Maccabi sets preseason visit with New York Knicks
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A year after playing four preseason games against NBA rivals, Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv is returning to North America next fall to face the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden, both clubs announced on Tuesday. Maccabi was represented by legendary star Tal Brody at a press conference in New York City to announce the game, which will be held on October 11. Proceeds from the game will benefit Migdal Ohr (Tower of Light), Israel’s leading charity helping at-risk, impoverished, orphaned and underprivileged children. The press conference also included Knicks president and head coach Isiah Thomas; the Israeli consul in New York, Arye Mekel; Israeli basketball player Shay Doron of the WNBA's New York Liberty; and Tony Promer, vice president of Migdal Or.
The game on October 11 will mark the first time that Maccabi will play in Madison Square Garden and the first time it will face the Knicks. Maccabi is the only non-NBA club ever to defeat an NBA team on North American soil, having done so in October of 2005 against the Raptors in Toronto, Canada. Last season, Maccabi played NBA opponents twice in the first NBA Europe Live tournament, in Paris and Cologne, Germany, and then travelled to play both the Cleveland Cavaliers and Toronto Raptors in their cities. The previous preseason, Maccabi won in Toronto and also played a road game against the Orlando Magic. Maccabi's history of exhibition games with NBA teams dates back to the late 1970s. In its very first game of the kind, against the defending NBA champion Washington Bullets on September 8, 1978, Maccabi also won, that time at home in Tel Aviv.
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Euroleague.net
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