Jews pack Garden, Knicks hammer Maccabi

By Seth Mandel

The New York Knicks are no strangers to raucous crowds rooting for their opponent, but rarely do those crowds fill out the Knicks' own home arena.

But that was the scene Oct. 11 at Madison Square Garden for the Knicks' preseason opener against Israel's top pro team, Maccabi Tel Aviv Elite.

"I just thought it was a great crowd tonight," Knicks coach Isiah Thomas said after the game of the 19,000 in attendance, mostly Israeli fans and Orthodox Jews. "I thought everybody was enjoying themselves, and it was good to see a lot of young kids in the building. It was a good night."

The game, which the Knicks won 112-85, was organized by Migdal Ohr, an Israeli non-profit that helps underprivileged children. A look around the crowd revealed Hebrew signs, traditional yellow and blue Maccabi garb, and even a giant flag with the word "Moshiach" in Hebrew. Dudu Fisher sang the Israeli national anthem, and fans formed ma'ariv minyans in the hallways during halftime.

Thomas said the Knicks organization has been looking to set up a game with Maccabi for a while, and that the packed house showed just how successful the NBA and the sport of basketball have been at globalizing interest in the game.

"Just like there's kids growing up on the west side of Chicago playing basketball everyday, there are kids in Croatia going out and playing basketball everyday, and there are kids in Tel Aviv everyday going out and playing basketball," Thomas said. "So our sport has found a way to bring people together socially, economically, religiously; it's been a beautiful thing the way basketball has brought people together on a global scale."

Robert Katz, executive vice president of Migdal Ohr, said the organization raised more than $1 million through ticket sales and sponsorships from the game.

"We were absolutely thrilled," Katz said. "It was just a win-win for everybody involved. No one came away from this with anything less than a very positive experience -- certainly the Knicks, certainly Madison Square Garden, certainly Migdal Ohr, certainly Maccabi."

At the postgame press conference, Thomas was asked if he was surprised by the fans' reaction at the start of the game, especially when Maccabi jumped out to an early lead.

"No, we pretty much expected it," he said. "The type of love and support that the Maccabi team has, particularly here in New York, and the way the Elite team has played over in Europe, they're an excellent basketball team, and they have a great following. I'm glad we were able to put this game together, we've been trying to do it for a couple of years, and I'm glad that we were finally able to put it together."

Katz said the Knicks were so welcoming, Thomas even suggested that maybe the Knicks should wear their road uniforms for the game.

"When we first were in negotiations with the Knicks, they offered to wear their road blue," Katz said. "But we told them there was no need; the fans would be quite respectful, and the Knicks wouldn't be booed, but we were sure Maccabi would be cheered to a great extent."

With the crowd behind them, Maccabi's Marcus Fizer, Vonteego Cummings, and Israeli standout Omri Casspi led a 20-10 Maccabi run to begin the game. Last summer's NBA draftees Yotam Halperin and Lior Eliyahu also played for Maccabi, and helped the team to a five-point lead after the first quarter.

New York's David Lee, Jamal Crawford, Stephon Marbury, and new addition Zach Randolph led a strong second quarter for the Knicks, who went into halftime with a 10-point lead, 53-43.

Though the Knicks pulled away in the second half, the Knicks players spoke highly of Maccabi after the game.

"I think they came out and played as hard as they could," Marbury said. "We threw a lot of guys at them tonight."

Crawford told The Jewish State that preparing for a EuroLeague team is a challenge.

"It's definitely difficult because it's hard to scout them," he said, adding that the team did know some of the Maccabi players. "That can be difficult at times. They play very hard, and they're competitive."

Crawford said playing Maccabi -- though the Israeli team was without star Nikola Vujcic and former Georgia Tech standout Will Bynum -- was good preparation for the season.

"It's a different style," Crawford said of the Maccabi pass-first offense. "It's good how they play, because everybody touches the ball, and it's tough to play against when they move the ball like that. It's good for us to look at stuff like that."

Crawford added that the game helped the Knicks players take stock of their strengths and weaknesses heading into a new season.

Knicks fan favorite David Lee is known for making plays around the basket -- his buzzer-beating tip-in against the Charlotte Bobcats at the Garden last season won the game in double overtime -- but he was just as aggressive in the Knicks' preseason opener against Maccabi, attempting a half-dozen dunks in the game, including one of the few plays that got the Knicks cheers from the crowd.

"That's something that I need to bring to this team, aggressiveness and just hard play overall," Lee told The Jewish State after the game. "When (starting center) Eddy (Curry) comes back, that'll be my role coming off the bench, and that's just something that I want to bring. Finishing around the basket is one of my strengths, and I just try to make the most of my opportunities in that set-up."

Lee spent much of the game defending Maccabi's Fizer, who is a former first-round draft pick of the Chicago Bulls. He said that although the 6-8 Fizer is a physical player around the basket, it was easier for him to guard Fizer than some of the Israeli players, who may be smaller and quicker and play a different style than he is used to.

One example, he said, was Casspi.

"He just does so much with the ball at his height, and can shoot the basketball," Lee said. "That's a different match-up you don't see unless it's a guy like a Dirk Nowitzki where that's his strength as well."

The Knicks' aggressive play, Lee said, was not in response to media criticism of the team the past couple of years, but rather indicative of a team that is hungrier and more confident this year.

"We've put in all the work, so I don't think it's so much proving anybody wrong as it is we want that," Lee said. "That's what we want, is to be successful, and we have the talent to do so, so we're going to try to move forward for ourselves and for all the Knicks' fans and the front office and the coaches, and we're looking to do that."

Randolph, who finished with 16 points, also spoke with admiration of talent and effort of the Maccabi team, Casspi in particular.

Though it was his first game in New York, Randolph wasn't exactly greeted by a home crowd; he had fun nonetheless.

"It was different," he told The Jewish State. "I enjoyed the game, guys played hard."

Listed at five-foot-nine but with a gravity-defying vertical leap, Knicks guard Nate Robinson's up-tempo style provides some energy off the bench. He brought that same energy to the Maccabi game.

"That's how we're trying to play, we're trying to get up and down, settle with plays when we have to," Robinson told The Jewish State. "For now, we're just working on getting conditioned, getting in good shape, running up and down the floor."

Robinson said he was disappointed he didn't get to play against the six-foot Bynum, who was out with a leg injury.

"But it was fun playing a team from overseas, I always wanted to play against a team like that," Robinson said. "It was fun, I had a good time."

Fizer played six seasons in the NBA, mostly with the Bulls, before moving overseas. Now with Maccabi, he got a chance to return to the Garden and play against his American colleagues. He said he's excited about his first season with Maccabi after playing in the Spanish League and Puerto Rican League.

"It's great to be on Maccabi," he said. "Maccabi is a great team and I'm looking forward to playing for them."

Still adjusting to his new surroundings, Fizer, when asked by The Jewish State about his Hebrew, responded with a tired smile: "It's not even begun yet."

Katz said Migdal Ohr has a three-year contract with Maccabi to "spread the word of the amazing work of Migdal Ohr through sports and through Maccabi in particular."

He said that next year the organization is hoping to have Maccabi play in Los Angeles, though he wouldn't rule out another game in New York after that.

"The Knicks and Madison Square Garden were great," Katz said. "I just can't emphasize enough how wonderful it was working with them."