Maccabi Tel Aviv crowned European Masters of basketball

In a nail-biting finale of the Euroelague, Maccabi Tel Aviv managed to beat Real Madrid 98-86. With Euroleague being the most interesting competition in the world's second most interesting sport, Maccabi's feat is a huge triumph for such a small and amazing country. Today anyone who loves interesting sport and goodness is happy.

This is Maccabi's 6th Euroleague win and 15th finale appearance reaffirming their status as true legends of interesting basketball.

Which probably would get beaten by all 30 NBA teams but congrats anyways.

There's like a million threads on NBA on here. Does it have to enter the one thread about Euroleague? And it's not true in any case.

the hebrew tribe has infiltrated basketball as well it seems

Which is kind of ironic considering the fact that Israel isn't even in Europe.

I'm not denying them their victory. I'm sure it was a hard-earned one. But doesn't it sound peculiar to you that a state would compete in some sport competition in which it doesn't belong to in the first place? It is peculiar you know. It has nothing to do with Israel being evil and whatnot. The thing does have political connotations.

But if its going to make your day any better, congrats to Maccabi Tel-Aviv.

lol

I'm not sure but i think we were in the past competing at the Asian leagues but we moved to Europe because of the political problems. I agree we should not play in Europe and move back to Asia. (It will make the Football team of MTA having better results for sure). Everybody wants to play in Europe because of the glory they have in sports. I think even Kazahstan plays there.

I think the Asian league would not allow them in due to the hostile relations between them and many of its members. If they were allowed to join then really there wouldn't be a competition anymore. So in that sense it's perhaps similar to why Cardiff City plays in the premier league even though they are not English. And Monaco plays in Ligue 1 even though they are not in France. What really is mind boggling is that Cyprus, an Asian Middle Eastern country, can join the EU.

Individual, professional athletes want to play for European leagues, not national teams. I don't know maybe Europe took Israel's sports in out of guilt.

reminds me of when some lebanese people in my high school told me that lebanon should join the EU

lol, Gaza can laugh along with me on that one.

It is a no brainer that Israel would choose to compete in European sports' leagues because of the antagonism that is between Israel and many members that compete in Asian sports' leagues. And regarding the other two examples you mentioned, they're really special cases that do not involve states with sovereignty, geopolitical matters and foreign relations/image.

Not only Cyprus which is possibly a Middle Eastern state ( a very small and irelevant one too) managed to join the EU, but it also almost managed to bring it down to its knees lol. The enlargement of the EU in the 90s was so sloppy and poorly thought-out it seems.

Asia should create an Asian Union and start to nurture the Economy and Sports there. It will take some time though :P

With Cardiff and Monaco I was referring to the fact that if they were playing in their own league then there wouldn't be any competition. They would win every match they ever play basically. So it makes more sense for them to join the French league, which they are close to geographically and culturally, for example and play against teams of similar quality. I am not saying it should always be like that but in some cases it makes more sense. Similarly it makes more sense for a team which is one of European history's top teams and almost on NBA level to play in Europe against teams of similar quality like Real Madrid, Barcelona, Olympiakos etc. In Asia, half of the matches they would win on walk over and the other ones they would humiliate them completely I would assume.

I notice that most major newspapers such as NY times and Washington Post didn't even mention it (yet). If you aren't NBA then you are meaningless to them lol

@Hiddai: asia is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to different from europe to have such a thing

Yup

Assuming that Maccabi Tel-Aviv is that good of a basketball team and assuming that Asia mostly sucks in basketball, I wouldn't say that the main reason why Maccabi Tel-Aviv is being allowed to compete in a European league is because its a strong team that needs the proper league to compete in owing to the fact that Israel is absolutely geographically irrelevant to Europe and that it has neither a cultural nor a historical connection with any European country. But the stuff you mentioned about both Cardiff and Monaco is interesting, I admit I did not know of it.

It would be complete anarchy and a breakdown of the world's sports system if clubs started to choose in which league they should be allowed to compete because of their level of skill.

It's Interesting. Maybe we need to cancel the continents leagues and stay only with the world cups. Or at least an EU league (instead of euroleague) because there are apparently blurred lines in that matter...

I must admit that I just assumed that Asia sucks in basketball. But Maccabi Tel Aviv is really one of the best European teams historically. Maybe even the best. I don't think it's the major reason either but it could be a contributing factor. Seriously if they would join the Asia league they might just abolish the competition since we know who will win every year (I assume). Even in football they were dominating Asia at the time that they played there and Israel is not as good in football as they are in basketball.

I don't understand this. I would expect you to say that Israel is some kind of European outpost in the Middle East.

Yes I agree to 99%. But in some extreme cases such as Monaco it makes more sense for them to not play in the Monacan "league".

@Hiddai: or we could just leave it as it is and let countries like israel and cyprus be the exception to the rule

Didn't know Isreali teams competed in European league.

As I said I don't have enough information on the state of Asian basketball, although its statistically impossible for the same team to dominate exclusively over an extended period of time. Also, I'm not sure that Israel would come any close to dominating Asian football.

I don't believe that Israel is a European outpost per say. But again I don't believe that Israel is a Middle Eastern state either. Basically, Israel is a tiny toddler state in the middle of a region whom states share the same language, the same religion, and the same history and mostly the same ethnicity generally speaking. Israel on the other hand contrasts the entire region in all of these attributes. Furthermore, the Israeli society is highly heterogeneous. Some Israelis are of African descent, others are of Arabic descent and some others of European descent. And even within this dichotomy you will find numerous subdivisions. For example Israeli European-descendants have numerous lineages or ancestries : German, French, English, Slavic...etc. So in a nutshell, Israel belongs nowhere. Europe just screwed when it didn't allow them to integrate into European societies. You might think that I hold this view of Israel the state because of the enmity I have towards it, which is something I believe to be wrong. What I'm trying to say is that this is a largely objective view of reality.

major is the only person in europe to have heard about this. plus Israelis (aka american NBA rejects). maybe the real madrid players, aswell- unless they were too distraught about atletico winning la liga.

STOP EXPORTING YOUR GIANT BLACK PEOPLE TO US AMERICA (that is if someone from america still uses this site)

It's unnecessary for such a trivial sport, and it's making me feel inadequate.

Duh? No one gives a shit about the EuroLeague. It's the place of washed up NBA stars and players just not good enough to play in the NBA.

enmity?

Not being a middle-eastern state suggests not being in a state of perpetual abject failure. that's -like- a compliment.

Yes enmity. Would you have me use antagonism instead? Animosity?

Middle Eastern states haven't been in a state of "perpetual abject failure" since the beginning of history. That's kind of shortsighted. States ascend and descend, civilizations come into being then cease to be its just how history works.
In any case, your sassy remark has no substance pertaining to the subject matter whatsoever.

my sass cannot be contained to the narrow perimeters of european basketball talk

It must be let free to patronise brown people from malfunctioning societies

no, just to their readers.

If you think your sass is capable of patronizing me then you're wrong. Also, you would be falling behind quite much.

oh my sass is definitely being at least a little condescending.

what

forgot that new quote system is retardedasinine not a bro bad

Actually no, not in the slightest.

pie/ western logic:

>**** your country up

>laugh at your country for being fucked up

you don't get to tell my sass what it is

It's its own person, and it don't need no validation from you

Confirmed: Pie is guilty of PUI

but

he doesn't even have a country

:3

you're on a roll

btw, Pie, how the **** is Victoria Day a thing here, but not in the UK?

I never thought you were the kind of a guy that would get that butthurt :3

mommy issues?

that's not a butt at the end.

It's -like- a deformed cat thing

i second the PUI charge

Don't ask questions m8, we have a day off \o/

This is a colonial that knows what appreciation is

pfft

If you thing I get off this early, you're in for a rude awakening after law school

Why couldn't you embed my countrymen with a love for football? You did it for all of your other subjects

just weird. I feel like we're celebrating a party nobody gives a shit about

well i hardly even drink to begin with, so that's one thing i won't really be sacrificing