Basketball and the war in Israel

In Israel, war looms, turning lives upside down and also inexorably stopping sport. Basketball is no exception, with Prime Minister Netanyahu suspending the activity until further notice. A situation of which Max Menetti is a direct witness. In July he signed for Hapoel Eilat and is the only Italian coach present in the top Israeli basketball league. Just today the former coach of Treviso and Reggio Emilia would have made his debut in the highly rated Winner League, where Maccabi also plays, having postponed Thursday’s match against Milan in the Euroleague and transferred the foreign players to Cyprus, thanks to a flight made available by state. Everything stopped, paralyzed, obviously.

End of the world

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Menetti is currently located in the deep south of the country, precisely in Eilat, a town of around 50 thousand inhabitants overlooking the Red Sea: “Here at the moment the situation is still relatively calm, but we will see how it will evolve in the next few hours because in the area south of Tel Aviv all hell is happening. Speaking to local people – explains the coach – they tell me that they have no memory of anything like this in the last 50 years. The Israeli guys I have on my team have already dubbed it their 9/11.” With his new club – where 2017 Italian champion Tyrus McGee also plays with Reyer and former Napoli player Elijah Stewart – today he should have gone north to reach Holon, a city hit to the heart by Hamas attacks. Drew Crawford (MVP of the 2019 regular season with Cremona) plays in Hapoel Holon and the American athlete, married to an Israeli girl, is still stuck in the hell of Tel Aviv. In the last few hours the player wanted to update friends and relatives via social media: “Israel is a second home for me – he explained – I mourn the victims and pray for the hostages with the hope that they can return home safe. What is happening here is a tragedy and I hope with all my heart that things can be resolved as soon as possible. Stay safe.”

To hope

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All that remains is to wait and hope, even if unfortunately the situation is worsening. “I communicated my presence here to the Italian embassy – continues Menetti – and we are in constant contact. We will see what is decided, but it is clear that we are all very worried. What happened is something barbaric, atrocious, this is not a classic military attack, but an unscrupulous action in which hundreds of civilians have already been killed. Just think of what they did to over two hundred kids who were partying in the desert: Hamas troops arrived and opened fire mercilessly. At the moment they have found 200 bodies, but the number seems destined to grow further. The impression – the Emilian coach bitterly comments – is that unfortunately it is only the beginning”.