Maccabi Electra 2009-10, team profile
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2008-09 RESULTS
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Euroleague
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Regular Season
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6-4
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Top 16
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2-4
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Israeli League
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Regular Season
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19-3
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Playoffs
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Champion
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Cup
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Eighthfinals
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Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv comes off a disappointing Euroleague season in which it missed the playoffs after lifting two titles and making four final appearances since 2004. No team will be motivated than Maccabi, the perennial Israeli League champion, as the club has landed new players and set the bar high again in an effort to make their fans celebrate what everyone in Tel Aviv hopes will be a successful Euroleague season. Maccabi has played a major role in European basketball history, putting Israel on the sports' continental map. Only two clubs – Real Madrid and CSKA – have more than Maccabi’s five European crowns and only one –Madrid – has appeared in more championship games than Maccabi’s 13. Its first European title, in 1977, showed that Maccabi was here to stay. Its second, in 1981, was all the extra proof anyone needed. A formula of complementing the best Israeli players with the most select players from abroad always seems to work for Maccabi. Players like Miki Berkowitz, Tal Brody, Motti Aroesti, Kevin Magee, Doron Jamchy, Earl Williams and Aulcie Perry and more recently Derrick Sharp, Arriel McDonald, Anthony Parker and Nikola Vujcic belong to the very elite of all-time European basketball greats. A Suproleague title in 2001, Maccabi's first in 20 years, broke a string of continental title-game appearances that ended without trophies. For the next crown, Maccabi fans didn’t have to wait long. It came in 2003-04, to top off a season to remember for all Maccabi fans. Sharp’s miracle three-pointer to survive the Top 16 that year has become one of the classic shots in European basketball history. Once in the 2004 Final Four, Maccabi turned to record breaking with a 118-point title game performance that had to be seen to be believed and after a 2004-05 title repeat nearly as commanding, everyone believed. Sarunas Jasikevicius, Parker, Tal Burstein, Maceo Baston and Vujcic, coached by Pini Gershon, made up the first team to repeat as Euroleague champs since 1991. Maccabi returned to the Euroleague title game in 2006, but CSKA stopped the Israeli powerhouse from a three-peat. CSKA and head coach Ettore Messina have remained a thorn in Maccabi’s side, keeping the yellow-and-blue from the 2007 Final Four with a win in the third-and-deciding game of that season’s Quarterfinal Playoffs. The following season, Maccabi beat Real Madrid in a classic Top 16 overtime performance on the road to advance to the quarterfinals and later stormed back from 18 down to beat Montepaschi at the Final Four. Again CSKA stood in the way, turning back Maccabi in the final and stepping up the rivalry between the clubs along the way. Last season Maccabi recovered from a rare domestic hiccup to win another Israeli League title - the 48th in club history - but failed to compete at its usual high level in the Euroleague, bowing out in the Top 16 with a 2-4 record. The club is now ready to be loyal to its recent past, as a sea of yellow fans will follow Maccabi everywhere in Europe and will turn Nokia Arena once again into one of the toughest courts in the 2009-10 Euroleague.
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