The United States Men’s “Masters” over-45 basketball team won the bronze medal at the 19th World Maccabiah Games in Israel July 17-30, defeating the Israelis in a rematch of their tournament-opening loss.
The team, which included three North Shore residents who have played with each other in various recreational leagues for the last two decades, played four games in as many days, without much opportunity to rid itself of jet lag.
“That was tough because we hadn’t seen each other in over a month and the other countries were probably tougher and must have had a few practices already, and we really didn’t have that opportunity,” said Jeff Sorkin, 46, of Roslyn.
The Maccabiah Games, widely considered to be the Jewish world’s equivalent of the Olympic Games, take place every four years and are comprised of 31 men’s and women’s sports that span a variety of age levels.
The United States’ over-45 team was coached by Steven Groothius, the varsity boy’s basketball coach at Dr. Krop High School in Miami, Fla.
Tryouts took place last fall in Chicago and the team practiced earlier this year in Miami and New York City.
But in its first game, the United States faced Israel, a team full of former professional ballplayers that included Doron Jamchi, who holds a number of national scoring records.
“When you assemble a team, it needs to practice and be together,” said Steve Cronin, 46, of Great Neck. “We had three or four days of practice in eight months, so going against Israel, guys who are 45 and over and a lot of them are playing in their second Masters, we knew it was going to be a challenge.”
The home squad nearly ran the Americans back across the Atlantic, coasting to a 25-point win.
“They moved the ball so well and they were really good shooters,” said Ayal Hod, 46, of Great Neck. “They made the long shots. We really couldn’t play our style, which was to run the ball up on them. They took that aspect of it away from us.”
Hod, the former all-time leading scorer at Yeshiva University, said the Israelis also had a secret weapon against the English-speaking American team – they communicated in Hebrew.
“I was one of the few who understood them,” Hod said. “I used to do that playing with my brother and now they were doing it to us. They were telling each other out loud what they wanted each other to do.”
The evening of the defeat, the team went out for dinner to analyze what went wrong against Israel and prepare for its next opponent.
“Sometimes losing that big, you get your focus back, and we really played poorly right off the bat,” Sorkin said. “We talked about it as a team and came out the next game and really took it to Australia.”
In its next game, the United States defeated Australia 55-38, but dropped the next two against Brazil and Russia.
At the end of the round robin-style tournament, Israel, Australia and Brazil were tied at 3-1 in the standings, and due to the point-differential tiebreaker, the United States earned a rematch in the bronze medal game against Maccabiah’s home team.
“We were jacked for that game because even though we lost by 25 to Israel the first time, we had more games under our belt and felt more confident going in,” Cronin said. “All the bonding, we really became brothers. It became bigger than just the game.”
But the Americans were playing with somewhat heavy hearts as well, as former United States “masters” basketball player Mark Sack, who had been following the team throughout its run, had a heart attack during the Russia game and was recovering at a local hospital.
“Before the game against Russia, we went to visit him in the hospital,” Hod said. “Can you imagine? He’s watching this game and it’s coming down to the wire and he used to play for the United States and then he has a heart attack?”
Hod said the team played its best game against Israel July 29, having had a few days to rest, and the Americans won the rematch by 12 points.
That afternoon, the team prayed at the western wall and shared its final team dinner to bond for one final time as members of Team USA.
“You make new family for life, and for me having my two sons there with me, they have 11 uncles now,” said Cronin, whose sons Jeff and Ayal accompanied him on the trip. “Even though they’re eight and 10, they completely opened up to them, and that’s the best part. Jeff, Ayal and I have 11 brothers for life, and with the kids there, it’s such a great component to add.”
Cronin played college basketball at Tufts University in the late 1980s and played two years of Israeli pro ball for Maccabi Tiberius from 1989-91 before moving back to the United States to pursue a career on Wall Street.
After graduating from Tufts in 1989, Cronin competed in the 13th iteration of the Maccabiah Games for the United States’ “open” team, the over-20 age division, and qualified for the 2009 “Masters” over-35 team.
“For me, winning the bronze isn’t special for me because I’ve won two silver medals before, but beating Israel is pretty special,” Cronin said. “I had one goal in mind at the start and that was gold, so we were short in that regard, but beating Israel definitely took some of the sting away.”
Hod emigrated to the United States from Israel as a teenager and hadn’t been back to his homeland since.
Though he had offers to play professional basketball in Israel and Europe in the late 1980s, Hod instead chose to stay in the United States to complete his American citizenship and build his career in the fragrance and clothing industries.
Hod previously said he was looking forward to playing against Israel so he could compare himself to former pro players he would have played against 20-plus years ago.
Having defeated the Israeli team for the bronze medal, Hod said he now knows he would have held his own against the nation’s elite.
“I know I would have had a nice career there,” Hod said. “I was right there with them and knew I could do my own thing at any time. It was a feeling that the ‘what if’ could have been a very sweet ‘what if,’ and to go back to the place where I was born, 30 years later, was great. I hope to go back more frequently.”
Sorkin, who attended Syracuse University but did not play for the school’s basketball team, said competing in the Maccabiah Games carried a bit of a family tradition, as his mother swam in the games as a teenager, a feeling made all the sweeter by a win over Israel and a medal around his neck.
“It was an honor, it would be in any sort of Olympics,” Sorkin said. “It’s hard to describe, a once-in-a-lifetime thing. Coming home without a medal would have been very disappointing, but coming home with a bronze having beat Israel is an incredible feeling.”
And maybe, just maybe, the next generation of Sorkin’s family will earn gold at Maccabiah.
“The tradition has definitely been passed and hopefully one of my children will someday compete in the Maccabiah Games,” Sorkin said. “Maybe it’ll become a longstanding tradition in my family. Hopefully.”
