
against the spiritual
suppression of Soviet Jews.
About 200 families
have been torn apart.
Hundreds of parents go from demonstration to demonstration,
from embassy to embassy,
demanding the natural right
to live with their children.
All the leaders of KGB and leaders of the Soviet army,
all our enemies, if you can say,
their team was CSKA.
Officially, it was
the team of the Red Army.
I played against those guys.
They were dirty players.
They represented evil,
and I didn'’t like that.
They knew how to play
with force and with power
and a sense of
physical strength
that was emblematic
of their culture.
If they didn'’t like you,
they just took you down,
mowed you down.
What the Russian determination
not to play against Israel
in '’77
demonstrates, there are some
things that are more important
than sport.
Even the fact that the game was
played in a neutral site was,
to me, a huge victory
for Israel at the first
instance,
because they weren'’t
letting Russia off the hook.
We hadn'’t seen the
Russians play.
No, we hadn'’t seen them,
but what we did know is
they beat Real Madrid
in Madrid by 20 points the
week before.
So we knew they were
a good team.
This is an opportunity
to play against this team
and demonstrate something.
They knew they had
the best team in Europe
with seven of their players
that beat the American team
in the 1972 Olympics.
Well, Munich was tragedy.
It was a horrible thing.
Hundreds
of TV cameras in place
to cover the Olympic games,
now trained on this window.
Inside, two Israeli athletes
are dead.
Another nine Israelis
held hostage by a group
of Palestinian gunmen calling
themselves Black September.
I was with my wife at the time.
And I turn on the TV,
and I'’m seeing the guy
who was my teacher,
Amitzur Shapiro, dead.
It was demoralizing that a
beautiful thing like the
Olympics turns into a massacre
and a political thing.
I'’m sure the public will
agree the Games must go on.
To see what went
down there,
the violation of the code of
ethics in sport and in life.
Everybody tried so hard
to make it right,
but you never really can.
If you say Munich
to the average American,
they say "that terror attack."
The average American
doesn'’t remember
that the Russian basketball
team stole the medal
from the US team.
It was ridiculous.
The game was over.
They added seconds on.
It was as though they were
predetermined that the Soviet
Union was going to win it.
When I go back and look at
Munich, me, when we won it
in regulation,
I would'’ve walked
off the court and say,
"We'’re not coming back.
Do whatever you want
with the gold medal."
Three seconds.
There is time for the
Russians to go to their
big man Alexander Belov.
They'’re going to try.
Let the world decide,
on television,
who won this game.
And this time
it is over.
This was one
of the biggest crimes
in sports history,
definitely the biggest
crime in basketball history,
a basketball sporting
injustice.
It would hurt me,
the way that they treated the Americans in the Olympics,
and I knew that I'’m
gonna face seven or eight
of these players this night.
Just by the fact
that you'’re from Israel
playing in Europe,
this is already a political
situation.
When you play the Russians,
it'’s doubled, it's tripled.
And we were targets.
That was a big education
for me.
All of a sudden, I'’m a target,
because I'’m a basketball player for an Israeli team.
I developed a Jewish identity
very fast.
This was the peak
of the Cold War between the
United States and the Soviets.
Don'’t forget, this was very, very heavy time.
Any team playing the Soviet
Union,
if it wasn'’t an
Eastern European team,
was playing against
the enemy of the Western world.
And for Maccabi, I would say,
it just added motivation
to slay the giant.
For some reason,
I hired a TV crew
to follow us, Maccabi Tel Aviv,
to Virton.
Virton is an armpit in Belgium.
I don'’t know why there was
an inner voice that told me
to tell the story of the great
defeat or a great victory.
♪ Happy birthday to you♪
♪ Happy birthday to you♪
♪ Happy birthday dear Miki♪
♪ Happy birthday to you♪
This is my birthday, 17th
February.
They brought me cake.
The management, Shamluk
and the coach Ralph Klein said
it'’s a big day for us.
We'’re playing first time
against CSKA Moskova.
Thank you very much for
everyone who had their share
in this cake and everything.
And well, I got a small wish,
too, like Shamluk told us.
I would like that
everybody would play for me
and for the team and for the
country too.
And let'’s win this game
and it will be a history
for us and for everybody.
Thank you very much.
You can see,
in the video that I shot,
how nervous he is by rolling
his finger all the time
around the button of his shirt,
while just thanking his
friends, his comrades,
from Maccabi Tel Aviv team,
for providing him
with a birthday cake.
Not a big deal on a day-to-day,
but that was not a normal day.
That was a day that they
marched into the court
fearing what they have to do
not to be embarrassed.
I want to tell you something,
that nobody talks about.
I was very, very friendly
with the players in CSKA.
Always we met secretly
in the hotel,
and with the players,
I had a meeting in the rooms,
talking about our lives, how
their life is harder in Russia.
We exchanged with
them a lot of things,
like chewing gum.
They didn'’t have
chewing gum in Russia.
Security agents
that came from Russia,
they were watching them,
and they were very scared
that somebody would hear or
see that they are meeting us.
The head coach of CSKA Moscow,
Alexander Gomelsky, a Jew,
and it so happen that one
morning, I get out of my room,
to go down for breakfast.
From the other side of the corridor was Mr. Gomelsky.
He came out of his room also
going for his breakfast.
I presented myself.
I said I'’m Mike Karnon
from Tel Aviv, a journalist.
He asked me "How come
that you Israelis, from Asia,
play in the European Cup
and all your team is
American players?"
Our coach Ralph Klein
was a holocaust survivor.
He really didn'’t talk
about this to the team,
but we knew that this game
was extremely important
for him and we wanted
to play also for him.
There'’s some coaches,
they treat the players
as though they'’re chess pieces.
Basketball doesn'’t
work like that,
because it'’s too fast.
You have to make decisions.
You prepare them, but you
have to be able to trust
your players.
Ralph was a player'’s coach.
Now it helped that he gave very good motivational speeches.
After the speech,
all of us, we were so excited
and so ready to play,
if he would'’ve said,
"Run through the wall."
I think all of us
would'’ve jumped up
and ran through the wall.
I walked in. I'’m saying,
"What is going on here?"
There'’s 400 seats.
400 Israelis, all the gym,
I mean, Israelis or Jews
from Europe.
They filled up. All 400 were
connected to Israel.
I said, "This is more
than just a game.
This is much more than a game."
Maccabi! Maccabi!
For the Russian
team, it was like they
got shell-shocked.
They didn'’t know
where they were,
whether they were in
Israel or where.
Well, you know, the difference
in the teams probably was about
20 points.
CSKA Moscow was probably 20
points better than Maccabi Tel
Aviv at that time.
It was their national team.
And Maccabi had a bunch
of Americans
and a couple of Israelis,
and they were like,
it was like, you know,
Goliath against David.
The first
game in history
between Moscow and Maccabi
Tel Aviv.
I started the game out with two
or three blocked shots from
their players.
Griffin... Perry.
I don'’t like
to talk about myself,
but I think it changed
the whole complex of the game,
because they didn'’t look for
the inside position no more.
Griffin passes to
Lou Silver.
There is such a thing as
basketball intelligence.
The IQ of this team
in basketball intelligence
was off the charts.
Eric, Lou,
Aulcie they were passers.
The ball would go
into the middle,
Aulcie or someone will
take the ball
and pass it under to someone
open underneath the basket.
When the game started,
I suddenly realized that
that was not just
an ordinary game.
Aulcie Perry.
And they played a great
game right from the start.
And the Russians, experienced
players as they were,
they didn'’t believe what was
going on.
And the buzzer
for the halftime finds
Maccabi Tel Aviv leading by
three points over Moscow.
And I'’m looking
at Alexander Gomelsky.
He didn'’t know exactly
what'’s happening.
It took them some time
to get back into the match.
I thought that well, I don'’t
know how long Maccabi can
hold in this position.
From the beginning,
we had the lead.
Easily basket, fast breaks,
shooting from corners.
Everything was going
fine for us,
and Russia was like in a coma.
I don'’t know, It's not the team
that we expected that we should
play against them.
Suddenly the monster that played
against us was a midget.
A long pass to Brody.
Brody has fallen.
The songs and
the cheering were incredible.
You thought that you were
sitting in Madison Square
Garden
with 20,000 people, and not
500 Israelis.
I was sitting next
to Gideon Hod, who was
broadcasting that on the radio.
We couldn'’t believe
what was going on.
And Gideon asked me,
"Mike, are you crying?"
I said, "Yes, I am!"
And both of us were in tears.
And I'’m going
to the camera
to get some reactions
from the players.
I came to Tal Brody.
It just came out of my
heart when Alex Gilady,
by chance, caught me as I
was going off the floor.
He said something
that was in our hearts,
but we didn'’t know how
to use words for it.
And here comes this barely
Hebrew-speaking American
and gives you the slogan
that you can use
for generations to come.
We are on the map, not just in
sport but in everything.
And if they can do that,
they can do anything.
But I understood him
in saying that we'’re on
the map in basketball.
I didn'’t realize
what he was saying.
And I must say,
it was a prophetic statement
that he made.
He reminded us all
that not so long ago,
less than 30 years before that,
there was no Israel on the map.
So the fact that we are
on the map is significant.
There are sentences
that take you from one stage
to another.
And you have to remember
we are still at the time
where Jews all around
the world feel
that there will be
no third chance.
You cannot take an atlas
or a map anymore
without Israel being on it.
And he said it out loud
for everybody else.
To me, Israel was
always on the map,
but there was no reason to
expect, or even to hope,
Maccabi could beat
Red Army Moscow.
Everybody in America remembers
the great victory of
the American ice hockey team
over the Soviet team,
the Miracle on Ice.
Do you believe
in miracles? Yes!
But everybody in Israel
remembers the Miracle on
Hardwood.
You couldn'’t compare tiny,
tiny Israel
to the vast Soviet Empire.
When in the evening we
heard on Voice of America
that Israeli team won,
we were more than happy to say
to our KGB interrogators,
"Well, maybe you don'’t know,
maybe you didn'’t hear,
but your team,
your team, KGB team,
lost to our young team."
It was a very happy moment
that we could say to KGB.
A few weeks after this,
I was arrested,
and for nine years I disappeared from this world.
And the voice,
"We are on the map",
was always causing me a smile,
even in the darkness
of Soviet prison
and was giving me a feeling
that we are on the map.
We will win.
Once we landed
at Ben Gurion,
I just couldn'’t believe
I'’m looking out
over a wave of people.
The excitement was just
too much, too much.
I wanted more, I wanted more.
As a team, they brought honor to this country.
It makes me have goosebumps.
I feel like I helped do that
because I fed Jim.
I washed his clothes.
I feel like I'’m part of that.
Thursday nights,
the streets were empty.
You couldn'’t get a taxi.
There was one station
and the whole country sat down
to watch Maccabi Tel Aviv
on Thursday.
Basketball was the number one topic in Israel.
No weddings, no Bar Mitzvahs,
not everybody had a TV,
so everybody would
go to somebody'’s house.
Why would you go to
the movies when
the best show in town is on TV,
Maccabi Tel Aviv
against whoever it is
in the European championship?
Nothing moved,
nothing moved.
Whole families sat together.
It was like a reunion,
a family reunion.
All the family, all the friends,
sat together to watch Maccabi.
It wasn'’t that long
after the Yom Kippur War.
The country was starving
for something
that lifted the country.
And every day that I
went out on the streets,
it was like there'’s so
much warmth and love
that it gave me more power.
It gave me more initiative
for us to be the best.
It was just amazing.
Open it.
Wow, it'’s a picture of
Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Here'’s Tal Brody.
He'’s the captain.
Am I right?
Yes, you'’re right.
Say, mister, you'’re tall.
Are you a basketball player?
Yes, I am.
Hey, are you Tal Brody?
Yes, I'’m Tal Brody.
Rafi, he'’s Tal Brody.
Tal Brody is here.
Bend your knees,
and push the ball
away from you to the basket.
Going to the Kirya
and meeting Rabin was very
special.
Yitzhak Rabin,
if people don'’t know,
was a basketball freak.
I sat at a wedding one day,
and he came over,
when he was head
of our country,
and he sat down for an
hour-and-a-half.
He knew everything
about basketball.
It was amazing.
I mean, I looked at the guy.
I said, "You know,
you got armies to worry about,
and you'’re talking to me
about the Knicks losing.
I mean, what'’s your story?"
The story was something that
Israelis wouldn'’t think twice
about today,
and that is having a dollar
account in the United States.
But back then, it was illegal, and it was discovered
that Yitzhak Rabin'’s wife,
Leah, had such an account.
It was felt as a kind
of breach of trust,
because it was a sign
of privilege.
Every other week,
I was in another country.
Here it is, this kid
from the inner city
of Newark, New Jersey,
who grew up very tough.
Now I'’m seeing the world.
I'’m in London.
I'’m in Rome. I'm in Milan,
you know.
I'’m in Paris.
This also was something that
captured me.
I'’d been talking to rabbis and
studying, not really study, but
talking,
trying to get an understanding of the Jewish religion.
I went to Shimon, and I said,
"Shimon, look, you know,
I want to convert."
He said, "Aulcie, you know what you'’re doing? You sure you know what you'’re doing?"
I said, "Yeah, Shimon, I want
to go through the process."
I studied five days a week.
Then it came time for, you know, I had to sit in front
of the three big rabbis
and the questioning and
everything.
And at the end,
they accepted it.
I was already circumcised,
but they had to make
another incision,
and I'’ll never forget that.
They laid me on a bench
and said their prayer,
pshht, did a little incision,
not the whole thing
but just to draw blood,
and that was it.
Our club, it was not a rich
club. And the team couldn'’t
put us in hotels.
They didn'’t have money
to put us in hotels,
so we came to the Jewish temple.
And each player
went to another family
to sleep overnight there.
And they gave us a nice,
warm hospitality.
And it was the beginning.
After that, now they have
the five-star hotels.
We had a historic chance now to go to the finals,
but we were dependent on
who would be the winner
between Russia and the
Italian team.
If the Italian team would win, then we would be out,
and they would play against
Real Madrid.
Now if the Italian team
would lose,
that means they would play
against us.
Mobilgirgi needed to lose,
so they played against Maccabi,
instead of Real Madrid.
CSKA beat Varese,
which left Maccabi Tel Aviv
as the team to make
the final against Varese.
My first thought was "damn,
we'’ve got to see Varese again."
And I lost to them twice.
But this is for the
championship.
Varese is Italian,
very strong team.
They have Meneghin, Bob Morse.
They have players that I was
scared to play against.
I was young.
They were 30,
a lot of experience.
They took the European
Championship with the
national team,
or as they beat us in Tel Aviv by almost 30 points.
One interesting thing that
Coach Klein did was that
in one of the practice he
canceled
and showed us a movie on
Entebbe.
The idea was
they will kidnap a plane.
They will have demands.
We will have no other
choice but to surrender.
And Entebbe was telling
everybody this time is over.
Nobody'’s gonna tell
us ever again
that we have no choice
but to surrender.
We have had, historically,
we had enough of that.
In 36 minutes,
Israelis killed seven
hijackers
and 20 Ugandan soldiers.
The results of Israel'’s
weekend raid to rescue more
than 100 hostages from
pro-Palestinian hijackers
at Entebbe airport in Uganda.
The rescue operation has
been hailed as audacious
and as a blow to terrorists
around the world.
The news of
the rescue spread fast
with excited and
near hysterical relatives
and friends
of the Israeli hostages,
gathering at the airport
to await their triumphant
return.
It sent a clear message for all of us.
The State of Israel will
send airplanes
to the end of the world
to bring Jews free.
After I was arrested,
and for all those years,
each time when I heard
the engine
of the airplane in the skies
of Siberia,
it was reminding me
immediately: Entebbe.
And I would think that they
will come,
and the Israeli airplane
will come.
The fact that such
an inspirational movie
before such an important
game coming up,
I think all of us
knew that the whole country
was behind us.
This was one very inspiring
moment,
in which Israel'’s ability
to take your destiny
in your own hands, make your own rules, the way you want to.
This was the new Jew.
This was the new Jewish destiny.
Everybody wanted to travel
to Belgrade,
where the final was
taking place.
Here was another problem,
because Yugoslavia, like Russia,
didn'’t have diplomatic
relations with Israel,
El Al flights cold not land
in Belgrade.
The Yugoslav government
gave special permission,
which allowed many Israelis
who wanted to make the final
to get to Belgrade.
In Belgrade,
about six planes landed
on the same day of the game.
Maccabi went to Belgrade about two days
before the final but without
Tal Brody.
Tal Brody asked to
go to the States
on the days before we went
to Belgrade, to the final.
And I didn'’t hesitate
for a second.
I remember that I was
at the swimming pool.
The American embassy
got a message to us
that my father
had a heart attack.
He'’s in intensive care.
You know, here I am, before
the European Championship.
This is what I came to
Israel for,
to take the basketball from
a team that never went past
the first round of the
European Championship,
and here we have the chance to
take the European Championship.
Even though that this is a
10-year dream,
a father'’s a father.
This is the biggest
moment in his life.
This is what he has spent
everything, all the sacrifice,
all the practice,
all the dreams,
all the pain, all the suffering,
and he'’s carrying the burden,
not only his individual burdens,
but he'’s carrying the burdens of
his whole country,
except his dad is dying.
And he goes home to New Jersey,
and this is just days
before the championship game.
He didn'’t fly with us,
and we didn'’t know
if he could join the team
or not.
The management told us that
we can play without Tal
Brody, wow.
We started to think
about what each one has
to do individually to
make up for that.
We'’re losing our captain.
When I got to the hospital, I
saw my father was in intensive
care.
And I waited a day and
another day, and he was
fine.
He opened up his eyes, and he
saw me.
He was saying to me, "Hey, what are you doing here?"
His dad turns to Tal and says,
"Tal, you got to go back.
They need you.
We need you.
I can'’t do anything else, Tal."
And Tal left his dad there.
And he went back.
And Maccabi, they said that
there'’ll be a ticket waiting
for me at JFK Airport
in New York.
I go to the counter of
JAT Yugoslavian Airlines,
give my name and my passport,
and they said, "Well, you'’re
not listed here on the plane.
"There'’s no ticket for you."
And I said,
"What do you mean no ticket?
I have to get to Belgrade
for the finals
of the European Championship."
I asked for the station
manager, and the station
manager,
he saw me play during
the World Championships
in Yugoslavia,
and he remembered me.
Tal and I had been
there in Belgrade in 1970
for the World Championships,
playing together.
And this guy knew Tal
from watching him play seven
years before,
and said, "Come on, Tal,
just come on the plane."
And he let me fly on
JAT without a ticket.
Can you imagine?
Like, I'’m thinking today,
in New York at JFK,
to get through
the security to go on a plane
without a ticket? Impossible.
He came a day before the game.
He didn'’t practice,
only did a warmup with us.
And he gave me confidence
that he'’s with us, together,
and we could do it.
I remember that Ralph Klein
told us Varese is a small city
in Italy.
There is only one main road
with a shop selling shoes.
If they will win,
the next day people will wrap
fish with the newspaper,
but if you win,
you will win glory for life.
Around 9 o'’clock
the city streets
started to clear.
The cafes are open.
They'’re probably waiting
for a victory
that will bring in
the customers.
And they'’re off.
Jim Boatwright
with the ball to Berkowitz.
Motti Aroesti
passes the ball to Silver.
Meneghin
is now open.
Two more points from Meneghin.
Everybody expected
Maccabi to get blown out.
It was amazing seeing
the Italian team, who was
better,
much better, not playing
their regular game.
The game against
Varese went, the first
half,
exactly according to the
tactical plan of Coach Ralph
Klein.
Let'’s get it from the heart,
man, let'’s go.
During the first half
of the game,
I was in Belgrade commentating
the game.
The head of news is saying
Prime Minister Rabin is going
to call his resignation, live,
and we will have to stop
the game.
It was sort of a shock.
The teams are neck-in-neck.
And in the middle of this
neck-in-neck competition,
the Prime Minister
of Israel resigns.
But the guys in Jerusalem
were saying, "Can'’t he wait?"
And I think it was
very easy to convince him
to wait until the end
of the game
for his live transmission
resignation,
rather than to stop the
transmission,
which would have upset many,
many, many, many people.
Two points
for Jim Boatwright.
Then in the second half, Maccabi started
to lose the ability to score
points.
And then Ralph brought in
Tal Brody
that just came back 24 hours
before.
And he came into the court
and with a great save of a ball,
brought it back into the game.
That'’s a sweet one.
In the moment of weakness,
when things started
to look bad, they still had...
Tal Brody.
Aroesti...
Behind the stage
of Israel'’s national theater.
In the moments between
their stage appearance,
the actors run to check
what'’s the latest
on the television.
It'’s a tied game, 61-61.
Ossola hurries up.
Aulcie Perry blocks him.
Ossola...
The Italians
steal the ball, off Yaffe.
And Bellini is precise.
Aulcie, Aulcie
dribbles towards the basket,
tries, tries to shoot.
Ossola passes
the ball to Meneghin.
Meneghin to Bisson,
and he misses.
Nice, Jimbo, yeah, yeah.
I'’ve very proud of what he did.
And I just think maybe God was
guiding his hand in his shot.
And then, 12 seconds to the end,
Maccabi Tel Aviv is leading by
one point.
Silver gets the ball,
and suddenly...
A gutsy call.
Listen, it was a tough call.
It'’s a tough call to make
at the end of the game,
whether I traveled or not,
possibly, I don'’t remember.
But, you know, I don'’t know.
I might have traveled.
I might not have traveled.
I'’ve watched the tape.
It'’s hard to tell.
I remember myself angrily
saying,
"David Turner called walk."
I don'’t know if they
had possession.
Maccabi Tel Aviv wins
the European Champion'’s Cup.
When tourists
heard that Rabin resigned,
they didn'’t understand
why everyone was celebrating
like that.
They were really mixed up.
They said, "How could
everybody be so happy
that the Prime Minister
resigned from office?"
It'’s a few minutes
before 11 a.m.,
and a new Prime Minister
of Israel, Menachem Begin,
arrives at the President'’s
residence.
1977 was
a very special year for me.
As a commentator, I commentated
the games of Maccabi Tel Aviv.
But then, I came back home,
and I was the executive
producer of the elections.
The Labor lost the helm
of this country to Begin
for the first time in its
history.
Then three months later,
in November...
Sadat is coming to Jerusalem.
The fact that
the President of Egypt
would get on an airplane,
lands on what was
then called Lod Airport
and declares that there
will be peace.
Nobody in their wildest
imagination believed
that this was going to happen.
It was euphoria.
I couldn'’t believe it.
You know, I mean,
it was a TV show on
at 1 o'’clock in the afternoon
of him landing,
coming down and hugging people.
All of a sudden, you know,
it was like he didn'’t need
an army down in Egypt.
As Tal Brody said,
1977 put us on the map.
It put us on the map,
diplomatically, with the
peace process.
It put us on the map in terms
of our relationship with
the United States.
I'’m so proud of both of you.
And along comes this
basketball game.
To live through that period
today, as I'’m telling you,
it gives me the chills.
I would describe it like the little caboose that could.
What happened, because
of that championship,
is that Maccabi actually became
one of the most important
club teams in the world.
And because I happen
to be Jewish,
it made me very happy and proud,
because it told me that the
sport itself
would be a big enough stage
for everyone.
From that day,
Maccabi Tel Aviv,
their victory against CSKA
was the end
of Israeli sport
"losing with honor."
In 1977, I was the MVP
of the NBA
on the world champion
Portland Trailblazers.
And when we heard that
Maccabi Tel Aviv
and Tal Brody won the European Cup Championship,
I was never more proud
in my entire life.
It is easily
one of the greatest sporting
accomplishments ever.
Chris Boatwright, widow of
Jim Boatwright.
I will tell you that
Jim wanted
to play professional basketball in the United States.
He wanted to go to the NBA,
and it didn'’t happen.
Something better happened.
We got to come to Israel.
And so,
that game was like winning
the NBA to him.
It was the first, like
the first girl you kissed,
and you'’ll never
have a first again,
because we were the first.
We'’re the sweethearts.
And no one can replace us.
It'’s a feeling, I
don'’t have the words to
describe it.
Anywhere in the country I go,
it'’s like I'm still
a player in Maccabi today.
I'’ll never forget 1977,
a year that our little
country stepped up
and earned its place
on the map.
Duration: 1:25:27
FPS: 23.976
I'’ll never forget 1977,
all that excitement,
all that pride.
And it'’s something
that I cherish,
something that I'’ll take
with me until my last breath.
And it was something so
unbelievable, so wishful,
a great, golden place
in sport'’s history.
May of 1948,
a new Jewish state, Israel,
was born in a bath of blood.
As Israel went before the
United Nations
to seek a place
in that world body,
and Middle Eastern Arabic
nations were in violent
opposition.
Newly equipped
with Red-manufactured weapons
the Egyptian army
spearheads the Arab nations,
almost solidly aligned
against Israel.
culminating in an attack
by Israel on Egypt.
Former
Vice President Nixon meets
with Israeli Defense Minister
Moshe Dayan in Tel Aviv,
during a fact-finding
tour of Israel.
The tension
in the Middle East develops
into full-scale war with heavy fighting between Israeli
and Egyptian forces
along the Sinai border.
Israeli Chief of Staff,
General Yitzhak Rabin visits
and inspects troops.
Near the Egyptian border.
When the UN
reject Russia'’s resolution
asking
for condemnation of
Israel as the aggressor
in the Arab-Israeli War.
I came to Israel for
the seventh Maccabiah Games.
Traveling around the country,
I felt that common history,
that common religion.
Maccabi Tel Aviv then
came to me,
and they said, "Look, a Jewish kid from Trenton, New Jersey,
you see that the country is
going through a recession.
People aren'’t smiling.
You know, if a player
like you would come,
you can take our team that never
got past the first round
in the European Championship
games to another level."
I went to college at Rider
College in Trenton, New Jersey,
and this guy was playing
at Trenton Central High School
by the name of Tal Brody,
drafted by the Baltimore
Bullets.
But decides to go over
to Israel to play for
one of the first
Maccabiah teams.
Israeli basketball,
in the 1960s,
that was not something
you'’d like jump up an down
and say, "Boy, I can'’t
wait to be a part of that."
Tal was a member of the US
national basketball team.
I joined that team as
a 17-year-old high school
player,
and he was the leader.
Because of my friendship with
Tal Brody,
I was able to make it through.
Tal turned down everything
from the very beginning
to be a part of something that
is bigger
than just his own life.
And then they got
called up, drafted into
the US Army.
It was the time of Vietnam.
And after I did
two years of service,
that'’s when Moshe Dayan
sent me a note to come back
to Israel and to finish
what I started.
It is a very unusual occurrence
for a player who is projected
as a very high draft pick
to forego an NBA career.
He really was responding
to a higher calling.
And it was amazing,
where all of a sudden,
Levi Eshkol, the Prime Minister
comes to our basketball game.
Moshe Dayan, the defense
minister,
is all the time coming
to our basketball games.
I saw how proud
everybody was every time
that we can win
a basketball game.
He fell in love, and he wanted to do everything
that was possible to promote
that country.
And it just developed
in such a way
that he suddenly had the
vehicle for that.
On the basketball court, in the
short pants and the jersey,
he could make a statement
on behalf of Israel.
We couldn'’t imagine
someone giving up on the NBA.
Someone who'’s coming here
for the Maccabiah says,
"Wow, I see something
so great I'’m staying."
And we looked at ourselves,
you know,
saying we do not look
that great to ourselves.
What is it that he sees in us
that we do not see
in ourselves?
Maccabi Tel Aviv,
they had all these players
that couldn'’t make it at the NBA
level,
and so they came because
of Tal to Tel Aviv.
I played basketball
my whole life,
and I wanted to go to Europe
and play basketball
for a year and possibly come
back and go to law school.
Everybody told me I should go
to Israel,
go see how the Jews lived,
because I'’m Jewish.
They said the weather'’s the
best, and the girls are
the prettiest.
I was an undergraduate
at Columbia in New York.
By my junior year,
I said this is not for me.
I get on a plane.
The idea was that I could
play basketball in Israel.
Up, up, up!
Each of the players
contributed something
different to the team.
Everybody understood
that they had a role.
And as the year progressed,
we fit into these roles
more and more.
Jim was a pure shooter.
So Jim, you know, you could
always count on putting
the ball in the basket.
One of the reasons why he came
to Israel is because he loved
history.
He had just finished
reading Leon Uris'’Exodus,
and when his agent said,
"Oh, I have a team in Israel
who has an opening.
Would you like to try out?"
"Yes."
All of the army still had
their Uzis.
And everywhere we went on the
street, we see the guns.
This is the BBC.
Today, at exactly 12:05 p.m.,
the forces of Egypt and Syria
mounted a major offensive
on the southern and eastern borders of Israel.
It was Yom Kippur
and everything was quiet.
And you could hear buses
in the background
and people on the beach,
someone said"Milchamah!"
Milchamah means war.
There was no basketball.
I had no salary.
The only reason
I survived it was
the local grocery store said,
"Pay us later."
It was a very difficult period
for Israel, probably the
greatest trauma suffered
by the Jewish people
since the Holocaust.
Two thousand six hundred
Israeli soldiers killed in
three weeks.
Everybody knew at least one
person who had died in that war.
Everyone was affected by it.
Egypt President
Anwar Sadat celebrates
his victory over the State
of Israel with his ally,
the Soviet leader, Leonid
Brezhnev.
It seemed at that point
that we could not go any lower
or any darker,
and then suddenly... this.
Nobody remembers
it anymore,
but there were no air
conditioners.
The entire country was
not air conditioned.
We were sweating like crazy,
an entire nation.
It was tough living.
It'’s a country that is still on
a healing process from the Yom
Kippur War.
The economy'’s not doing
that great.
We were more innocent,
and this all came out
from this sensation that we
are doing something right
in a country that is
righteous and going somewhere.
At the same time
that the country went
through its troubles,
there is this basketball team, Maccabi Tel Aviv,
A team is looking for
its identity for 10 years
is just very close
but never touching glory.
And there are these American
players, one of them,
the first one and the most
important, Tal Brody.
That changed the team,
and from that day,
maybe the summit of European
basketball became closer and
closer.
That year, I was
planning to retire,
and I didn'’t want to
retire without that cup.
And I stayed on.
Even though we had the
toughest teams in Europe
to play against,
I felt that we can do it.
The teams consisted
of five American players
who didn'’t make the NBA,
most of them Jewish,
and three Israeli Sabras.
Compared to the other club, we
didn'’t have big names that time,
really big name, no big players,
not somebody from the NBA,
but we came to one unit to fight together for each other,
to fight for the team,
to fight for the country.
We felt that
we had a strong team,
but we were missing
something, and we needed
a big guy in the center.
I had opportunity to
play professionally in '’74,
and I really thought my
career was beginning then.
I was the last one
that was cut in the Knicks.
I went all the way to the end.
The Knicks decided
that they needed a player
with more experience than I had.
So it was September, and I still didn'’t have a job.
I was playing in Madison
Square Garden.
The coach was at the game,
looking for a player.
And he asked me, "Would you like
to play in Israel?"
So at that time,
September with no job,
any job I would'’ve said yes to.
My first thought that I was
going to be doing a lot of
praying,
you know, all the stories
from the Bible and everything.
I knew very little then
about the Jewish religion.
What I remember about
Aulcie was he tall and thin,
but he was very graceful in
his movements.
I was very thin. I was
a good player, but I was very
thin,
and Maccabi wanted a real
center, somebody that was big.
And in the last minute,
they brought in somebody,
the day before I thought
I was flying to Israel.
It took all the wind out of me.
Both of them were good players,
different a little bit in style.
But what it came down to
was the story about the cake.
Remember they had some
cake and coffee out for us.
The players were sitting around the table, all of them,
and there were some
cakes on the table.
Aulcie Perry took just one.
The other guy wanted to eat this and this and that.
And I didn'’t know
at the same moment
that he took those four cakes,
Ralph whispered to Shamluk,
"If he wants all the cakes,
he'’s gonna want
to shoot all the balls."
The management came
to some players and said,
"What is your opinion about
the player that we can choose?"
All of us said, "Aulcie Perry."
You can say that those
cakes changed the life
of Aulcie Perry.
The cakes changed my whole life.
Professionally, it changed my
whole life,
gave me, really, a dream.
And when I got there,
I was really surprised,
because we had three great
playmakers,
which was Motti Aroesti,
Bob Griffin and Tal Brody.
And then I look, and Miki
was also a great player.
Jim Boatwright had the hand
of gold. He just couldn'’t
miss.
And Lou Silver was
one of the smartest players
that I ever been
on the court with.
So inside of me, I realized that
we had a chance to do something.
Maccabi Tel Aviv playing for
the European Cup Championship,
are you kidding me?
I mean, this was always
dominated by Spain, by Italy,
by Moscow and CSKA,
all these incredibly powerful
and tradition-laden teams.
And all of a sudden, Maccabi
Tel Aviv, who are these guys?
The first game was against Varese, the Cup holders.
They had won 10 finals
in a row.
Our games were
a social event.
Everybody wanted to
be at our game.
It'’s like Los Angeles,
where you see Jack Nicholson
and movie stars at the games.
Our games were the
event to be at.
And as usual,
the special guest of honor
was Moshe Dayan,
the Defense Minister.
Moshe Dayan was
the most recognizable face
in the world at the time,
except for Muhammad Ali.
He was at every one of our
games and shaking our hand.
To Jim, to be able to touch and
shake a hand with Moshe Dayan,
it was almost more important
than the game.
Why?
Why, because Moshe Dayan
was Moshe Dayan.
Moshe Dayan was someone
that almost every citizen
of the planet could
put his hand on the eye
and say, "We know who you are."
He was Israel.
Moshe Dayan coming to
shake the other team'’s hand
is intimidation.
And with us,
he'’s saying, "Let's go.
"Let'’s go, let's get '’em."
It puts it in perspective.
I mean,
it'’s not just basketball.
Maccabi Tel Aviv
at that period of time
were strictly
a jump-shooting team.
The Italians came in
and they'’re playing Maccabi
in a sold out stadium of
10,000 fanatical Maccabi fans,
which is like it should be.
- They almost never
made a mistake.
They didn'’t run. They worked
for high-percentage shots,
and they made them.
They had been European
champions five of seven
of the previous years.
And we were just
coming together.
When Mobilgirgi came to
Israel to play against us,
the first game in the
European league, they
beat us badly,
I think more than 20,
25, 30 points.
It was embarrassing for us.
It was what we call
being schooled in basketball.
It was really a great
exhibition of basketball.
They were a far, far superior
team than Maccabi at that time.
A great shock for the Maccabi
players but also a reminder.
-You guys are not
good enough yet.
The only game in
nine years that I lost at
home.
And we lost by 20-something
points.
You have to win at home.
It was like an initiation
into what the European league
was really all about.
I said, "Whoa, this is
what I got to deal with?"
After we lost
that game against Varese,
the practices started to be
very tough,
and I think we started to take the anger out on each other.
Every practice that
we had was a war,
tussling and then hitting,
and everybody wanted to win.
Jim came home and said he
and Miki had gotten in a fight.
Each one of the players
wanted to be a starter,
to play the five starters.
I don'’t like to lose
anywhere, anytime, any place.
Both wanted
to be the best.
Miki jumps on Jim'’s back, and Jim shrugs him off.
And then they'’re running
up and down the floor,
jabbering and jabbering,
and Miki'’s, I think,
threatening Jim, again.
And Jim just turns around and
hit him with such a perfect
punch.
Miki was out for
about 10 seconds.
But then he got up.
And he got up like a lion.
And then he had to be
restrained.
Then I heard people talking
outside.
"Oh, whoa, whoa, Jim and Miki."
They got it
out of their system.
And that was the most
important thing,
that they put it on the table
and said listen,
you'’re an idiot,
because of this one, two, three.
You'’re a moron,
because four, five, six.
I'’m an asshole, because
of seven, eight, nine.
You do whatever you want,
deal with it.
We came to
the locker room.
We and the players talked to
each other and said that,
"Hey, guys, we'’re in a point
that if you would like
to survive
and to change our attitude,
we have to change our system."
Real Madrid
brought European basketball
to a level of continent
acknowledgment.
It was the first club in Europe
that brought American
players to play for them,
and they started to
win and win and win.
Real Madrid
would beat us every year,
because they ran faster
than we did.
It took us a while to adjust
to the way Real Madrid played
and the Italian teams played.
They were better teams
than we were.
Jim Boatwright!
Miki Berkowitz!
And this was
an amazing game.
People could not believe
what they were seeing.
Our team played great.
We played together.
We were fast and furious.
And the Spanish team really
didn'’t know
where we came from with
this type of energy.
Maccabi comes out
and kicks their ass
right in front of 10,000 people,
and their whole season
turned around.
For us to win at
home against Real Madrid
also was a dream.
I didn'’t know the importance of it like Tal,
because he had a lot of
experience with Real.
But just the emotion and the
excitement after the game,
I realized that it was
a huge accomplishment
for us to beat
Real Madrid at home.
Why is it such a big thing?
Because finally...
Jewish teams are kicking ass.
Hop, hop!
Even though we had
the toughest teams in Europe
to play against,
I felt that we could do it.
Tal was the leader of the team, experienced player,
and he decided that we should
give way
to the younger generation
and that a player
like Miki Berkovich will be the
leader of the team without the
influence of Tal.
Everybody told me that
Tal is retiring from
basketball.
And I knew we'’re gonna have
the last one year with Tal.
I was a kid that time.
I had the chutzpah.
I had the confidence that I can
be the leader of the team
for the next 10 or 15 years.
My mom wanted I'’d be an
engineer, to be a doctor.
One of the best
coaches in Israel,
Yehoshua Rozin,
saw that I didn'’t come
to practice for a week.
He said, "Why'’s Miki
not coming to practice?"
They told him that his mother
doesn'’t release him, because he
had bad grades.
They came to my home. I remember
now, he came to my home.
"Why you'’re not letting
Miki go to practice?"
She said I was going to be
an engineer or a doctor.
He told her, "I don'’t think
he'’s gonna be a doctor,
but he'’s gonna be
a professor in basketball."
I was the head of
sports of Israeli
television on the day
that they all came up and said
Maccabi plays with CSKA.
I went and recorded a blessing
saying ,
"Welcome, Moscow,
we are coming."
But no, we are not
going anywhere.
The Soviets say no.
Moscow, CSKA, they would not come to Israel.
There was a real question
whether the game
could even be played.
The Russians said,
"We are not going to play
Maccabi Tel Aviv,
neither in Tel Aviv
nor in Moscow."
We had
no relations with them.
They would not play in
the state of Israel.
We didn'’t exist as far
as they were concerned.
But then FIBA started to say,
"This is not good enough.
We think that the Soviets
in the basketball field
should play Israel."
There was a meeting in Munich.
Shimon Mizrahi, president, was there representing Maccabi.
He says, "We are ready
to go tomorrow to Moscow."
It was Friday night
in Munich.
The Russian delegate said, "We
are not ready to come to Israel.
We are not going to accept
an Israeli team,
Maccabi Tel Aviv in Moscow."
And I said, "You can'’t
involve politics with sport.
You must come,
and you must play in Moscow."
So they came to a compromise.
They agreed to one game.
So technically, they lost one
game, the one in Moscow.
And the game that was supposed
to be in Tel Aviv
will be played in a little,
dark corner,
in a little, little town
named Virton.
The fact that Israel was
playing against the Red Army
was in itself a victory,
irrespective of the outcome of
the game.
This was the Red Army that was
oppressing three million Jews.
The regime that was sending
young people like Natan
Sharansky to labor camp,
because they wanted
to be Jewish,
because they wanted
to be free Jews
in their own country.
I was an activist of Soviet
Jewish movement in Moscow.
And you have to understand the
political importance of this
moment.
For Soviet Union,
Israel was an enemy,
maybe the enemy.
There was very hostile attitude towards the State of Israel.
For Soviet Union,
every expression of solidarity
with Israel by Soviet citizens was almost betrayal.
Israelis demand
that the USSR permit Soviet
Jews to immigrate to Israel.
The activists call on
all civilized nations
to take up arms
against the spiritual
suppression of Soviet Jews.
About 200 families
have been torn apart.
Hundreds of parents go from demonstration to demonstration,
from embassy to embassy,
demanding the natural right
to live with their children.
All the leaders of KGB and leaders of the Soviet army,
all our enemies, if you can say,
their team was CSKA.
Officially, it was
the team of the Red Army.
I played against those guys.
They were dirty players.
They represented evil,
and I didn'’t like that.
They knew how to play
with force and with power
and a sense of
physical strength
that was emblematic
of their culture.
If they didn'’t like you,
they just took you down,
mowed you down.
What the Russian determination
not to play against Israel
in '’77
demonstrates, there are some
things that are more important
than sport.
Even the fact that the game was
played in a neutral site was,
to me, a huge victory
for Israel at the first
instance,
because they weren'’t
letting Russia off the hook.
We hadn'’t seen the
Russians play.
No, we hadn'’t seen them,
but what we did know is
they beat Real Madrid
in Madrid by 20 points the
week before.
So we knew they were
a good team.
This is an opportunity
to play against this team
and demonstrate something.
They knew they had
the best team in Europe
with seven of their players
that beat the American team
in the 1972 Olympics.
Well, Munich was tragedy.
It was a horrible thing.
Hundreds
of TV cameras in place
to cover the Olympic games,
now trained on this window.
Inside, two Israeli athletes
are dead.
Another nine Israelis
held hostage by a group
of Palestinian gunmen calling
themselves Black September.
I was with my wife at the time.
And I turn on the TV,
and I'’m seeing the guy
who was my teacher,
Amitzur Shapiro, dead.
It was demoralizing that a
beautiful thing like the
Olympics turns into a massacre
and a political thing.
I'’m sure the public will
agree the Games must go on.
To see what went
down there,
the violation of the code of
ethics in sport and in life.
Everybody tried so hard
to make it right,
but you never really can.
If you say Munich
to the average American,
they say "that terror attack."
The average American
doesn'’t remember
that the Russian basketball
team stole the medal
from the US team.
It was ridiculous.
The game was over.
They added seconds on.
It was as though they were
predetermined that the Soviet
Union was going to win it.
When I go back and look at
Munich, me, when we won it
in regulation,
I would'’ve walked
off the court and say,
"We'’re not coming back.
Do whatever you want
with the gold medal."
Three seconds.
There is time for the
Russians to go to their
big man Alexander Belov.
They'’re going to try.
Let the world decide,
on television,
who won this game.
And this time
it is over.
This was one
of the biggest crimes
in sports history,
definitely the biggest
crime in basketball history,
a basketball sporting
injustice.
It would hurt me,
the way that they treated the Americans in the Olympics,
and I knew that I'’m
gonna face seven or eight
of these players this night.
Just by the fact
that you'’re from Israel
playing in Europe,
this is already a political
situation.
When you play the Russians,
it'’s doubled, it's tripled.
And we were targets.
That was a big education
for me.
All of a sudden, I'’m a target,
because I'’m a basketball player for an Israeli team.
I developed a Jewish identity
very fast.
This was the peak
of the Cold War between the
United States and the Soviets.
Don'’t forget, this was very, very heavy time.
Any team playing the Soviet
Union,
if it wasn'’t an
Eastern European team,
was playing against
the enemy of the Western world.
And for Maccabi, I would say,
it just added motivation
to slay the giant.
For some reason,
I hired a TV crew
to follow us, Maccabi Tel Aviv,
to Virton.
Virton is an armpit in Belgium.
I don'’t know why there was
an inner voice that told me
to tell the story of the great
defeat or a great victory.
♪ Happy birthday to you♪
♪ Happy birthday to you♪
♪ Happy birthday dear Miki♪
♪ Happy birthday to you♪
This is my birthday, 17th
February.
They brought me cake.
The management, Shamluk
and the coach Ralph Klein said
it'’s a big day for us.
We'’re playing first time
against CSKA Moskova.
Thank you very much for
everyone who had their share
in this cake and everything.
And well, I got a small wish,
too, like Shamluk told us.
I would like that
everybody would play for me
and for the team and for the
country too.
And let'’s win this game
and it will be a history
for us and for everybody.
Thank you very much.
You can see,
in the video that I shot,
how nervous he is by rolling
his finger all the time
around the button of his shirt,
while just thanking his
friends, his comrades,
from Maccabi Tel Aviv team,
for providing him
with a birthday cake.
Not a big deal on a day-to-day,
but that was not a normal day.
That was a day that they
marched into the court
fearing what they have to do
not to be embarrassed.
I want to tell you something,
that nobody talks about.
I was very, very friendly
with the players in CSKA.
Always we met secretly
in the hotel,
and with the players,
I had a meeting in the rooms,
talking about our lives, how
their life is harder in Russia.
We exchanged with
them a lot of things,
like chewing gum.
They didn'’t have
chewing gum in Russia.
Security agents
that came from Russia,
they were watching them,
and they were very scared
that somebody would hear or
see that they are meeting us.
The head coach of CSKA Moscow,
Alexander Gomelsky, a Jew,
and it so happen that one
morning, I get out of my room,
to go down for breakfast.
From the other side of the corridor was Mr. Gomelsky.
He came out of his room also
going for his breakfast.
I presented myself.
I said I'’m Mike Karnon
from Tel Aviv, a journalist.
He asked me "How come
that you Israelis, from Asia,
play in the European Cup
and all your team is
American players?"
Our coach Ralph Klein
was a holocaust survivor.
He really didn'’t talk
about this to the team,
but we knew that this game
was extremely important
for him and we wanted
to play also for him.
There'’s some coaches,
they treat the players
as though they'’re chess pieces.
Basketball doesn'’t
work like that,
because it'’s too fast.
You have to make decisions.
You prepare them, but you
have to be able to trust
your players.
Ralph was a player'’s coach.
Now it helped that he gave very good motivational speeches.
After the speech,
all of us, we were so excited
and so ready to play,
if he would'’ve said,
"Run through the wall."
I think all of us
would'’ve jumped up
and ran through the wall.
I walked in. I'’m saying,
"What is going on here?"
There'’s 400 seats.
400 Israelis, all the gym,
I mean, Israelis or Jews
from Europe.
They filled up. All 400 were
connected to Israel.
I said, "This is more
than just a game.
This is much more than a game."
Maccabi! Maccabi!
For the Russian
team, it was like they
got shell-shocked.
They didn'’t know
where they were,
whether they were in
Israel or where.
Well, you know, the difference
in the teams probably was about
20 points.
CSKA Moscow was probably 20
points better than Maccabi Tel
Aviv at that time.
It was their national team.
And Maccabi had a bunch
of Americans
and a couple of Israelis,
and they were like,
it was like, you know,
Goliath against David.
The first
game in history
between Moscow and Maccabi
Tel Aviv.
I started the game out with two
or three blocked shots from
their players.
Griffin... Perry.
I don'’t like
to talk about myself,
but I think it changed
the whole complex of the game,
because they didn'’t look for
the inside position no more.
Griffin passes to
Lou Silver.
There is such a thing as
basketball intelligence.
The IQ of this team
in basketball intelligence
was off the charts.
Eric, Lou,
Aulcie they were passers.
The ball would go
into the middle,
Aulcie or someone will
take the ball
and pass it under to someone
open underneath the basket.
When the game started,
I suddenly realized that
that was not just
an ordinary game.
Aulcie Perry.
And they played a great
game right from the start.
And the Russians, experienced
players as they were,
they didn'’t believe what was
going on.
And the buzzer
for the halftime finds
Maccabi Tel Aviv leading by
three points over Moscow.
And I'’m looking
at Alexander Gomelsky.
He didn'’t know exactly
what'’s happening.
It took them some time
to get back into the match.
I thought that well, I don'’t
know how long Maccabi can
hold in this position.
From the beginning,
we had the lead.
Easily basket, fast breaks,
shooting from corners.
Everything was going
fine for us,
and Russia was like in a coma.
I don'’t know, It's not the team
that we expected that we should
play against them.
Suddenly the monster that played
against us was a midget.
A long pass to Brody.
Brody has fallen.
The songs and
the cheering were incredible.
You thought that you were
sitting in Madison Square
Garden
with 20,000 people, and not
500 Israelis.
I was sitting next
to Gideon Hod, who was
broadcasting that on the radio.
We couldn'’t believe
what was going on.
And Gideon asked me,
"Mike, are you crying?"
I said, "Yes, I am!"
And both of us were in tears.
And I'’m going
to the camera
to get some reactions
from the players.
I came to Tal Brody.
It just came out of my
heart when Alex Gilady,
by chance, caught me as I
was going off the floor.
He said something
that was in our hearts,
but we didn'’t know how
to use words for it.
And here comes this barely
Hebrew-speaking American
and gives you the slogan
that you can use
for generations to come.
We are on the map, not just in
sport but in everything.
And if they can do that,
they can do anything.
But I understood him
in saying that we'’re on
the map in basketball.
I didn'’t realize
what he was saying.
And I must say,
it was a prophetic statement
that he made.
He reminded us all
that not so long ago,
less than 30 years before that,
there was no Israel on the map.
So the fact that we are
on the map is significant.
There are sentences
that take you from one stage
to another.
And you have to remember
we are still at the time
where Jews all around
the world feel
that there will be
no third chance.
You cannot take an atlas
or a map anymore
without Israel being on it.
And he said it out loud
for everybody else.
To me, Israel was
always on the map,
but there was no reason to
expect, or even to hope,
Maccabi could beat
Red Army Moscow.
Everybody in America remembers
the great victory of
the American ice hockey team
over the Soviet team,
the Miracle on Ice.
Do you believe
in miracles? Yes!
But everybody in Israel
remembers the Miracle on
Hardwood.
You couldn'’t compare tiny,
tiny Israel
to the vast Soviet Empire.
When in the evening we
heard on Voice of America
that Israeli team won,
we were more than happy to say
to our KGB interrogators,
"Well, maybe you don'’t know,
maybe you didn'’t hear,
but your team,
your team, KGB team,
lost to our young team."
It was a very happy moment
that we could say to KGB.
A few weeks after this,
I was arrested,
and for nine years I disappeared from this world.
And the voice,
"We are on the map",
was always causing me a smile,
even in the darkness
of Soviet prison
and was giving me a feeling
that we are on the map.
We will win.
Once we landed
at Ben Gurion,
I just couldn'’t believe
I'’m looking out
over a wave of people.
The excitement was just
too much, too much.
I wanted more, I wanted more.
As a team, they brought honor to this country.
It makes me have goosebumps.
I feel like I helped do that
because I fed Jim.
I washed his clothes.
I feel like I'’m part of that.
Thursday nights,
the streets were empty.
You couldn'’t get a taxi.
There was one station
and the whole country sat down
to watch Maccabi Tel Aviv
on Thursday.
Basketball was the number one topic in Israel.
No weddings, no Bar Mitzvahs,
not everybody had a TV,
so everybody would
go to somebody'’s house.
Why would you go to
the movies when
the best show in town is on TV,
Maccabi Tel Aviv
against whoever it is
in the European championship?
Nothing moved,
nothing moved.
Whole families sat together.
It was like a reunion,
a family reunion.
All the family, all the friends,
sat together to watch Maccabi.
It wasn'’t that long
after the Yom Kippur War.
The country was starving
for something
that lifted the country.
And every day that I
went out on the streets,
it was like there'’s so
much warmth and love
that it gave me more power.
It gave me more initiative
for us to be the best.
It was just amazing.
Open it.
Wow, it'’s a picture of
Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Here'’s Tal Brody.
He'’s the captain.
Am I right?
Yes, you'’re right.
Say, mister, you'’re tall.
Are you a basketball player?
Yes, I am.
Hey, are you Tal Brody?
Yes, I'’m Tal Brody.
Rafi, he'’s Tal Brody.
Tal Brody is here.
Bend your knees,
and push the ball
away from you to the basket.
Going to the Kirya
and meeting Rabin was very
special.
Yitzhak Rabin,
if people don'’t know,
was a basketball freak.
I sat at a wedding one day,
and he came over,
when he was head
of our country,
and he sat down for an
hour-and-a-half.
He knew everything
about basketball.
It was amazing.
I mean, I looked at the guy.
I said, "You know,
you got armies to worry about,
and you'’re talking to me
about the Knicks losing.
I mean, what'’s your story?"
The story was something that
Israelis wouldn'’t think twice
about today,
and that is having a dollar
account in the United States.
But back then, it was illegal, and it was discovered
that Yitzhak Rabin'’s wife,
Leah, had such an account.
It was felt as a kind
of breach of trust,
because it was a sign
of privilege.
Every other week,
I was in another country.
Here it is, this kid
from the inner city
of Newark, New Jersey,
who grew up very tough.
Now I'’m seeing the world.
I'’m in London.
I'’m in Rome. I'm in Milan,
you know.
I'’m in Paris.
This also was something that
captured me.
I'’d been talking to rabbis and
studying, not really study, but
talking,
trying to get an understanding of the Jewish religion.
I went to Shimon, and I said,
"Shimon, look, you know,
I want to convert."
He said, "Aulcie, you know what you'’re doing? You sure you know what you'’re doing?"
I said, "Yeah, Shimon, I want
to go through the process."
I studied five days a week.
Then it came time for, you know, I had to sit in front
of the three big rabbis
and the questioning and
everything.
And at the end,
they accepted it.
I was already circumcised,
but they had to make
another incision,
and I'’ll never forget that.
They laid me on a bench
and said their prayer,
pshht, did a little incision,
not the whole thing
but just to draw blood,
and that was it.
Our club, it was not a rich
club. And the team couldn'’t
put us in hotels.
They didn'’t have money
to put us in hotels,
so we came to the Jewish temple.
And each player
went to another family
to sleep overnight there.
And they gave us a nice,
warm hospitality.
And it was the beginning.
After that, now they have
the five-star hotels.
We had a historic chance now to go to the finals,
but we were dependent on
who would be the winner
between Russia and the
Italian team.
If the Italian team would win, then we would be out,
and they would play against
Real Madrid.
Now if the Italian team
would lose,
that means they would play
against us.
Mobilgirgi needed to lose,
so they played against Maccabi,
instead of Real Madrid.
CSKA beat Varese,
which left Maccabi Tel Aviv
as the team to make
the final against Varese.
My first thought was "damn,
we'’ve got to see Varese again."
And I lost to them twice.
But this is for the
championship.
Varese is Italian,
very strong team.
They have Meneghin, Bob Morse.
They have players that I was
scared to play against.
I was young.
They were 30,
a lot of experience.
They took the European
Championship with the
national team,
or as they beat us in Tel Aviv by almost 30 points.
One interesting thing that
Coach Klein did was that
in one of the practice he
canceled
and showed us a movie on
Entebbe.
The idea was
they will kidnap a plane.
They will have demands.
We will have no other
choice but to surrender.
And Entebbe was telling
everybody this time is over.
Nobody'’s gonna tell
us ever again
that we have no choice
but to surrender.
We have had, historically,
we had enough of that.
In 36 minutes,
Israelis killed seven
hijackers
and 20 Ugandan soldiers.
The results of Israel'’s
weekend raid to rescue more
than 100 hostages from
pro-Palestinian hijackers
at Entebbe airport in Uganda.
The rescue operation has
been hailed as audacious
and as a blow to terrorists
around the world.
The news of
the rescue spread fast
with excited and
near hysterical relatives
and friends
of the Israeli hostages,
gathering at the airport
to await their triumphant
return.
It sent a clear message for all of us.
The State of Israel will
send airplanes
to the end of the world
to bring Jews free.
After I was arrested,
and for all those years,
each time when I heard
the engine
of the airplane in the skies
of Siberia,
it was reminding me
immediately: Entebbe.
And I would think that they
will come,
and the Israeli airplane
will come.
The fact that such
an inspirational movie
before such an important
game coming up,
I think all of us
knew that the whole country
was behind us.
This was one very inspiring
moment,
in which Israel'’s ability
to take your destiny
in your own hands, make your own rules, the way you want to.
This was the new Jew.
This was the new Jewish destiny.
Everybody wanted to travel
to Belgrade,
where the final was
taking place.
Here was another problem,
because Yugoslavia, like Russia,
didn'’t have diplomatic
relations with Israel,
El Al flights cold not land
in Belgrade.
The Yugoslav government
gave special permission,
which allowed many Israelis
who wanted to make the final
to get to Belgrade.
In Belgrade,
about six planes landed
on the same day of the game.
Maccabi went to Belgrade about two days
before the final but without
Tal Brody.
Tal Brody asked to
go to the States
on the days before we went
to Belgrade, to the final.
And I didn'’t hesitate
for a second.
I remember that I was
at the swimming pool.
The American embassy
got a message to us
that my father
had a heart attack.
He'’s in intensive care.
You know, here I am, before
the European Championship.
This is what I came to
Israel for,
to take the basketball from
a team that never went past
the first round of the
European Championship,
and here we have the chance to
take the European Championship.
Even though that this is a
10-year dream,
a father'’s a father.
This is the biggest
moment in his life.
This is what he has spent
everything, all the sacrifice,
all the practice,
all the dreams,
all the pain, all the suffering,
and he'’s carrying the burden,
not only his individual burdens,
but he'’s carrying the burdens of
his whole country,
except his dad is dying.
And he goes home to New Jersey,
and this is just days
before the championship game.
He didn'’t fly with us,
and we didn'’t know
if he could join the team
or not.
The management told us that
we can play without Tal
Brody, wow.
We started to think
about what each one has
to do individually to
make up for that.
We'’re losing our captain.
When I got to the hospital, I
saw my father was in intensive
care.
And I waited a day and
another day, and he was
fine.
He opened up his eyes, and he
saw me.
He was saying to me, "Hey, what are you doing here?"
His dad turns to Tal and says,
"Tal, you got to go back.
They need you.
We need you.
I can'’t do anything else, Tal."
And Tal left his dad there.
And he went back.
And Maccabi, they said that
there'’ll be a ticket waiting
for me at JFK Airport
in New York.
I go to the counter of
JAT Yugoslavian Airlines,
give my name and my passport,
and they said, "Well, you'’re
not listed here on the plane.
"There'’s no ticket for you."
And I said,
"What do you mean no ticket?
I have to get to Belgrade
for the finals
of the European Championship."
I asked for the station
manager, and the station
manager,
he saw me play during
the World Championships
in Yugoslavia,
and he remembered me.
Tal and I had been
there in Belgrade in 1970
for the World Championships,
playing together.
And this guy knew Tal
from watching him play seven
years before,
and said, "Come on, Tal,
just come on the plane."
And he let me fly on
JAT without a ticket.
Can you imagine?
Like, I'’m thinking today,
in New York at JFK,
to get through
the security to go on a plane
without a ticket? Impossible.
He came a day before the game.
He didn'’t practice,
only did a warmup with us.
And he gave me confidence
that he'’s with us, together,
and we could do it.
I remember that Ralph Klein
told us Varese is a small city
in Italy.
There is only one main road
with a shop selling shoes.
If they will win,
the next day people will wrap
fish with the newspaper,
but if you win,
you will win glory for life.
Around 9 o'’clock
the city streets
started to clear.
The cafes are open.
They'’re probably waiting
for a victory
that will bring in
the customers.
And they'’re off.
Jim Boatwright
with the ball to Berkowitz.
Motti Aroesti
passes the ball to Silver.
Meneghin
is now open.
Two more points from Meneghin.
Everybody expected
Maccabi to get blown out.
It was amazing seeing
the Italian team, who was
better,
much better, not playing
their regular game.
The game against
Varese went, the first
half,
exactly according to the
tactical plan of Coach Ralph
Klein.
Let'’s get it from the heart,
man, let'’s go.
During the first half
of the game,
I was in Belgrade commentating
the game.
The head of news is saying
Prime Minister Rabin is going
to call his resignation, live,
and we will have to stop
the game.
It was sort of a shock.
The teams are neck-in-neck.
And in the middle of this
neck-in-neck competition,
the Prime Minister
of Israel resigns.
But the guys in Jerusalem
were saying, "Can'’t he wait?"
And I think it was
very easy to convince him
to wait until the end
of the game
for his live transmission
resignation,
rather than to stop the
transmission,
which would have upset many,
many, many, many people.
Two points
for Jim Boatwright.
Then in the second half, Maccabi started
to lose the ability to score
points.
And then Ralph brought in
Tal Brody
that just came back 24 hours
before.
And he came into the court
and with a great save of a ball,
brought it back into the game.
That'’s a sweet one.
In the moment of weakness,
when things started
to look bad, they still had...
Tal Brody.
Aroesti...
Behind the stage
of Israel'’s national theater.
In the moments between
their stage appearance,
the actors run to check
what'’s the latest
on the television.
It'’s a tied game, 61-61.
Ossola hurries up.
Aulcie Perry blocks him.
Ossola...
The Italians
steal the ball, off Yaffe.
And Bellini is precise.
Aulcie, Aulcie
dribbles towards the basket,
tries, tries to shoot.
Ossola passes
the ball to Meneghin.
Meneghin to Bisson,
and he misses.
Nice, Jimbo, yeah, yeah.
I'’ve very proud of what he did.
And I just think maybe God was
guiding his hand in his shot.
And then, 12 seconds to the end,
Maccabi Tel Aviv is leading by
one point.
Silver gets the ball,
and suddenly...
A gutsy call.
Listen, it was a tough call.
It'’s a tough call to make
at the end of the game,
whether I traveled or not,
possibly, I don'’t remember.
But, you know, I don'’t know.
I might have traveled.
I might not have traveled.
I'’ve watched the tape.
It'’s hard to tell.
I remember myself angrily
saying,
"David Turner called walk."
I don'’t know if they
had possession.
Maccabi Tel Aviv wins
the European Champion'’s Cup.
When tourists
heard that Rabin resigned,
they didn'’t understand
why everyone was celebrating
like that.
They were really mixed up.
They said, "How could
everybody be so happy
that the Prime Minister
resigned from office?"
It'’s a few minutes
before 11 a.m.,
and a new Prime Minister
of Israel, Menachem Begin,
arrives at the President'’s
residence.
1977 was
a very special year for me.
As a commentator, I commentated
the games of Maccabi Tel Aviv.
But then, I came back home,
and I was the executive
producer of the elections.
The Labor lost the helm
of this country to Begin
for the first time in its
history.
Then three months later,
in November...
Sadat is coming to Jerusalem.
The fact that
the President of Egypt
would get on an airplane,
lands on what was
then called Lod Airport
and declares that there
will be peace.
Nobody in their wildest
imagination believed
that this was going to happen.
It was euphoria.
I couldn'’t believe it.
You know, I mean,
it was a TV show on
at 1 o'’clock in the afternoon
of him landing,
coming down and hugging people.
All of a sudden, you know,
it was like he didn'’t need
an army down in Egypt.
As Tal Brody said,
1977 put us on the map.
It put us on the map,
diplomatically, with the
peace process.
It put us on the map in terms
of our relationship with
the United States.
I'’m so proud of both of you.
And along comes this
basketball game.
To live through that period
today, as I'’m telling you,
it gives me the chills.
I would describe it like the little caboose that could.
What happened, because
of that championship,
is that Maccabi actually became
one of the most important
club teams in the world.
And because I happen
to be Jewish,
it made me very happy and proud,
because it told me that the
sport itself
would be a big enough stage
for everyone.
From that day,
Maccabi Tel Aviv,
their victory against CSKA
was the end
of Israeli sport
"losing with honor."
In 1977, I was the MVP
of the NBA
on the world champion
Portland Trailblazers.
And when we heard that
Maccabi Tel Aviv
and Tal Brody won the European Cup Championship,
I was never more proud
in my entire life.
It is easily
one of the greatest sporting
accomplishments ever.
Chris Boatwright, widow of
Jim Boatwright.
I will tell you that
Jim wanted
to play professional basketball in the United States.
He wanted to go to the NBA,
and it didn'’t happen.
Something better happened.
We got to come to Israel.
And so,
that game was like winning
the NBA to him.
It was the first, like
the first girl you kissed,
and you'’ll never
have a first again,
because we were the first.
We'’re the sweethearts.
And no one can replace us.
It'’s a feeling, I
don'’t have the words to
describe it.
Anywhere in the country I go,
it'’s like I'm still
a player in Maccabi today.
I'’ll never forget 1977,
a year that our little
country stepped up
and earned its place
on the map.