Tel Aviv and other Israeli teams have youth clubs and departments, but a dormitory-style facility would provide the coordinated approach lacking in Israeli basketball, he said.
“We want the player to get up in the morning, eat a proper breakfast, attend classes, have lunch, get proper rest, train — a real system,” Drikes said.
The proposal has an advocate in Houston Rockets forward Omri Casspi, who played for Tel Aviv’s junior teams before rising to the parent club and then becoming the first Israeli to reach the NBA, arriving in 2009.
“It’s a great idea to have an academy in Israel,” Casspi said Sunday by telephone from Houston. “There are various talents not only in Israel but all over Europe that need to be developed and trained in a way to be successful in basketball and any other sport.
“The bond with the NBA can help Maccabi and the academy by bringing in NBA coaches and player-development coaches to brainstorm different ideas on how to train young players. We are lacking in Israel that part of the game.”
While the Jewish state has very good coaches, Casspi said, he’s found that the role of coaches in North America in a player’s improvement is “so much more intense than what I had in Israel.”
For now, there are the October games. While not confirming the game in the fall, Tad Carper, Cleveland’s senior vice president for communications, recalled his arena being “full of energy and excitement” for a 2006 contest featuring Tel Aviv.
“Certainly, [there was] a great deal of pride and passion from the local Jewish community, with strong attendance and very vocal support for Maccabi. It helped create a very special and fun environment for a preseason game, which is not always the case,” he said.
Former Tel Aviv player Nadav Henefeld played in exhibition games in Los Angeles against the Lakers and the Clippers, in 1990 and 1991, and noted “the large differences that existed then” between the NBA and Israeli teams athletically and organizationally.
Today, he said, the gap is shrinking.
Brody, who remains a hero in the Jewish state for leading Tel Aviv in 1977 to its first European Cup, said witnessing his old team or another Israeli club join the NBA “would complete my dream.”
“If that ever happens – that an Israeli team would be in the NBA – I can rest in peace,” he said.
Hillel Kuttler wrote this article for JTA.