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Due to historical and political reasons from the days even before the state of Israel itself was founded, clubs in every sport belonged to sports organizations. The biggest and most famous sport organizations are Hapoel and Maccabi. In every town and village, especially in football and basketball, local teams belonging to Hapoel or Maccabi can be found. Maccabi Tel Aviv, due to its great dynasty and domination, became synonymous with "Maccabi" despite there being endless other teams that carry the name. For many years, the same was true of Hapoel Tel Aviv, the long-time #2 team in Israel. But in the last decade, it's impossible to ignore the challenge to the "ownership" of the name "Hapoel" - at least internationally. In Israel, people may still debate whether it's "Hapoel Jerusalem" or "Hapoel Tel Aviv" you mean when you say "Hapoel", but across Europe there is no doubt anymore. The "Hapoel" equivalent of Maccabi is coming from Jerusalem. The rise of Hapoel Jerusalem started in the early 1990s and reached its peak on April 13, 2004 with the team's surprise conquest of the ULEB Cup trophy. An 83-72 win over legendary Real Madrid made Hapoel the only Israeli team other than Maccabi to win a European title. Will Solomon, Tunji Awujobi, Kelly McCarty, Doron Sheffer and coach Sharon Drucker went down to the history books, and put the capital city of Israel on the basketball map, too.
Hapoel Jerusalem's history dates to the 1940s, although some say even to the 1930s. Books mention a basketball team from Jerusalem that played in the fourth "Hapoel Games" in 1935, but that was not yet an official basketball club. In 1955 when the Israeli League was formalized, Hapoel took part, but won only one out of 22 games and was relegated to the second division. After several seasons moving between the first and second divisions, the 1960's brought Hapoel almost a decade of conistency in the top one. Back in those days, Hapoel was the only team in Israel to play in a gym and not on an outdoor court. As such, the team faced big difficulties to win under such different conditions on the road, but very few teams left Hapoel's arena with a win. In 1958, Hapoel landed David Kaminski, one of Israel's finest shooters ever. He carried the team back to the first division and a fourth-place finish there in 1961. Even though a dispute saw Kaminski leave for archrival Maccabi Jerusalem, his departure didn't prevent him from being voted in 1990 as the best player in Hapoel Jerusalem history. He even impressed a new generation by hitting one three-pointer after another in a veterans game. "I've been waiting for this day for 13 years," said one of Hapoel's players after a shocking 63-60 win over Maccabi Tel Aviv in the 1964-65 season. That was the first time Hapoel enjoyed this pleasure - and the last one for the next 25 years. After nine consecutive seasons in the top division, Hapoel was once again regulated and spent the 70's going up and down the ladder between the leagues but also improved upon its best achievement by finishing third in the top league one year.
After six years in a row in the second division, Hapoel was back among the best in 1986 and on the rise ever since. In the early 1990s, the team's first foreign head coach became one of the most famous off-court stories in Israeli basketball. After a humiliating, 54-point loss, the coach asked the club chairman where the team would eat that night. "The team? I still don't know," the chairman told him. "You? On an airplane." A former player - Yoram Kharush - took over the bench and, despite that huge loss, led the team to the playoffs where even elimination by Maccabi in the semifinals came with a big smile. Hapoel lost the first game only in the last seconds and the series 3-1, with that victory the first against Maccabi in Tel Aviv in the club's history. Doron Shefa and Erez Khazan - a local duo who became symbols of the club for many years - were the big names in that era, along with Emir Mutapcic, later head coach of Alba Berlin and the Bosnian National Team, and David Blatt, the current Benetton Treviso boss. A few months later came another historic moment, the first game of the new season, Hapoel vs. Maccabi again, in Tel Aviv. Hapoel stunned everyone with a classic 66-89 win that will forever remain in the memories of its fans. Hapoel continued to play a major role at the top of the league, after Coach Kharush was called again and again in mid-season to save the team due to a bad start. Once again, Hapoel humiliated Maccabi with a 96-69 home win, but had to wait several more years before the experience blossomed into titles.
Before the 1995-96 season, Hapoel hit the jackpot. Its former player, Nakhum Manbar, became a big millioner and decided to build a team that could challenge Maccabi. On the sidelines, Hapoel had a coach by the name of Pini Gershon. His players were fan favorites Adi Gordon and Puppy Turgeman, veteran Doron Shefa, Norris Coleman and Billy Thompson, the most legendary player in Hapoel's history, who had already won both NCAA and NBA titles. Together, they landed Hapoel's first trophy, the Israeli Cup. In the cup finals, Hapoel faced none other than Maccabi, in Tel Aviv, where the hosts had a former NBA all-star, Tom Chambers. It came down to a 65-65 tie with less than 30 seconds to go and Hapoel had the ball. Gordon drove and released a high finger roll over Chambers to win 65-67 for Hapoel's first title ever. The following year Hapoel made it back-to-back cups with another shocking win over Maccabi, 89-82, behind 32 points from Gordon. Hapoel was not only a new power in Israel, but was making noise in Europe, too. That same season, it went higher than ever, making the quarterfinals of the Saporta Cup on a free throw with 2 seconds left in the previous round by, once again, Gordon.
This achievement paved the way to Hapoel's first Euroleague appearance, in 1997-98, and though that competition was a little too much at the time, the following season was one of the team's best ever. Despite Gordon having announced his retirement, Hapoel finished the Israeli League regular season in the first place, with one fewer loss than Maccabi. The team featured Turgeman, Derek Hamilton, former Maccabi player Radisav Curcic and a homegrown teenage talent, Erez Katz, who five years later would help lift the ULEB Cup trophy. Several days before that season's playoff final series against Maccabi, however, came "the pizza case", so named for a delivery boy who discloses a meeting between Curcic and Maccabi's management. The meeting shook Hapoel, and the first game went to Oded Kattash and Maccabi, who went on to win the series 3-1 and take the title. Earlier that season, Kattash had also made the free throws after a controversial foul call that prevented Hapoel from winning its third Israeli Cup title in four years.
In the summer of 2000 Hapoel had a sharp nose for the changes in Europe. While Maccabi choose to play in the Suproleague, Hapoel picked the ULEB's Euroleague and was one of the 24 teams that founded the Euroleague as we know it today. Another bad start of the season resulted another arrival of coach Kharush and the grounds were set for the next season. After the Israeli under-20 national team won silver at the 2000 European Championships, Hapoel decided to bet on that talented generation, signing five of the silver medalists. Although they lacked big domestic success, the team established the club's best international finish, making the semifinals of the Saporta Cup. Hapoel's biggest date with destiny was waiting, however, in a new competition that it joined in 2003-04: the ULEB Cup.
Hapoel's regular season run in its debut ULEB Cup season gave no indication it might be champion later. Out of 36 teams, it was one of only four to qualify for the elimination rounds with just six victories. In other words, 12 teams had better regular season records. Also, Hapoel could only claim one victory over another winning team in the group. The elimination rounds weren't much better, as Hapoel split all three two-game series it played. It won by 6 points despite a second-game loss against Prokom Trefl of Poland and by 6 again despite losing the quarterfinal series final at Lietuvos Rytas. In the semis, Hapoel faced again Reflex, to whom it had lost twice in the regular season. The key game of the semis was the first, which Hapoel lost, but only by a point, 70-69. In the second game, Will Solomon exploded for 34 points and Tunji Awojobi added 21 to lift Hapoel to a 79-76 victory. In the final, Hapoel faced mighty Real Madrid, but if experience mattered, it did not show. Hapoel was in control throughout, and when it won the third quarter by 11 points behind the sharp shooting of MVP Kelly McCarty, was not in danger the rest of the way. Sheffer and Solomon added 15 points each, while Awojobi had a double-double of 12 points and 10 rebounds. The unheralded Hapoel bench was led by Katz and Moshe Mizrahi. For the first time, Israel had another continental title winner, bringing a trophy home to the capital city of Jerusalem.
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