Tal Brody
Encyclopedia
Tal Brody is an American-Israel
i former basketball
player, and current Goodwill Ambassador of Israel, who lives in Israel. Brody was drafted # 12 in the National Basketball Association
(NBA) draft, but chose to pass up an NBA career to instead play basketball in Israel. He played on national basketball teams of both the United States and Israel, and served in the armies of both countries.
A New Jersey All Star basketball player in high school, Brody led his team to an undefeated state championship. In college he was a high-scoring, slick-passing All American and All-Big Ten guard
in 1965, while playing for the University of Illinois. That year, he was drafted 12th in the NBA draft
. Before the NBA season started, he traveled to Israel where he led the U.S. basketball team to a gold medal
in the 1965 Maccabiah Games
. Convinced by Moshe Dayan
and others to return to Israel to help elevate the country's basketball team and morale, he passed up his NBA career to instead play basketball in Israel, as the shooting guard
and captain of the Israeli Maccabi Tel Aviv
basketball team. He was voted Israeli Sportsman of the Year in 1967, and was a member of the European All Star Team.
In 1977, he led tiny Israel's basketball team to the European Cup
Basketball Championship. Along the way, his team defeated the heavily favored Soviet Red Army
team (CSKA Moscow
). Brody's famous remark upon beating the Soviets – "We are on the map! And we are staying on the map – not only in sports, but in everything." – became a part of Israeli culture. It has been used for decades in various contexts, from political speeches to National Lottery commercials. In 1979 he was awarded the country's highest civilian honor, the Israel Prize
. He was named the University of Illinois "Man of the Year" and inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame
in 1996, and inducted into the U.S. National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 2011.
In Israel, he is a revered national hero, icon, and legend — a superstar akin to Michael Jordan
in the U.S. He is thought by some to be the greatest and most famous athlete who has ever represented the country. As Israel's first modern-day sports hero, he is a symbol of all the young country's achievements.
along the way. His father spent three years in Palestine in the 1920s, working as an engineer on the construction of the Rothenberg electric station, the country's first. Both his father and his grandfather, who lived in Palestine for 10 years, helped build the country's first airfield, in Herzliya
. Brody has an older sister, Renee.
He was born and raised in Trenton, New Jersey. Brody started playing basketball at age 8 in the Biddy Basketball League of the Trenton Jewish Community Center
(JCC), in the Police Athletic League
(PAL), and in the local Boys Club League.
He then attended Trenton Central High School
. There, he was a New Jersey basketball All Star selected to the First Team Newark Star Ledger All-State Team in his senior year, and led his undefeated 24–0 team to a state championship. He graduated in 1961. Asked by his yearbook what he wanted to be in his life, he said that he would like to become either a professional basketball player, or an FBI agent.
coach Harry Litwak, in recruiting him, tried to dissuade him from going to powerhouse University of Illinois
, suggesting that at the large school he would be "a small fish in a big pond". Conceding that the university was in fact a big one, Brody nevertheless told the coach that he liked the challenge of trying to be "a big fish" in a big pond.
Brody attended the University of Illinois. On the social side, he joined Zeta Beta Tau
, the campus Jewish fraternity. The basketball-focused Brody would sleep with his basketball, and dribble it to class. At the time, freshmen were not allowed to play on the varsity basketball team, but as a sophomore he replaced the just-graduated Jerry Colangelo
.
Brody was an outstanding 6 foot basketball star for the Illini
, playing point guard
while wearing uniform # 12. He was quick, slick, smart, and an excellent shooter and passer. His team won the Big Ten Championship
, and was rated the number three team in the nation.
He was voted a 1965 All American, along with fellow college basketball players Rick Barry
, Bill Bradley
, and Billy Cunningham
. He was also named first team All-Big Ten, a second team academic All American, and a Converse top-10 player. The Sporting News
picked him as one of the top 10 players in the nation, along with Bradley, Barry, Cunningham, and Jerry Sloan
. In 1965, he graduated from Illinois with a bachelor's degree in physical education. As of 2008, Brody was still ranked 33rd among the all-time scorers in Illinois history.
by the Baltimore Bullets
, known today as the Washington Wizards. That June he trained in a one-week Bullets rookie camp, and the team deemed him one of the best players. After the camp, the Bullets provided him with an apartment in Baltimore.
He traveled to Israel for the first time in August, with the Bullets' permission and his parents' blessing. There, he played for the USA team in the 1965 Maccabiah Games
, the international Jewish Olympics. He led the team to a gold medal
.
Immediately after the Maccabiah Games, he was approached by managers of the Israeli Maccabi Tel Aviv
basketball team. They asked him to join the team, in order to help elevate Israeli basketball to a higher level. Others joined in asking Brody to stay in Israel after the tournament, including the iconic eye-patch-wearing Israeli general Moshe Dayan
, the Israeli Minister of Sports, and Ministry of Education officials. At that point, the Israeli team had never survived past the first round in the European Cup basketball championships.
Israel, as Brody put it, had opened his eyes. He had never previously traveled anywhere outside the U.S. Before he arrived in Israel, all he knew about it was what he had studied in Hebrew school
. To his surprise, rather than arriving in Biblical Israel (with people riding camels and living in tents), he found himself in a modern society in which for the first time he met Jews from around the globe. The experience was a culture shock, and he was attracted to the culture and the everyday life. It changed the NBA-bound basketball player's goals in life. Eventually, because he was Jewish he agreed to take up the challenge and stay. His decision completely changed Israeli basketball.
Brody first returned to the United States, however, and completed his master's degree
in educational psychology
at Illinois. In August 1966, the NBA's St. Louis Hawks traded a veteran guard and a draft pick to the Bullets for the rights to Brody, but Brody chose to play basketball in Israel rather than in the NBA.
To capitalize on Brody's quickness and speed, his coach abandoned the team's formerly slow pace in favor of a fast-paced motion game, built around fast breaks. Brody was the most dominant player in the Euroleague in 1966–67. In 1967, he was named Israel's Sportsman of the Year. The team made it through the first, second, and third rounds of the league playoffs and reached the European Cup
Championships, finishing second in the league.
For the first time, the Israeli Prime Minister
(Levi Eshkol
), the Israeli Defense Forces Chief of Staff, and Knesset
members came to games. Demand for tickets to games in the team's 5,000-seat stadium was so high that they became exceedingly difficult to obtain. In his down time, Brody coached Israeli soldiers when they were off duty from guarding Israel's border against its Arab neighbors. The experience, and the excitement Brody generated, made a deep impression on him. He had a vision of what he could accomplish, and saw the positive impact on the Israeli people's morale whenever Maccabi Tel Aviv beat a team in Europe. As he put it: "I felt it was bigger than me, and had to be continued, because I saw what the results were."
He had initially intended to help Israeli basketball for only one year. But that one year, and the excitement it generated (while at the same time, in the days preceding the June 1967 Six Day War, Egypt and Syria were threatening to push the Israelis into the sea), pulled Brody into a second year. As the war was about to break out, the U.S. State Department sent him a telegram advising him to leave Israel. Instead of heeding the advice, he volunteered his services to lead Israeli soldiers at the Jordanian border in athletic exercises, as he stayed in Israel through the war.
. He first took "Advanced Infantry Preparation for Vietnam". He then played for two years for the U.S. Army and United States Armed Forces
All Star Teams as a starting guard, while Israelis worried over the impact of his departure. He also played for the USA Men's National Basketball Team, which finished third at the 1970 FIBA World Championship
in Belgrade
, Yugoslavia
, in May 1970. During that championship competition, he received a letter from Moshe Dayan, who asked him to return to Israel.
and became an Israeli citizen towards the end of 1970. The Israeli government called him up to its military that year, and he served in the Israeli Army. Later, as a reserve
in the Israel Defense Forces
, he was tasked with supporting the Israeli Air Force
, in which his son Ron later served.
At the 27-country 1973 Maccabiah Games
, dedicated to the 11 Israeli athletes killed in the Munich Massacre
at the 1972 Olympics
, he was captain of the Israeli basketball team and given the honor of lighting the opening torch. He led the national team to a gold medal, as they beat a U.S. team led by Ernie Grunfeld
in the finals.
Brody played for Maccabi Tel Aviv until 1980. He won ten Israeli championships with the team, and six Israel State Cups, in what has been described as a "stellar" and "amazing" career. With Maccabi Tel Aviv he appeared in 81 European Cup
games, scoring 1,378 points. Brody was also selected to the European All Star Team.
Brody also played for the Israeli National Team
, scoring 1,219 points in 78 games. With that, he played on national basketball teams of both the U.S. and Israel, and served in the armies of both countries. When the Israeli Omri Casspi
was drafted in the first round of the 2009 NBA draft by the Sacramento Kings
to play in the U.S., Brody called it "the completion of a circle".
, and the Soviet Union
was boycotting Israel. In the first round of the European Cup basketball championship, Maccabi Tel Aviv defeated Madrid, 94–85. In the second round, it beat Brno
, Czechoslovakia
, for the first time, 91–76, on February 15, 1977.
In the European Cup semi-finals, Maccabi Tel Aviv was matched against CSKA Moscow
—the Red Army
team. CSKA Moscow was a powerhouse. The Soviet Army team had won the prior four European Cup basketball titles, and had been undefeated during those four years. Six of its players had played on the Soviet team that had defeated the United States in the Olympics, and their captain was Sergei Belov
(who years later recalled that Brody was one of his toughest opponents). And the Communists were well-known for using sports to glorify what they billed as their supremacy over the West.
The Soviet Union had broken off diplomatic relations with Israel a decade earlier, and politically and militarily backed Israel's Arab enemies. For political reasons, therefore, CSKA Moscow refused to play in Tel Aviv
(which would have resulted in a technical defeat). And the Soviets also refused to grant visas to the Israelis, to allow them to come play in Moscow. In the end, Maccabi Tel Aviv's "home game" was played in the small, neutral town of Virton
, Belgium.
The game took place in an emotional and politically charged atmosphere. It was of huge symbolic value for Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, and for many Israelis who ordinarily had no interest in basketball. The game pitted the capitalist West against the Communist East, and Israel against the country that was supplying its enemies with weapons. The game also matched the country of Israel, with a total of a mere 4 million inhabitants, against the Soviets, with their 290 million people. The newspaper Maariv
billed the February 17, 1977, game as "the fight between David and Goliath." Most of Israel's population watched the game, which was broadcast on Israel's only TV channel at the time.
Maccabi Tel Aviv upset the heavily favored Soviets, 91–79. Enthusiastic fans carried Brody off the court on their shoulders. The feeling among Israelis was not only that CSKA Moscow had been defeated, but that a victory–albeit small–had been achieved against the mighty Soviet Union. The game has for decades been recognized as a key event in the forging of Israel's national identity. Even decades later, it was being replayed repeatedly on Israeli television.
"We are on the map!" proclaimed an elated, euphoric Brody in his heavily American-accented Hebrew
, as a TV announcer pushed a microphone in front of him for a post-game quote, while people danced the hora around him in excitement and celebration. "And we are staying on the map – not only in sports, but in everything."
The remark was spontaneous, and unprepared. As Brody put it, it just "came out of my heart, at that instant." Then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin
called Brody into his office, and told him that Brody's statement had brought tears to his eyes, and had immeasurably impacted the Israeli people's morale.
The phrase "We are on the map!" ("anachnu al hamapa, ve'anahnu nisharim al hamapa!"), a literal translation of an English phrase into his adopted language, but a novel saying in Hebrew, became a new, popular phrase in Israel. It reflected a physical victory by the nascent Jewish Zionist idea, and national pride. It became Israel's most famous quote. The phrase was as significant for Israelis as U.S. astronaut Neil Armstrong
's statement – "One small step for man; one giant step for mankind" – had been for Americans, vis-a-vis the space age.
The saying became a staple of Israeli speech. Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin
co-opted the phrase as an election campaign slogan in 1981. It was also used by former Soviet refusenik
and Israeli Yisrael BaAliyah party leader and Industry and Trade Minister Natan Sharansky
, in 1998. The Israeli National Lottery Board spoofed it in a television commercial, in which a winning racehorse with an American accent stated: "We are on the racetrack, and we will stay on the racetrack." Similarly, when Israel's Davis Cup team
beat the powerhouse Russian Davis Cup team in a shocking victory in the 2009 Davis Cup tennis quarter-finals, Prime Minister Netanyahu telephoned the Israel Tennis Association
Director General and echoed Brody's statement of over three decades earlier, saying: "We're back on the map".
Back home, hundreds of thousands of Israelis celebrated spontaneously in the streets, and 150,000 in Tel Aviv congregated in celebration in what is now Rabin Square
. Many jumped into its fountain, splashing in water and champagne. Recalling the moment, an Israeli quoted in the book From Beirut to Jerusalem
told Thomas Friedman
that on one level it was Brody the star basketball player and his teammates beating the Russians, but on another level it was "my grandfather beating them. It was our retroactive victory over the Cossacks." Brody was credited with being so inspiring that basketball became Israel's number one sport, surpassing soccer.
The European Cup finals were played in Belgrade
, Yugoslavia
, on April 7, 1977. Yugoslavia was a Communist country with which Israel did not have diplomatic relations, and the El Al
plane that brought the Maccabi Tel Aviv players over to it for the game was the first Israeli plane ever allowed to land there. The Israelis were pitted against the highly favored Mobilgirgi Varese
, the champions of Italy. Mobilgirgi Varese had beaten the Israelis twice that year, and had beaten them in the finals ten years earlier when Brody first started playing for Maccabi Tel Aviv. Back in Israel, the entire country watched the game on television.
Maccabi Tel Aviv went on to defeat Mobilgirgi Varese by one point, 78–77, in the European Cup finals. Brody, as the team captain, received the European Cup from FIBA's Secretary General, and lifted it over his head.
It was Israel's first European Cup Basketball Championship in the 23-nation league. It was also the first time that Israel had won a championship of that caliber in any sport, and was, at the time, Israel's greatest achievement in international sports. The victory greatly lifted the spirit and morale of the country. In Israel, 200,000 people gathered to celebrate in Israel's National Park, and the event was celebrated as a national holiday. When the team returned home, it found 150,000 Israelis waiting for it. Brody himself became widely known as an Israeli national hero, and as a symbol of Israel's achievements.
In 1978, the team was a semi-finalist at the European Cup basketball championships. When Brody retired from basketball in 1980, a special official retirement game
was arranged in his honor, and the European All Star Team arrived in Israel to play against Maccabi Tel Aviv.
, Israel's highest civilian honor, in 1979. It was presented to him by Israeli President Yitzhak Navon
, in recognition of his unique contribution to Israeli society and the State in the field of sports. The Israel Prize Committee noted that he was "an excellent athlete who set an outstanding example" for Israeli immigrants and absorption.
During his basketball career, he was also twice named Israeli Basketball Player of the Year. Brody was given the honor of lighting the torch at the opening of the 1981 Maccabiah Games
at Ramat Gan Stadium, in front of 45,000 fans and sportsmen from 54 countries. In 1988 he was voted the Israeli athlete who most influenced Israeli sports, in a poll by the Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv. In 1996, he was elected the University of Illinois "Man of the Year", in recognition of his accomplishments both within and outside of sports, and awarded the school's "I" Award for his achievements.
In 2004, he was given the honor of lighting a torch at the 56th Israeli Independence Day
ceremony on Mount Herzl
. He and Maccabi Tel Aviv were the first non-U.S. basketball team to be honored at the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, in a special exhibition in 2008. That same year, he was voted the 63rd-greatest Israeli in a poll of the Israeli public by Ynet
(to determine the 200 Greatest Israelis), two behind former Prime Minister Ehud Barak
, and two ahead of former acting Prime Minister Yigal Alon.
In Israel, Brody is widely recognized as a revered national hero, icon, and legend. He is a superstar, on a level similar to that of Michael Jordan
in the United States. Some people view him as the greatest and most famous athlete to have ever represented Israel. As Israel's first modern-day sports hero, he is a symbol of all the young country's achievements, and not only its successes in basketball. He is known by the nicknames: "Mr. Basketball", and "The man who put Israel on the Map".
, and in March 2011 he was inducted into the U.S. National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. He was also inducted into the Israeli Basketball Hall of Fame. He represented Maccabi Tel Aviv as it became the first non-U.S. basketball team to be honored at the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, in a special exhibition in 2008 entitled "Putting Israel on the Map".
In addition, he has been Maccabi Tel Aviv's volunteer liaison with the National Basketball Association since 1988, helping organize games between Maccabi Tel Aviv and various NBA teams. When New York Knicks
basketball player Amar'e Stoudemire visited Israel in August 2010, Brody suggested to Stoudemire that after his NBA career ends he might wish to consider playing for Maccabi Tel Aviv. As to his response, as Brody put it—Stoudemire "didn't say no". They also discussed the possibility of a youth program exchange.
Brody was also a sports commentator for Israeli television in the early 1990s. He in addition became an instructor at the Wingate Institute
of Physical Fitness in Netanya. Brody serves as well on the Board of Directors of the Maccabi World Union
(MWU), which organizes the Maccabiah Games in Israel. He was also appointed to serve on a blue-ribbon panel of experts who select recipients of the Israel Prize for athletics.
Brody was featured in a 2008 documentary entitled The Jewish Basketball Hall of Fame, Volume 1, produced by Yisrael Lifschutz. He was also featured in a book by the title: A Voice Called; Stories of Jewish Heroism, by Yossi Katz, which was published in 2010.
Brody also was appointed the local agent of Japanese consumer goods company Mitsuboshi C.I. Co., which imported Israeli products, and was elected to the Japan-Israel Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors.
He then entered the insurance business. Brody established, owned, and managed an independent insurance firm named Tal Brody Insurance Agency in Tel Aviv. The company handled pension program
s, provident fund
s, and health and education funds for 20 years. He ultimately sold the business in 2008. He has since retired from the business world, which he calls the second stage of his life.
He created an after-school program for Israeli children, called "Let's Play Ball!" As part of the program, he coaches basketball and gives basketball clinics to schoolchildren, members of kibbutzim, residents of development town
s, and soldiers in the Israeli army. The program has impacted over 200,000 children.
He is also Chairman of the Spirit of Israel (JAFI), a non-profit Jewish Agency subsidiary that he created in 1999. It raises money from the Israeli public to help underprivileged Israeli children and others, by providing for their "vital human needs" (as defined by the Jewish Agency and Keren Hayesod
). He arrived at the idea for the charity when he attended a meeting at which efforts to raise money in the U.S. for Israel were being discussed. Brody began to muse about what Israelis were doing for themselves on the charity front. As a result, he established the Spirit of Israel to raise money within Israel for Israelis. Projects included assisting Israeli senior citizens, "at risk" children, and family abuse victims.
Brody is also Sports Ambassador for Migdal Ohr and the America–Israel Friendship League (AIFL). Migdal Ohr helps at-risk, disadvantaged, impoverished, orphaned, and underprivileged Israeli children of all religions. He helped organize and promote an exhibition game between Maccabi Tel Aviv and the New York Knicks in the U.S., with all proceeds going to benefit Migdal Ohr.
In 1985, Brody joined with Herzliya and its Mayor (Eli Landau) to construct and run one of the world's largest basketball schools, designing a unique program with specially chosen coaches. The school is Bnei Herzliya. The basketball school is now run by the municipality of Herzliya, with Brody serving as its president. It provides a basketball program to 14,000 children from ages 5–18, drawn from 14 city-wide schools.
Brody also has spoken around the world for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, and for American Jewish organizations.
party in 1980, after he retired. But he rejected the offer. He did not view himself as a politician, and was not seeking a political career. Though he joined the Likud
party in the 1990s, he was not openly active in politics because he didn't believe that an active sportsman should involve himself in politics.
When Likud party chairman Benjamin Netanyahu
approached him personally, however, and asked him to step forward for the country, Brody for the first time considered entering politics. Netanyahu was interested in involving people who had not formerly entered into politics. Brody found it difficult to turn away Netanyahu, who impressed upon him that it would be important to Israel for Brody to run for office. Netanyahu suggested that Brody could more effectively push the advances he was already seeking, in education, sports, immigration, absorption, and social issues, if he were a member of the Israeli Knesset
.
Brody announced in August 2007 that he was seriously considering running for the Knesset in the general election, as a Likud candidate. He said in November 2008 that he felt that it was the appropriate point in his life to change careers, after having spent much of his life first playing basketball and then heading an insurance agency that managed employment benefits programs for companies. He noted that the Knesset would be a third career calling for him, as long as it allowed him to concentrate on those areas that were already his focus, such as sports, education, aliyah, the Diaspora, Israeli-American relations, and helping children who are "at risk", and that he saw it as a good way to spend the third phase of his life after basketball and business. He stressed that in his view it wasn't politics, but rather "good citizenship". But he acknowledged that when he discussed his goals with Netanyahu, the Prime Minister had replied that "in the Knesset, they call it politics."
Brody ran for a national slot (places 2–19 on Likud's list), to represent the district between Tel Aviv
and Haifa
, along the Israeli coast. He became the fourth candidate who was formerly a resident of the U.S., and was supported by Likud Anglos, Likud's English-speaking division. In a November 2008 press conference Brody and Netanyahu held, Brody said: "We need to change the situation in the country. 70% of the people think there is corruption in politics." Netanyahu introduced Brody as his future Minister of Sports and Culture. Among other things, Brody noted that Israel's amateur sports budget had declined from $35 million a year to $10 million a year, and suggested that the budget could be supplemented by working with the NBA or the National Football League
. He also had in mind the creation of a sports program with Birthright Israel
Taglit to encourage aliyah. Endorsed by Netanyahu, he said that whether he won or lost, at least he would feel that he did all he could to answer Netanyahu's request that candidates with varied abilities and life experiences run for the Knesset. He joked, however, that if he were to win, he looked forward to playing basketball against President Obama, who is an intense basketball fan.
In the December 2008 Likud primaries, however, he was not elected to Likud's list of candidates. Danny Danon
, the well-organized chairman of World Likud—who was backed by Zo Artzeinu
co-founder Moshe Feiglin
—beat him in what turned out to be an intense fight for the slot on the Likud list. Remarking on his feelings about the primaries, Brody said that he had only become involved in the political process because he thought it was the obligation of people to come forward to serve the country, but that his involvement in the process had made him aware of the fact that many local voters rely on the "professional politicians" for jobs.
His trips outside Israel are coordinated by the Israeli Foreign Ministry and by Israel's embassies and consulates. He speaks at schools, universities, Jewish and non-Jewish organizations and community centers, synagogues, Christian events, African-American organizations, and fundraising events. While he seeks to encourage those people who support Israel, a major focus of his—which accords with a suggestion he was given by Harvard Law Professor Allan Dershowitz—is on those people who are as of yet undecided about Israel. His discussions with groups outside of Israel have touched on the tension between terrorism and restrictions on freedom of movement, Israel's security fence, Israel's Black Ethiopian Jews, and the role of Israeli Arabs in Israeli society. Brody said that he took on the role because it was what he wanted to do—serve the State of Israel.
in Israel. He has three children (two from his first marriage (Ron and Kareen), and a daughter Linor from his second wife's first marriage), and five grandchildren.
His American-accented Hebrew is the result of his not having formally studied the language when he arrived in Israeli—as he thought his stay would be a temporary one, rather than a decades-long one. He instead picked up the language from colloquial use. His Hebrew consequently remains a source of amusement in Israel, and has been humorously targeted by friends and family, as well as by Eretz Nehederet
, Israel's version of Saturday Night Live
.
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i former basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
player, and current Goodwill Ambassador of Israel, who lives in Israel. Brody was drafted # 12 in the National Basketball Association
National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...
(NBA) draft, but chose to pass up an NBA career to instead play basketball in Israel. He played on national basketball teams of both the United States and Israel, and served in the armies of both countries.
A New Jersey All Star basketball player in high school, Brody led his team to an undefeated state championship. In college he was a high-scoring, slick-passing All American and All-Big Ten guard
Point guard
Point guard , also called the play maker or "the ball-handler", is one of the standard positions in a regulation basketball game. A point guard has perhaps the most specialized role of any position – essentially, he is expected to run the team's offense by controlling the ball and making sure that...
in 1965, while playing for the University of Illinois. That year, he was drafted 12th in the NBA draft
1965 NBA Draft
The 1965 NBA Draft was the 19th annual draft of the National Basketball Association . The draft was held on May 6, 1965, before the 1965–66 season....
. Before the NBA season started, he traveled to Israel where he led the U.S. basketball team to a gold medal
Gold medal
A gold medal is typically the medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture...
in the 1965 Maccabiah Games
1965 Maccabiah Games
Twenty-five nations send 1,200 athletes to compete in 21 sports at the 7th Maccabiah Games in 1965.First-time Maccabiah Games flags belonged to Iran, Jamaica, Peru, and Venezuela....
. Convinced by Moshe Dayan
Moshe Dayan
Moshe Dayan was an Israeli military leader and politician. The fourth Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces , he became a fighting symbol to the world of the new State of Israel...
and others to return to Israel to help elevate the country's basketball team and morale, he passed up his NBA career to instead play basketball in Israel, as the shooting guard
Shooting guard
The shooting guard , also known as the two or off guard, is one of five traditional positions on a basketball team. Players of the position are often shorter, leaner, and quicker than forwards. A shooting guard's main objective is to score points for his team...
and captain of the Israeli Maccabi Tel Aviv
Maccabi Tel Aviv (basketball)
Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv B.C. is a professional Israeli basketball club based in Tel Aviv. The team plays in three leagues: the Euroleague, the Israeli Basketball Super League, and the Adriatic League....
basketball team. He was voted Israeli Sportsman of the Year in 1967, and was a member of the European All Star Team.
In 1977, he led tiny Israel's basketball team to the European Cup
Euroleague
Euroleague Basketball, commonly known as the Euroleague, is the highest level tier and most important professional club basketball competition in Europe, with teams from up to 18 different countries, members of FIBA Europe. For sponsorship reasons, for five seasons starting with 2010–2011, it is...
Basketball Championship. Along the way, his team defeated the heavily favored Soviet Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
team (CSKA Moscow
PBC CSKA Moscow
PBC CSKA Moscow is a Russian professional basketball team that is based in Moscow, Russia. The club is a member of the VTB United League. It is often referred to in the West as "Red Army" for its past affiliation with the Soviet Army. CSKA has won two titles between 2006 and 2009 in Europe's...
). Brody's famous remark upon beating the Soviets – "We are on the map! And we are staying on the map – not only in sports, but in everything." – became a part of Israeli culture. It has been used for decades in various contexts, from political speeches to National Lottery commercials. In 1979 he was awarded the country's highest civilian honor, the Israel Prize
Israel Prize
The Israel Prize is an award handed out by the State of Israel and is largely regarded as the state's highest honor. It is presented annually, on Israeli Independence Day, in a state ceremony in Jerusalem, in the presence of the President, the Prime Minister, the Knesset chairperson, and the...
. He was named the University of Illinois "Man of the Year" and inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame
International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame
The International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame was opened July 7, 1981, in Netanya, Israel. It honors Jewish athletes and their accomplishments from anywhere around the world....
in 1996, and inducted into the U.S. National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 2011.
In Israel, he is a revered national hero, icon, and legend — a superstar akin to Michael Jordan
Michael Jordan
Michael Jeffrey Jordan is a former American professional basketball player, active entrepreneur, and majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats...
in the U.S. He is thought by some to be the greatest and most famous athlete who has ever represented the country. As Israel's first modern-day sports hero, he is a symbol of all the young country's achievements.
Early life
Brody is Jewish, and the son of Max and Shirley Brody. His father and paternal grandfather had emigrated from Eastern Europe to the United States, spending years in PalestinePalestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
along the way. His father spent three years in Palestine in the 1920s, working as an engineer on the construction of the Rothenberg electric station, the country's first. Both his father and his grandfather, who lived in Palestine for 10 years, helped build the country's first airfield, in Herzliya
Herzliya
Herzliya is a city in the central coast of Israel, at the western part of the Tel Aviv District. It has a population of 87,000 residents. Named after Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism, Herzliya covers an area of 26 km²...
. Brody has an older sister, Renee.
He was born and raised in Trenton, New Jersey. Brody started playing basketball at age 8 in the Biddy Basketball League of the Trenton Jewish Community Center
Jewish Community Center
A Jewish Community Center or Jewish Community Centre is a general recreational, social and fraternal organization serving the Jewish community in a number of cities...
(JCC), in the Police Athletic League
Police Athletic League
The Police Athletic League is an organization in many American police departments in which members of the police force coach young people, both boys and girls, in sports, and help with homework and other school-related activities. The purpose is to build character, help strengthen police-community...
(PAL), and in the local Boys Club League.
He then attended Trenton Central High School
Trenton Central High School
Trenton Central High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school that serves students in ninth through twelfth grades from Trenton, in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States, as part of the Trenton Public Schools....
. There, he was a New Jersey basketball All Star selected to the First Team Newark Star Ledger All-State Team in his senior year, and led his undefeated 24–0 team to a state championship. He graduated in 1961. Asked by his yearbook what he wanted to be in his life, he said that he would like to become either a professional basketball player, or an FBI agent.
College career
Over 40 colleges approached Brody with scholarship offers. Temple UniversityTemple University
Temple University is a comprehensive public research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Originally founded in 1884 by Dr. Russell Conwell, Temple University is among the nation's largest providers of professional education and prepares the largest body of professional...
coach Harry Litwak, in recruiting him, tried to dissuade him from going to powerhouse University of Illinois
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...
, suggesting that at the large school he would be "a small fish in a big pond". Conceding that the university was in fact a big one, Brody nevertheless told the coach that he liked the challenge of trying to be "a big fish" in a big pond.
Brody attended the University of Illinois. On the social side, he joined Zeta Beta Tau
Zeta Beta Tau
Zeta Beta Tau was founded in 1898 as the nation's first Jewish fraternity, although it is no longer sectarian. Today the merged Zeta Beta Tau Brotherhood is one of the largest, numbering over 140,000 initiated Brothers, and over 90 chapter locations.-Founding:The Zeta Beta Tau fraternity was...
, the campus Jewish fraternity. The basketball-focused Brody would sleep with his basketball, and dribble it to class. At the time, freshmen were not allowed to play on the varsity basketball team, but as a sophomore he replaced the just-graduated Jerry Colangelo
Jerry Colangelo
Jerry Colangelo , is an American businessman and sports executive.He formerly owned the Phoenix Suns of the NBA, the Phoenix Mercury of the WNBA, the Arizona Sandsharks of the Continental Indoor Soccer League, the Arizona Rattlers of the Arena Football League and the Arizona Diamondbacks of Major...
.
Brody was an outstanding 6 foot basketball star for the Illini
Illinois Fighting Illini
The Fighting Illini are the intercollegiate athletic teams of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The University offers 10 men's and 11 women's varsity sports....
, playing point guard
Point guard
Point guard , also called the play maker or "the ball-handler", is one of the standard positions in a regulation basketball game. A point guard has perhaps the most specialized role of any position – essentially, he is expected to run the team's offense by controlling the ball and making sure that...
while wearing uniform # 12. He was quick, slick, smart, and an excellent shooter and passer. His team won the Big Ten Championship
Big Ten Conference Men's Basketball Tournament
The Big Ten Conference men's basketball tournament is held annually at the end of the men's college basketball regular season. The tournament has been played each year since 1998. The winner of the tournament is designated the Big Ten Tournament Champion, and receives the conference's automatic...
, and was rated the number three team in the nation.
He was voted a 1965 All American, along with fellow college basketball players Rick Barry
Rick Barry
Richard Francis Dennis Barry III , better known as Rick Barry, is a retired American professional basketball player. He is considered by many veteran basketball observers to be one of the greatest pure small forwards of all time as a result of his very precise outside shot, uncanny court vision,...
, Bill Bradley
Bill Bradley
William Warren "Bill" Bradley is an American hall of fame basketball player, Rhodes scholar, and former three-term Democratic U.S. Senator from New Jersey. He ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic Party's nomination for President in the 2000 election.Bradley was born and raised in a suburb of St....
, and Billy Cunningham
Billy Cunningham
William John "Billy" Cunningham is an American former professional basketball player and coach, who was nicknamed the Kangaroo Kid.- Beginnings :...
. He was also named first team All-Big Ten, a second team academic All American, and a Converse top-10 player. The Sporting News
The Sporting News
Sporting News is an American-based sports magazine. It was established in 1886, and it became the dominant American publication covering baseball — so much so that it acquired the nickname "The Bible of Baseball"...
picked him as one of the top 10 players in the nation, along with Bradley, Barry, Cunningham, and Jerry Sloan
Jerry Sloan
Gerald Eugene "Jerry" Sloan , is an American former National Basketball Association player and head coach, and a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame. NBA commissioner David Stern called Sloan "one of the greatest and most respected coaches in NBA history." Sloan had a career regular-season...
. In 1965, he graduated from Illinois with a bachelor's degree in physical education. As of 2008, Brody was still ranked 33rd among the all-time scorers in Illinois history.
NBA draft, and Maccabiah Games (1965)
Brody was picked 12th in the 1965 National Basketball Association Draft1965 NBA Draft
The 1965 NBA Draft was the 19th annual draft of the National Basketball Association . The draft was held on May 6, 1965, before the 1965–66 season....
by the Baltimore Bullets
Washington Wizards
The Washington Wizards are a professional basketball team based in Washington, D.C., previously known as Washington Bullets. They play in the National Basketball Association .-Early years:...
, known today as the Washington Wizards. That June he trained in a one-week Bullets rookie camp, and the team deemed him one of the best players. After the camp, the Bullets provided him with an apartment in Baltimore.
He traveled to Israel for the first time in August, with the Bullets' permission and his parents' blessing. There, he played for the USA team in the 1965 Maccabiah Games
1965 Maccabiah Games
Twenty-five nations send 1,200 athletes to compete in 21 sports at the 7th Maccabiah Games in 1965.First-time Maccabiah Games flags belonged to Iran, Jamaica, Peru, and Venezuela....
, the international Jewish Olympics. He led the team to a gold medal
Gold medal
A gold medal is typically the medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture...
.
Immediately after the Maccabiah Games, he was approached by managers of the Israeli Maccabi Tel Aviv
Maccabi Tel Aviv (basketball)
Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv B.C. is a professional Israeli basketball club based in Tel Aviv. The team plays in three leagues: the Euroleague, the Israeli Basketball Super League, and the Adriatic League....
basketball team. They asked him to join the team, in order to help elevate Israeli basketball to a higher level. Others joined in asking Brody to stay in Israel after the tournament, including the iconic eye-patch-wearing Israeli general Moshe Dayan
Moshe Dayan
Moshe Dayan was an Israeli military leader and politician. The fourth Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces , he became a fighting symbol to the world of the new State of Israel...
, the Israeli Minister of Sports, and Ministry of Education officials. At that point, the Israeli team had never survived past the first round in the European Cup basketball championships.
Israel, as Brody put it, had opened his eyes. He had never previously traveled anywhere outside the U.S. Before he arrived in Israel, all he knew about it was what he had studied in Hebrew school
Hebrew school
Hebrew school can be either the Jewish equivalent of Sunday school - an educational regimen separate from secular education, focusing on topics of Jewish history and learning the Hebrew language, or a primary, secondary or college level educational institution where some or all of the classes are...
. To his surprise, rather than arriving in Biblical Israel (with people riding camels and living in tents), he found himself in a modern society in which for the first time he met Jews from around the globe. The experience was a culture shock, and he was attracted to the culture and the everyday life. It changed the NBA-bound basketball player's goals in life. Eventually, because he was Jewish he agreed to take up the challenge and stay. His decision completely changed Israeli basketball.
Brody first returned to the United States, however, and completed his master's degree
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
in educational psychology
Educational psychology
Educational psychology is the study of how humans learn in educational settings, the effectiveness of educational interventions, the psychology of teaching, and the social psychology of schools as organizations. Educational psychology is concerned with how students learn and develop, often focusing...
at Illinois. In August 1966, the NBA's St. Louis Hawks traded a veteran guard and a draft pick to the Bullets for the rights to Brody, but Brody chose to play basketball in Israel rather than in the NBA.
Early Israeli basketball career (1966–69)
Brody returned to Israel in 1966 to "take up that challenge", help an entire country rather than just one team, and take one year out of his life to play for Maccabi Tel Aviv. He felt he could do something "special". Ralph Klein, Israel's most successful coach at the time, said that up until the enthusiastic Brody's arrival, Israelis had only viewed basketball as a fun game. But within a year, with his serious attitude and his inspirational commitment, Brody had inculcated his teammates with his view of basketball as a way of life. At his urging, the team doubled the number of practices it held every week.To capitalize on Brody's quickness and speed, his coach abandoned the team's formerly slow pace in favor of a fast-paced motion game, built around fast breaks. Brody was the most dominant player in the Euroleague in 1966–67. In 1967, he was named Israel's Sportsman of the Year. The team made it through the first, second, and third rounds of the league playoffs and reached the European Cup
Euroleague
Euroleague Basketball, commonly known as the Euroleague, is the highest level tier and most important professional club basketball competition in Europe, with teams from up to 18 different countries, members of FIBA Europe. For sponsorship reasons, for five seasons starting with 2010–2011, it is...
Championships, finishing second in the league.
For the first time, the Israeli Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Israel
The Prime Minister of Israel is the head of the Israeli government and the most powerful political figure in Israel . The prime minister is the country's chief executive. The official residence of the prime minister, Beit Rosh Hamemshala is in Jerusalem...
(Levi Eshkol
Levi Eshkol
' served as the third Prime Minister of Israel from 1963 until his death from a heart attack in 1969. He was the first Israeli Prime Minister to die in office.-Biography:...
), the Israeli Defense Forces Chief of Staff, and Knesset
Knesset
The Knesset is the unicameral legislature of Israel, located in Givat Ram, Jerusalem.-Role in Israeli Government :The legislative branch of the Israeli government, the Knesset passes all laws, elects the President and Prime Minister , approves the cabinet, and supervises the work of the government...
members came to games. Demand for tickets to games in the team's 5,000-seat stadium was so high that they became exceedingly difficult to obtain. In his down time, Brody coached Israeli soldiers when they were off duty from guarding Israel's border against its Arab neighbors. The experience, and the excitement Brody generated, made a deep impression on him. He had a vision of what he could accomplish, and saw the positive impact on the Israeli people's morale whenever Maccabi Tel Aviv beat a team in Europe. As he put it: "I felt it was bigger than me, and had to be continued, because I saw what the results were."
He had initially intended to help Israeli basketball for only one year. But that one year, and the excitement it generated (while at the same time, in the days preceding the June 1967 Six Day War, Egypt and Syria were threatening to push the Israelis into the sea), pulled Brody into a second year. As the war was about to break out, the U.S. State Department sent him a telegram advising him to leave Israel. Instead of heeding the advice, he volunteered his services to lead Israeli soldiers at the Jordanian border in athletic exercises, as he stayed in Israel through the war.
U.S. military service (1969–70)
Brody returned to the U.S. in 1969, to fulfill his military duty during the Vietnam WarVietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
. He first took "Advanced Infantry Preparation for Vietnam". He then played for two years for the U.S. Army and United States Armed Forces
United States armed forces
The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. They consist of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast Guard.The United States has a strong tradition of civilian control of the military...
All Star Teams as a starting guard, while Israelis worried over the impact of his departure. He also played for the USA Men's National Basketball Team, which finished third at the 1970 FIBA World Championship
1970 FIBA World Championship
The 1970 FIBA World Championship was an international basketball competition hosted by Yugoslavia at Sarajevo, Split, Karlovac, Skopje and Ljubljana, from May 10 to 24 , 1970...
in Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
, Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
, in May 1970. During that championship competition, he received a letter from Moshe Dayan, who asked him to return to Israel.
Later Israeli basketball career (1970–80)
After the United States military released him, Brody returned to Israel to live. He made aliyahAliyah
Aliyah is the immigration of Jews to the Land of Israel . It is a basic tenet of Zionist ideology. The opposite action, emigration from Israel, is referred to as yerida . The return to the Holy Land has been a Jewish aspiration since the Babylonian exile...
and became an Israeli citizen towards the end of 1970. The Israeli government called him up to its military that year, and he served in the Israeli Army. Later, as a reserve
Military reserve force
A military reserve force is a military organization composed of citizens of a country who combine a military role or career with a civilian career. They are not normally kept under arms and their main role is to be available to fight when a nation mobilizes for total war or to defend against invasion...
in the Israel Defense Forces
Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces , commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew acronym Tzahal , are the military forces of the State of Israel. They consist of the ground forces, air force and navy. It is the sole military wing of the Israeli security forces, and has no civilian jurisdiction within Israel...
, he was tasked with supporting the Israeli Air Force
Israeli Air Force
The Israeli Air Force is the air force of the State of Israel and the aerial arm of the Israel Defense Forces. It was founded on May 28, 1948, shortly after the Israeli Declaration of Independence...
, in which his son Ron later served.
At the 27-country 1973 Maccabiah Games
1973 Maccabiah Games
The 1973 Maccabiah Games were held in the shadow of the Munich massacre. 60,000 spectators packed Ramat Gan Stadium as Golda Meir and Abba Eban paid homage to the slain athletes.Esther Roth of Israel won the 100-meter race in 11.75, as well as the 200-meter....
, dedicated to the 11 Israeli athletes killed in the Munich Massacre
Munich massacre
The Munich massacre is an informal name for events that occurred during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Bavaria in southern West Germany, when members of the Israeli Olympic team were taken hostage and eventually killed by the Palestinian group Black September. Members of Black September...
at the 1972 Olympics
1972 Summer Olympics
The 1972 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event held in Munich, West Germany, from August 26 to September 11, 1972....
, he was captain of the Israeli basketball team and given the honor of lighting the opening torch. He led the national team to a gold medal, as they beat a U.S. team led by Ernie Grunfeld
Ernie Grunfeld
Ernest "Ernie" Grunfeld is the General Manager of the Washington Wizards. He was also once a professional basketball player...
in the finals.
Brody played for Maccabi Tel Aviv until 1980. He won ten Israeli championships with the team, and six Israel State Cups, in what has been described as a "stellar" and "amazing" career. With Maccabi Tel Aviv he appeared in 81 European Cup
Euroleague
Euroleague Basketball, commonly known as the Euroleague, is the highest level tier and most important professional club basketball competition in Europe, with teams from up to 18 different countries, members of FIBA Europe. For sponsorship reasons, for five seasons starting with 2010–2011, it is...
games, scoring 1,378 points. Brody was also selected to the European All Star Team.
Brody also played for the Israeli National Team
Israel national basketball team
The Israeli national basketball team is the basketball team that represents Israel in international competition.The Israeli team has participated 25 times in the European championship tournament. Their best achievements were a silver medal in Eurobasket 1979, and 5th place in 1953 and 1977...
, scoring 1,219 points in 78 games. With that, he played on national basketball teams of both the U.S. and Israel, and served in the armies of both countries. When the Israeli Omri Casspi
Omri Casspi
Omri Casspi is an Israeli professional basketball player. He is under contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers, but is playing for Maccabi Tel Aviv B.C. during the 2011 NBA lockout...
was drafted in the first round of the 2009 NBA draft by the Sacramento Kings
Sacramento Kings
The Sacramento Kings are a professional basketball team based in Sacramento, California, United States. They are currently members of the Western Conference of the National Basketball Association...
to play in the U.S., Brody called it "the completion of a circle".
The European Championship; "We are on the map!"
The highlight of his career came in 1977. It was the apex of the Cold WarCold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
, and the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
was boycotting Israel. In the first round of the European Cup basketball championship, Maccabi Tel Aviv defeated Madrid, 94–85. In the second round, it beat Brno
Brno
Brno by population and area is the second largest city in the Czech Republic, the largest Moravian city, and the historical capital city of the Margraviate of Moravia. Brno is the administrative centre of the South Moravian Region where it forms a separate district Brno-City District...
, Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
, for the first time, 91–76, on February 15, 1977.
In the European Cup semi-finals, Maccabi Tel Aviv was matched against CSKA Moscow
PBC CSKA Moscow
PBC CSKA Moscow is a Russian professional basketball team that is based in Moscow, Russia. The club is a member of the VTB United League. It is often referred to in the West as "Red Army" for its past affiliation with the Soviet Army. CSKA has won two titles between 2006 and 2009 in Europe's...
—the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
team. CSKA Moscow was a powerhouse. The Soviet Army team had won the prior four European Cup basketball titles, and had been undefeated during those four years. Six of its players had played on the Soviet team that had defeated the United States in the Olympics, and their captain was Sergei Belov
Sergei Belov
Sergei Alexandrovich Belov is a former basketball player, most notably playing for the Soviet Union at the Olympic Games. He trained at Trud Voluntary Sports Society and later at Armed Forces sports society.- Career :...
(who years later recalled that Brody was one of his toughest opponents). And the Communists were well-known for using sports to glorify what they billed as their supremacy over the West.
The Soviet Union had broken off diplomatic relations with Israel a decade earlier, and politically and militarily backed Israel's Arab enemies. For political reasons, therefore, CSKA Moscow refused to play in Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
(which would have resulted in a technical defeat). And the Soviets also refused to grant visas to the Israelis, to allow them to come play in Moscow. In the end, Maccabi Tel Aviv's "home game" was played in the small, neutral town of Virton
Virton
Virton is the most southerly town in Belgium and the administrative centre of a Walloon municipality and district of the same name, located in the Belgian province of Luxembourg...
, Belgium.
The game took place in an emotional and politically charged atmosphere. It was of huge symbolic value for Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, and for many Israelis who ordinarily had no interest in basketball. The game pitted the capitalist West against the Communist East, and Israel against the country that was supplying its enemies with weapons. The game also matched the country of Israel, with a total of a mere 4 million inhabitants, against the Soviets, with their 290 million people. The newspaper Maariv
Maariv
Maariv is a Hebrew language daily newspaper published in Israel. It is second in sales after Yedioth Ahronoth and third in readership after Yedioth Ahronoth and Israel HaYom. In a TGI survey comparing the last half of 2009 with the same period in 2008, Maariv saw its market share fall slightly...
billed the February 17, 1977, game as "the fight between David and Goliath." Most of Israel's population watched the game, which was broadcast on Israel's only TV channel at the time.
Maccabi Tel Aviv upset the heavily favored Soviets, 91–79. Enthusiastic fans carried Brody off the court on their shoulders. The feeling among Israelis was not only that CSKA Moscow had been defeated, but that a victory–albeit small–had been achieved against the mighty Soviet Union. The game has for decades been recognized as a key event in the forging of Israel's national identity. Even decades later, it was being replayed repeatedly on Israeli television.
"We are on the map!" proclaimed an elated, euphoric Brody in his heavily American-accented Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
, as a TV announcer pushed a microphone in front of him for a post-game quote, while people danced the hora around him in excitement and celebration. "And we are staying on the map – not only in sports, but in everything."
The remark was spontaneous, and unprepared. As Brody put it, it just "came out of my heart, at that instant." Then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin
Yitzhak Rabin
' was an Israeli politician, statesman and general. He was the fifth Prime Minister of Israel, serving two terms in office, 1974–77 and 1992 until his assassination in 1995....
called Brody into his office, and told him that Brody's statement had brought tears to his eyes, and had immeasurably impacted the Israeli people's morale.
The phrase "We are on the map!" ("anachnu al hamapa, ve'anahnu nisharim al hamapa!"), a literal translation of an English phrase into his adopted language, but a novel saying in Hebrew, became a new, popular phrase in Israel. It reflected a physical victory by the nascent Jewish Zionist idea, and national pride. It became Israel's most famous quote. The phrase was as significant for Israelis as U.S. astronaut Neil Armstrong
Neil Armstrong
Neil Alden Armstrong is an American former astronaut, test pilot, aerospace engineer, university professor, United States Naval Aviator, and the first person to set foot upon the Moon....
's statement – "One small step for man; one giant step for mankind" – had been for Americans, vis-a-vis the space age.
The saying became a staple of Israeli speech. Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin
Menachem Begin
' was a politician, founder of Likud and the sixth Prime Minister of the State of Israel. Before independence, he was the leader of the Zionist militant group Irgun, the Revisionist breakaway from the larger Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah. He proclaimed a revolt, on 1 February 1944,...
co-opted the phrase as an election campaign slogan in 1981. It was also used by former Soviet refusenik
Refusenik
Refusenik originally referred to citizens of the former Soviet Union who were refused permission to emigrate.Refusenik or refusnik may also refer to:*An Israeli conscientious objector, see Refusal to serve in the Israeli military...
and Israeli Yisrael BaAliyah party leader and Industry and Trade Minister Natan Sharansky
Natan Sharansky
Natan Sharansky was born in Stalino, Soviet Union on 20 January 1948 to a Jewish family. He graduated with a degree in applied mathematics from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. As a child, he was a chess prodigy. He performed in simultaneous and blindfold displays, usually against...
, in 1998. The Israeli National Lottery Board spoofed it in a television commercial, in which a winning racehorse with an American accent stated: "We are on the racetrack, and we will stay on the racetrack." Similarly, when Israel's Davis Cup team
Israel Davis Cup team
The Israel Davis Cup team represents Israel in Davis Cup tennis competition and is governed by the Israel Tennis Association....
beat the powerhouse Russian Davis Cup team in a shocking victory in the 2009 Davis Cup tennis quarter-finals, Prime Minister Netanyahu telephoned the Israel Tennis Association
Israel Tennis Association
The Israel Tennis Association , founded in 1950, is the national governing body for the sport of tennis in Israel. The ITA governs the arrangements for Israeli tennis leagues and tournaments, Israel's Davis Cup participation, and Israeli participation in tennis tournaments abroad...
Director General and echoed Brody's statement of over three decades earlier, saying: "We're back on the map".
Back home, hundreds of thousands of Israelis celebrated spontaneously in the streets, and 150,000 in Tel Aviv congregated in celebration in what is now Rabin Square
Rabin Square
Rabin Square , formerly Kings of Israel Square , is the largest open public city square in central Tel Aviv, Israel. Over the years it has been the site of numerous political rallies, parades, and other public events...
. Many jumped into its fountain, splashing in water and champagne. Recalling the moment, an Israeli quoted in the book From Beirut to Jerusalem
From Beirut to Jerusalem
From Beirut to Jerusalem is a book written by Thomas L. Friedman chronicling his days as a reporter in Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War and his journey in 1984 from Beirut to Jerusalem to cover unfolding events. The current updated version, published in 1995, includes a new chapter...
told Thomas Friedman
Thomas Friedman
Thomas Lauren Friedman is an American journalist, columnist and author. He writes a twice-weekly column for The New York Times. He has written extensively on foreign affairs including global trade, the Middle East, and environmental issues and has won the Pulitzer Prize three times.-Personal...
that on one level it was Brody the star basketball player and his teammates beating the Russians, but on another level it was "my grandfather beating them. It was our retroactive victory over the Cossacks." Brody was credited with being so inspiring that basketball became Israel's number one sport, surpassing soccer.
The European Cup finals were played in Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
, Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
, on April 7, 1977. Yugoslavia was a Communist country with which Israel did not have diplomatic relations, and the El Al
El Al
El Al Israel Airlines Ltd , trading as El Al , is the flag carrier of Israel. It operates scheduled domestic and international services and cargo flights to Europe, North America, Africa and the Far East from its main base in Ben Gurion International Airport...
plane that brought the Maccabi Tel Aviv players over to it for the game was the first Israeli plane ever allowed to land there. The Israelis were pitted against the highly favored Mobilgirgi Varese
Pallacanestro Varese
-Notable players:-Notable coaches: Aleksandar Nikolić Nico Messina Sandro Gamba Edoardo Rusconi Joe Isaac Carlo Recalcati Valerio Bianchini Ruben Magnano-Sponsorship names:Through the years, due to sponsorship deals, it has been also known as:...
, the champions of Italy. Mobilgirgi Varese had beaten the Israelis twice that year, and had beaten them in the finals ten years earlier when Brody first started playing for Maccabi Tel Aviv. Back in Israel, the entire country watched the game on television.
Maccabi Tel Aviv went on to defeat Mobilgirgi Varese by one point, 78–77, in the European Cup finals. Brody, as the team captain, received the European Cup from FIBA's Secretary General, and lifted it over his head.
It was Israel's first European Cup Basketball Championship in the 23-nation league. It was also the first time that Israel had won a championship of that caliber in any sport, and was, at the time, Israel's greatest achievement in international sports. The victory greatly lifted the spirit and morale of the country. In Israel, 200,000 people gathered to celebrate in Israel's National Park, and the event was celebrated as a national holiday. When the team returned home, it found 150,000 Israelis waiting for it. Brody himself became widely known as an Israeli national hero, and as a symbol of Israel's achievements.
In 1978, the team was a semi-finalist at the European Cup basketball championships. When Brody retired from basketball in 1980, a special official retirement game
Testimonial match
A testimonial match or testimonial game, often referred to simply as a testimonial, is a practice in some sports, notably football and especially in the United Kingdom, where a club puts on a match in honour of a player for service to the club....
was arranged in his honor, and the European All Star Team arrived in Israel to play against Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Honors
Brody became the first sportsman to be awarded the Israel PrizeIsrael Prize
The Israel Prize is an award handed out by the State of Israel and is largely regarded as the state's highest honor. It is presented annually, on Israeli Independence Day, in a state ceremony in Jerusalem, in the presence of the President, the Prime Minister, the Knesset chairperson, and the...
, Israel's highest civilian honor, in 1979. It was presented to him by Israeli President Yitzhak Navon
Yitzhak Navon
Yitzhak Navon is an Israeli politician, diplomat, and author. He served as the fifth President of Israel between 1978 and 1982 as a member of the center-left Alignment party...
, in recognition of his unique contribution to Israeli society and the State in the field of sports. The Israel Prize Committee noted that he was "an excellent athlete who set an outstanding example" for Israeli immigrants and absorption.
During his basketball career, he was also twice named Israeli Basketball Player of the Year. Brody was given the honor of lighting the torch at the opening of the 1981 Maccabiah Games
1981 Maccabiah Games
The 1981 11th Maccabiah Games brought 3,450 athletes to Israel from 30 nations.The 30-sports menu included rugby union, sailing and softball for the first time.New facilities for squash, wrestling, karate, and judo were introduced....
at Ramat Gan Stadium, in front of 45,000 fans and sportsmen from 54 countries. In 1988 he was voted the Israeli athlete who most influenced Israeli sports, in a poll by the Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv. In 1996, he was elected the University of Illinois "Man of the Year", in recognition of his accomplishments both within and outside of sports, and awarded the school's "I" Award for his achievements.
In 2004, he was given the honor of lighting a torch at the 56th Israeli Independence Day
Independence Day
An Independence Day is an annual event commemorating the anniversary of a nation's assumption of independent statehood, usually after ceasing to be a colony or part of another nation or state, and more rarely after the end of a military occupation...
ceremony on Mount Herzl
Mount Herzl
Mount Herzl , also Har HaZikaron , is the national cemetery of Israel on the west side of Jerusalem. It is named for Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern political Zionism. Herzl's tomb lies at the top of the hill. Yad Vashem, which commemorates the Holocaust, lies to the west of Mt. Herzl....
. He and Maccabi Tel Aviv were the first non-U.S. basketball team to be honored at the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, in a special exhibition in 2008. That same year, he was voted the 63rd-greatest Israeli in a poll of the Israeli public by Ynet
Ynet
Ynet is the most popular Israeli news and general content website. It is owned by the same conglomerate that operates Yediot Ahronot, the country's secondleading daily newspaper...
(to determine the 200 Greatest Israelis), two behind former Prime Minister Ehud Barak
Ehud Barak
Ehud Barak is an Israeli politician who served as Prime Minister from 1999 until 2001. He was leader of the Labor Party until January 2011 and holds the posts of Minister of Defense and Deputy Prime Minister in Binyamin Netanyahu's government....
, and two ahead of former acting Prime Minister Yigal Alon.
In Israel, Brody is widely recognized as a revered national hero, icon, and legend. He is a superstar, on a level similar to that of Michael Jordan
Michael Jordan
Michael Jeffrey Jordan is a former American professional basketball player, active entrepreneur, and majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats...
in the United States. Some people view him as the greatest and most famous athlete to have ever represented Israel. As Israel's first modern-day sports hero, he is a symbol of all the young country's achievements, and not only its successes in basketball. He is known by the nicknames: "Mr. Basketball", and "The man who put Israel on the Map".
Halls of Fame
In 1996, Brody was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of FameInternational Jewish Sports Hall of Fame
The International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame was opened July 7, 1981, in Netanya, Israel. It honors Jewish athletes and their accomplishments from anywhere around the world....
, and in March 2011 he was inducted into the U.S. National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. He was also inducted into the Israeli Basketball Hall of Fame. He represented Maccabi Tel Aviv as it became the first non-U.S. basketball team to be honored at the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, in a special exhibition in 2008 entitled "Putting Israel on the Map".
Basketball-related
After he retired as a player, Brody continued with Maccabi Tel Aviv as an assistant coach. He was on the team's Board of Directors until 2007, when Netanyahu approached him with regard to entering politics.In addition, he has been Maccabi Tel Aviv's volunteer liaison with the National Basketball Association since 1988, helping organize games between Maccabi Tel Aviv and various NBA teams. When New York Knicks
New York Knicks
The New York Knickerbockers, prominently known as the Knicks, are a professional basketball team based in New York City. They are part of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association...
basketball player Amar'e Stoudemire visited Israel in August 2010, Brody suggested to Stoudemire that after his NBA career ends he might wish to consider playing for Maccabi Tel Aviv. As to his response, as Brody put it—Stoudemire "didn't say no". They also discussed the possibility of a youth program exchange.
Brody was also a sports commentator for Israeli television in the early 1990s. He in addition became an instructor at the Wingate Institute
Wingate Institute
The Wingate Institute is a sports training facility located south of Netanya, Israel, established in 1957. Named after Orde Wingate, the facility serves as the host facility for numerous Israeli national teams as well as a military training base....
of Physical Fitness in Netanya. Brody serves as well on the Board of Directors of the Maccabi World Union
Maccabi World Union
The Maccabi World Union is an international Jewish sports organisation spanning 5 continents and more than 50 countries, with some 400,000 members...
(MWU), which organizes the Maccabiah Games in Israel. He was also appointed to serve on a blue-ribbon panel of experts who select recipients of the Israel Prize for athletics.
Brody was featured in a 2008 documentary entitled The Jewish Basketball Hall of Fame, Volume 1, produced by Yisrael Lifschutz. He was also featured in a book by the title: A Voice Called; Stories of Jewish Heroism, by Yossi Katz, which was published in 2010.
Business career
After retiring from playing basketball, Brody established, and was Chief Executive Officer and a co-owner of, a sporting goods export/import/distribution business named Sports United Ltd. At the same time, he ran basketball clinics across Israel. He ultimately sold the sporting goods business to his partner.Brody also was appointed the local agent of Japanese consumer goods company Mitsuboshi C.I. Co., which imported Israeli products, and was elected to the Japan-Israel Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors.
He then entered the insurance business. Brody established, owned, and managed an independent insurance firm named Tal Brody Insurance Agency in Tel Aviv. The company handled pension program
Pension fund
A pension fund is any plan, fund, or scheme which provides retirement income.Pension funds are important shareholders of listed and private companies. They are especially important to the stock market where large institutional investors dominate. The largest 300 pension funds collectively hold...
s, provident fund
Pension fund
A pension fund is any plan, fund, or scheme which provides retirement income.Pension funds are important shareholders of listed and private companies. They are especially important to the stock market where large institutional investors dominate. The largest 300 pension funds collectively hold...
s, and health and education funds for 20 years. He ultimately sold the business in 2008. He has since retired from the business world, which he calls the second stage of his life.
Philanthropy
Since retiring from basketball, Brody has initiated, volunteered for, and assisted a number of charitable organizations and efforts.He created an after-school program for Israeli children, called "Let's Play Ball!" As part of the program, he coaches basketball and gives basketball clinics to schoolchildren, members of kibbutzim, residents of development town
Development town
Development town is a term used to refer to the new settlements that were built in Israel during the 1950s in order to provide permanent housing to a large influx of Jewish refugees from Arab countries, Holocaust survivors from Europe and new immigrants , who arrived to the newly established State...
s, and soldiers in the Israeli army. The program has impacted over 200,000 children.
He is also Chairman of the Spirit of Israel (JAFI), a non-profit Jewish Agency subsidiary that he created in 1999. It raises money from the Israeli public to help underprivileged Israeli children and others, by providing for their "vital human needs" (as defined by the Jewish Agency and Keren Hayesod
Keren Hayesod
Keren Hayesod – United Israel Appeal is the central fundraising organization for Israel, with operations in 45 countries. The work of Keren Hayesod is carried out in accordance with the Keren Hayesod Law, 5716-1956, passed by the Knesset in January 1956...
). He arrived at the idea for the charity when he attended a meeting at which efforts to raise money in the U.S. for Israel were being discussed. Brody began to muse about what Israelis were doing for themselves on the charity front. As a result, he established the Spirit of Israel to raise money within Israel for Israelis. Projects included assisting Israeli senior citizens, "at risk" children, and family abuse victims.
Brody is also Sports Ambassador for Migdal Ohr and the America–Israel Friendship League (AIFL). Migdal Ohr helps at-risk, disadvantaged, impoverished, orphaned, and underprivileged Israeli children of all religions. He helped organize and promote an exhibition game between Maccabi Tel Aviv and the New York Knicks in the U.S., with all proceeds going to benefit Migdal Ohr.
In 1985, Brody joined with Herzliya and its Mayor (Eli Landau) to construct and run one of the world's largest basketball schools, designing a unique program with specially chosen coaches. The school is Bnei Herzliya. The basketball school is now run by the municipality of Herzliya, with Brody serving as its president. It provides a basketball program to 14,000 children from ages 5–18, drawn from 14 city-wide schools.
Brody also has spoken around the world for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, and for American Jewish organizations.
Political career (2008)
Brody was asked to join Yitzhak Yitzhaky's One IsraelOne Israel (1980)
One Israel was a short-lived, one-man political party in Israel led by Yitzhak Yitzhaky.-Background:The formation of One Israel during the ninth Knesset was largely precipitated by Menachem Begin's controversial decision to sign the Camp David Accords and the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty despite...
party in 1980, after he retired. But he rejected the offer. He did not view himself as a politician, and was not seeking a political career. Though he joined the Likud
Likud
Likud is the major center-right political party in Israel. It was founded in 1973 by Menachem Begin in an alliance with several right-wing and liberal parties. Likud's victory in the 1977 elections was a major turning point in the country's political history, marking the first time the left had...
party in the 1990s, he was not openly active in politics because he didn't believe that an active sportsman should involve himself in politics.
When Likud party chairman Benjamin Netanyahu
Benjamin Netanyahu
Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu is the current Prime Minister of Israel. He serves also as the Chairman of the Likud Party, as a Knesset member, as the Health Minister of Israel, as the Pensioner Affairs Minister of Israel and as the Economic Strategy Minister of Israel.Netanyahu is the first and, to...
approached him personally, however, and asked him to step forward for the country, Brody for the first time considered entering politics. Netanyahu was interested in involving people who had not formerly entered into politics. Brody found it difficult to turn away Netanyahu, who impressed upon him that it would be important to Israel for Brody to run for office. Netanyahu suggested that Brody could more effectively push the advances he was already seeking, in education, sports, immigration, absorption, and social issues, if he were a member of the Israeli Knesset
Knesset
The Knesset is the unicameral legislature of Israel, located in Givat Ram, Jerusalem.-Role in Israeli Government :The legislative branch of the Israeli government, the Knesset passes all laws, elects the President and Prime Minister , approves the cabinet, and supervises the work of the government...
.
Brody announced in August 2007 that he was seriously considering running for the Knesset in the general election, as a Likud candidate. He said in November 2008 that he felt that it was the appropriate point in his life to change careers, after having spent much of his life first playing basketball and then heading an insurance agency that managed employment benefits programs for companies. He noted that the Knesset would be a third career calling for him, as long as it allowed him to concentrate on those areas that were already his focus, such as sports, education, aliyah, the Diaspora, Israeli-American relations, and helping children who are "at risk", and that he saw it as a good way to spend the third phase of his life after basketball and business. He stressed that in his view it wasn't politics, but rather "good citizenship". But he acknowledged that when he discussed his goals with Netanyahu, the Prime Minister had replied that "in the Knesset, they call it politics."
Brody ran for a national slot (places 2–19 on Likud's list), to represent the district between Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
and Haifa
Haifa
Haifa is the largest city in northern Israel, and the third-largest city in the country, with a population of over 268,000. Another 300,000 people live in towns directly adjacent to the city including the cities of the Krayot, as well as, Tirat Carmel, Daliyat al-Karmel and Nesher...
, along the Israeli coast. He became the fourth candidate who was formerly a resident of the U.S., and was supported by Likud Anglos, Likud's English-speaking division. In a November 2008 press conference Brody and Netanyahu held, Brody said: "We need to change the situation in the country. 70% of the people think there is corruption in politics." Netanyahu introduced Brody as his future Minister of Sports and Culture. Among other things, Brody noted that Israel's amateur sports budget had declined from $35 million a year to $10 million a year, and suggested that the budget could be supplemented by working with the NBA or the National Football League
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
. He also had in mind the creation of a sports program with Birthright Israel
Birthright Israel
Taglit-Birthright Israel is a Jewish Israeli registered charity that sponsors free 10-day heritage trips to Israel. Birthright Israel's goals are to diminish the division between Israel and Jewish communities around the world and to strengthen participants' personal Jewish identity and...
Taglit to encourage aliyah. Endorsed by Netanyahu, he said that whether he won or lost, at least he would feel that he did all he could to answer Netanyahu's request that candidates with varied abilities and life experiences run for the Knesset. He joked, however, that if he were to win, he looked forward to playing basketball against President Obama, who is an intense basketball fan.
In the December 2008 Likud primaries, however, he was not elected to Likud's list of candidates. Danny Danon
Danny Danon
Danny Danon is an Israeli politician who serves as a member of the Knesset for Likud. He is chairman of World Likud and Chair of the Knesset Committee for Aliya , Absorption and Diaspora Affairs.-Biography:...
, the well-organized chairman of World Likud—who was backed by Zo Artzeinu
Zo Artzeinu
Zo Artzeinu was a political protest movement created and led by Moshe Feiglin and Shmuel Sackett in Israel to block Israeli land concessions to the Arabs in the early 1990s, especially the Oslo Accords...
co-founder Moshe Feiglin
Moshe Feiglin
Moshe Zalman Feiglin is an Israeli politician, head of the Manhigut Yehudit faction of the Likud party in Israel...
—beat him in what turned out to be an intense fight for the slot on the Likud list. Remarking on his feelings about the primaries, Brody said that he had only become involved in the political process because he thought it was the obligation of people to come forward to serve the country, but that his involvement in the process had made him aware of the fact that many local voters rely on the "professional politicians" for jobs.
Goodwill Ambassador (2010–present)
Prime Minister Netanyahu asked Brody in early 2009 to help Israel in a yet-to-be-created official position of goodwill ambassador for the country. In July 2010, Israeli Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman appointed Brody as the first international Goodwill Ambassador for Israel, to assist with Israel's international diplomacy. In that unpaid position—the only money he receives is compensation for his expenses—he speaks to audiences outside of Israel about Israel's culture, sports, and successes, and Israelis' daily lives.His trips outside Israel are coordinated by the Israeli Foreign Ministry and by Israel's embassies and consulates. He speaks at schools, universities, Jewish and non-Jewish organizations and community centers, synagogues, Christian events, African-American organizations, and fundraising events. While he seeks to encourage those people who support Israel, a major focus of his—which accords with a suggestion he was given by Harvard Law Professor Allan Dershowitz—is on those people who are as of yet undecided about Israel. His discussions with groups outside of Israel have touched on the tension between terrorism and restrictions on freedom of movement, Israel's security fence, Israel's Black Ethiopian Jews, and the role of Israeli Arabs in Israeli society. Brody said that he took on the role because it was what he wanted to do—serve the State of Israel.
Personal life
After Brody returned to Israel in 1970, he married a 20-year-old Israeli woman, Ronit Born, in a wedding that Defense Minister Moshe Dayan attended as his guest of honor. The two were married for 14 years. Brody and his second wife Tirtza, whom he married in the early 1980s, live in NetanyaNetanya
Netanya is a city in the Northern Centre District of Israel, and is the capital of the surrounding Sharon plain. It is located north of Tel Aviv, and south of Haifa between the 'Poleg' stream and Wingate Institute in the south and the 'Avichail' stream in the north.Its of beaches have made the...
in Israel. He has three children (two from his first marriage (Ron and Kareen), and a daughter Linor from his second wife's first marriage), and five grandchildren.
His American-accented Hebrew is the result of his not having formally studied the language when he arrived in Israeli—as he thought his stay would be a temporary one, rather than a decades-long one. He instead picked up the language from colloquial use. His Hebrew consequently remains a source of amusement in Israel, and has been humorously targeted by friends and family, as well as by Eretz Nehederet
Eretz Nehederet
Eretz Nehederet is a satirical Israeli television show, which made its debut on November 7, 2003. It features satirical references to current affairs of the past week through parodies of the people involved, as well as the thoughts of recurring characters. The program is one of the most watched...
, Israel's version of Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
.
See also
- List of Israel Prize recipients
- List of select Jewish basketball players
External links
- Facebook page
- Tal Brody Legacy site
- Tal Brody profile; International Jewish Sports Hall of FameInternational Jewish Sports Hall of FameThe International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame was opened July 7, 1981, in Netanya, Israel. It honors Jewish athletes and their accomplishments from anywhere around the world....
- "One on One with Mac TA legend Tal Brody," Ruthie Blum Leibowitz, The Jerusalem Post, December 6, 2006
- Adventures in the Brain Trade, by Allan Nutkiewicz, 2006, ISBN 1847285880, fiction novel featuring Brody
- "From Tal Brody to European Champions: Early Americanization and the" Golden Age" of Israeli Basketball, 1965–1979", Yair Galily and Michael Bar-Eli, Journal of Sport History, 2005