Maccabi Ra’anana coach says he wants team to inspire kids in Israel by completing NBA preseason trip

NEW YORK — Before an exhibition recreation towards the Brooklyn Nets on Thursday, Maccabi Ra’anana coach Yehu Orland mentioned that he was once “sitting here, trying not to cry, because my heart is broken.” Orland was once dressed in a polo blouse with “R.I.P. ELI FOREVER IN MY HEART” inscribed underneath Ra’anana’s brand.

“I lost one of my best friends two days ago in the war,” Orland mentioned. “For me, it’s a personal tragedy. But for our country, it’s everybody’s tragedy.”

Orland mentioned that his good friend, Eli Ginsberg, had served in the Israeli army for 23 years, however retired a month in the past. “Even though he finished serving the army, as soon as the war started, he packed his stuff,” Orland mentioned. Ginsberg’s funeral was once Thursday.

“For sure I’m sad and my world is down,” Orland mentioned, including that he wants to stay “my head up to create hope for those children, for those teenagers, for those young people that they need hope” in Israel. 

The team arrived in Brooklyn ultimate Wednesday, Jeff Rosen, its lead sponsor, mentioned. It intends to whole its three-game trip, with preseason video games scheduled towards the Cleveland Cavaliers and Minnesota Timberwolves subsequent week. 

“I think the shock of the war impacted [us] in unpredictable ways,” Rosen mentioned. “I think everyone had personal challenges almost immediately, and yet we caucused as a group, as management and with the players. And I think we reached the conclusion pretty quickly that we felt it was in [our] best interest to continue the trip. And most of our players thought about it and some thought about leaving. As it turned out, just one player went back.”

Rosen mentioned that the team is “proud to be here with our friends and allies and participating in friendship and peaceful activities like sports, under the sad backdrop of such a ferocious and horrible war.”

At practice on Wednesday, Nets middle Nic Claxton mentioned, “We feel for the players that we’re playing against. I don’t know if we should be playing the game. Personally, I don’t think we should be playing the game. But we feel for them and we’re going to go out there and do our job.” Claxton added, “There’s bigger things in the world going on than basketball.”

Brooklyn coach Jacque Vaughn mentioned Thursday that the team had “talked about just being able to have compassion, to try to educate yourself on what’s going on.” Vaughn added that “we talked about how grateful we are that we do get an opportunity to play tonight.”