Tal Brody

At 81 years old, Tal Brody has this physical status:

Talbot "Tal" Brody (born August 30, 1943) is an American-Israeli former professional basketball player and the current Goodwill Ambassador of Israel who lives in Israel.

Brody was drafted # 12 in the National Basketball Association's (NBA) draft, but he had to postpone an NBA career to play basketball in Israel.

He served in both the United States and Israel's armies and spent in both countries' armies. Brody, a New Jersey All Star basketball player in high school, led his team to an undefeated state championship.

When playing for the University of Illinois, he was a high-scoring, slick-passing All-American and All-Big Ten point guard in 1965.

He was drafted 12th in the NBA draft this year.

He travelled to Israel, where he helped the American team win a gold medal in the 1965 Maccabiah Games before the NBA season began.

Moshe Dayan and others convinced him to return to Israel to help improve the country's basketball team and morale, but he chose Maccabi Tel Aviv over basketball. He took Maccabi Tel Aviv to the FIBA European Champions Cup (now called EuroLeague) championship in 1977.

His team defeated CSKA Moscow, the heavily favored Soviet Red Army unit.

"We are on the map!" Brody's frank comment about defeating the Soviets. And we're staying on the map, not just in sports, but also in everything else." – It became part of Israeli history.

It has been used for decades in various settings, from political speeches to National Lottery advertisements.

Early life

Brody is Jewish and the son of Max and Shirley Brody. His father and paternal grandfather immigrated from Eastern Europe to the United States, spending years in Israel along the way. His father spent three years in Israel, starting as an engineer on the building of the country's first Rothenberg electric station in the 1920s. Both his father and grandfather, who lived in Israel for ten years, helped build Herzliya's first airfield. Renee, Brody's older sister.

He was born and raised in Trenton, New Jersey. Brody first played basketball in the Biddy Basketball League of the Trenton Jewish Community Center (JCC), as well as in the local Boys Club League.

He later attended Trenton Central High School. He was a member of The Star-Ledger's high school basketball All Stars in his senior year and led his undefeated 24–0 team to a state championship. He graduated in 1961. When asked what he wanted to be in his life, he said he wanted to be a professional basketball player or an FBI agent.

Life after playing basketball

Brody continued as an assistant coach with Maccabi Tel Aviv after he was released as a player. He was on the team's Board of Directors until 2007, when Netanyahu approached him about politics.

In addition, he has been Maccabi Tel Aviv's volunteer liaison with the National Basketball Association since 1988, assisting in the coordination of games between Maccabi Tel Aviv and various NBA teams.

In the early 1990s, Brody was also a sports commentator on Israeli television. In addition, he served as an instructor at the Wingate Institute of Physical Fitness in Netanya. Brody is also on the Board of Directors of the Maccabi World Union (MWU), which organises the Maccabiah Games in Israel. He was also selected to serve on a committee of experts who select recipients of the Israel Prize for athletics.

Brody appeared in a 2008 documentary called The Jewish Basketball Hall of Fame, Volume 1, Yisrael Lifschutz's. In addition, he appeared in a book titled: A Voice Called; Stories of Jewish Heroism, by Yossi Katz, which was published in 2010.

Brody founded, and was co-owner of, a sporting products export/import/distribution firm called Sports United Ltd. At the same time, he operated basketball clinics throughout Israel. He eventually sold the sporting goods company to his partner.

Brody was also elected as the local agent for Mitsuboshi C.I. Co., and was elected to the Board of Directors of the Japan-Israel Chamber of Commerce.

He then moved into insurance. Brody established, operated, and operated Tal Brody Insurance Agency in Tel Aviv. For 20 years, the company managed pension funds, provident funds, and health and education accounts. In 2008, he sold the company. He has since retired from business, which he describes as the second stage of his life.

Brody has started, volunteered for, and assisted with a variety of charitable groups and initiatives since retiring from basketball.

"Let's Play Ball," He created an after-school program for Israeli children. He teaches basketball and gives basketball clinics to schoolchildren, members of kibbutzim, residents of coastal towns, and Israeli soldiers. Over 200,000 children have been affected by the scheme.

He is also Chairman of Spirit of Israel (JAFI), a non-profit Jewish Agency affiliate that he established in 1999. It raises funds from the Israeli government to assist impoverished Israeli children and others by addressing their "essential human needs" (as defined by the Jewish Agency and Keren Hayesod). At a meeting in which funds to raise money in the United States for Israel were being discussed, he came to the charity. Brody began to muse about what Israelis were doing for themselves on the charitable front. As a result, he founded the Spirit of Israel to raise money for Israelis in Israel. The initiative involved helping Israeli senior citizens, "at risk" children, and family abuse victims.

Brody is also the Ambassador for Migdal Ohr and the America-Israel Friendship League. (AIFL). Migdal Ohr is a member of the Jewish, impoverished, orphaned Israeli children of all faiths. In the United States, he arranged and promoted an exhibition match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and the New York Knicks, with all proceeds going to benefit Migdal Ohr.

Brody joined Herzliya and its Mayor (Eli Landau) in 1985 to create and operate one of the world's best basketball schools, establishing a special curriculum with specially selected coaches. Bnei Herzliya is the school. Brody, the school's president, is now run by Herzliya, with Brody as the head coach. It provides a basketball program to 14,000 students aged 5 to 18, mainly from 14 citywide schools.

Brody has also worked for Israeli Foreign Ministry and American Jewish organisations around the world.

After retiring, Brody was invited to join the One Israel party in Yitzhak Yitzhaky. However, he turned down the bid. He did not think of himself as a politician and was not interested in politics, and he wasn't interested in pursuing a political career. Despite being a member of the Likud party in the 1990s, he was not politically involved in politics because he didn't agree that an active sportsman should engage himself in politics.

Brody considered politics after Likud party chairman Benjamin Netanyahu approached him personally, asking him to step forward for the country. Netanyahu was interested in including people who had not entered politics before. Brody found it difficult to depose Netanyahu, who urged him that running for office would be beneficial to Israel for the family. If Brody were a member of the Israeli Knesset, Netanyahu said he could more efficiently push the advances he was still looking for, including education, sports, asylum, adoption, and social problems.

Brody declared in August 2007 that he was seriously considering running for the Knesset in the general election as a Likud candidate. After spending most of his life first playing basketball and then directing an insurance company that managed employee health services for businesses, he said in November 2008 that he felt it was the right time in his life to change careers. He said that the Knesset would be his third career calling for him, as long as it allowed him to concentrate on those areas that were already his attention, such as sports, education, aliyah, Israeli-American relations, and helping children who are "at risk" and that helping children in their third phase of his life after basketball and business, as well as helping refugees who are "at risk." In his view, it wasn't politics but rather "good citizenship." However, he admitted that "in the Knesset, they call it politics."

Brody ran for a national slot (sees 2-19 on Likud's list), to represent Tel Aviv and Haifa along the Israeli coast. He was the fourth candidate who was previously a resident of the United States and was backed by Likud Anglos, Likud's English-speaking division. Brody and Netanyahu held a press conference in November 2008, saying, "We must change the situation in the country." "There is corruption in politics," 70% of the people believe there is. Brody was appointed as Netanyahu's future Minister of Sports and Culture. Brody said that Israel's amateur sports budget had decreased from $35 million a year to $10 million a year, and that working with the NBA or the National Football League could increase the budget. He also considered the establishment of a sports program with Birthright Israel Taglit in order to promote aliyah. Netanyahu said that whether he won or lost, at least he would believe he did everything he could to answer Netanyahu's suggestion that candidates with different skills and life experiences run for the Knesset. He joked, however, that if he were to win, he would play basketball against President Obama, who is a devoted basketball fan.

However, he was not elected to Likud's list of candidates in December 2008 Likud primaries. Danny Danon, the well-organized chairman of World Likud, who was backed by Zo Artzeinu co-founder Moshe Feiglin, defeated him in what turned out to be a tense battle for the position on the Likud list. Brody said he was only interested in the political process because he felt it was the responsibility of citizens to serve the country, but that being involved in the process made him aware of the fact that many local voters rely on "professional politicians" for jobs.

In early 2009, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered Brody to assist Israel in a yet-to-becomed official position of goodwill ambassador for the country. Brody was appointed as Israel's first international Goodwill Ambassador for Israel in July 2010 by Israeli Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman to support Israel's international diplomacy. He works in an unpaid position, and the only money he receives is compensation for his travel—he speaks to audiences outside of Israel about Israel's history, sports, and Israelis' daily lives.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry and Israel's embassies and consulates coordinate his trips out of Israel. He speaks at schools, colleges, Jewish and non-Jewish organizations, synagogues, Christian services, African-American organisations, and fundraising activities. While he hopes to inspire those who support Israel, a major focus of his study—which aligns with one made by Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz—is on those people who are undecided about Israel. His talks with Israeli and international organisations have touched on the inconsistency of terrorism and limitations on freedom of movement, Israel's security fence, Israel's Black Ethiopian Jews, and the role of Israeli Arabs in Israeli society. Brody said he accepted the position because it was what he wanted to do—serve the State of Israel.

Brody was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to shaping and assisting Israel through sports and dedicated hasbara (public diplomacy) efforts at a Nefesh Bonei Zion 2015 Prizes special ceremony hosted by Knesset Member Tzachi Hanegbi in May 2015.

Personal life

In a wedding that Defense Minister Moshe Dayan attended as his guest of honor after Brody returned to Israel in 1970, he married Ronit Born, a 20-year-old Israeli woman. The two people were married for 14 years. Brody and his second wife, Tirtza, who married in the early 1980s, live in Netanya, Israel. He has three children (two from his first marriage (Ron and Kareen), a daughter Linor from his second marriage, and five grandchildren.

His American-accented Hebrew is the result of his not having properly studied the language when he arrived in Israel, rather than a decades-long one. He instead took the words from colloquial use. His Hebrew in Israel has been a point of amusement for decades, and colleagues and families have chastised him, as well as Eretz Nehederet, Israel's version of Saturday Night Live.

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College career

Brody was approached by over 40 colleges with scholarship opportunities. In recruiting him, Temple University Owls head coach Harry Litwak proposed that he be "a small fish in a big pond" at the large university. Brody, who mistook the university for a large one, told the instructor that he loved the challenge of trying to be "a big fish" in a huge pond.

Brody attended the University of Illinois. On the social front, he joined Zeta Beta Tau, the campus Jewish fraternity. Brody, who is primarily focused on basketball, will sleep and dribble it to class. Freshman were not allowed to compete on the varsity basketball team at the time, but as a sophomore, he took over Jerry Colangelo.

Brody, a 1.87 m (6'1 34") tall basketball player for the Illini, was playing point guard when wearing uniform # 12 on Sunday. He was fast, slick, smart, and an excellent shoter and passer. His team won the Big Ten Championship and was ranked the nation's top-three teams.

He was named a 1965 All-American, as well as fellow college basketball players such as Rick Barry, Bill Bradley, and Billy Cunningham. He was also named first team All-Big Ten, a second team academic All American, and a Converse top ten player. Along with Bradley, Barry, Cunningham, and Jerry Sloan, the Sporting News selected him as one of the top ten players in the country. He earned a bachelor's degree in physical education from Illinois in 1965. Brody was still ranked 33rd among Illinois' all-time scorers in 2008.

(1966–69), early Israeli basketball (1966–69).

Brody returned to Israel in 1966 to "take up the challenge," help a whole world rather than just one team, and play for Maccabi Tel Aviv. He wanted to do something "unique." Before the enthusiastic Brody's arrival, Ralph Klein, Israel's most effective coach, said that Israelis had only ever thought of basketball as a game of fun. Brody had inculcated his colleagues with his commitment to basketball as a way of life within a year. The team doubled the number of practices it held every week at his behest.

Brody's quickness and speed were stifled in favour of a fast-paced motion game, which was mainly based on fast breaks. Brody was Europe's second-tier player in the FIBA European Cup Winners Cup (FIBA Saporta Cup) from 1966-67. He was named Israel's Sportsman of the Year in 1967. The team made it to the FIBA European Cup Winners Cup Finals, finishing second in the league in the first, second, and third rounds of the league playoffs.

For the first time, Israeli Prime Minister (Levi Eshkol), the Israeli Defense Forces Chief of Staff, and Knesset members attended games. Tickets to games in the team's 5,000-seat stadium were so popular that they became prohibitively difficult to obtain. Brody coached Israeli soldiers when they were off duty from guarding Israel's border against its Arab neighbors in his down time. Brody's experience, as well as the apprehension he generated, left a lasting impression on him. When Maccabi Tel Aviv defeated a squad in Europe, he had a vision of what he could do and saw the positive results on the Israeli people's morale. "I felt it was bigger than me and had to be continued," the writer explained.

He had intended to help Israeli basketball for just one year. But Brody's one-year, as well as the elation it generated (while at the same time, the Israelis were threatening to force the Israelis into the sea in the days leading up to the 1967 Six-Day War, Egypt, and Syria, all threatening to pull the Israelis into the sea) brought them into the sea in June. The US State Department sent him a telegram advising him not to leave Israel just as the war was about to break out. As he stayed in Israel through the war, rather than obeying the instructions, he volunteered his services to guide Israeli soldiers at the Jordanian frontier in athletic trials.

(1973–80) Later Israeli basketball career (1973–80).

He was captain of Israel's 1972 Olympic team and was given the honor of lighting the opening torch at the 27-country Maccabiah Games, honoring the 11 Israeli athletes killed in the Munich Massacre. When the national team defeated a US team led by Ernie Grunfeld in the finals, he earned them a gold medal.

Brody played for Maccabi Tel Aviv from 1980 to 1980. In what has been described as a "stellar" and "amazing" career, he won ten Israeli League championships with the team and six Israel State Cups. He appeared in 81 FIBA European Champions Cup (now called EuroLeague) games, winning 1,378 points. Maccabi Tel Aviv was a man who played in 81 FIBA European Champions Cup (now called EuroLeague). Brody was also chosen for the FIBA European Selection (European All-Star Team). Brody scored 4,049 points in 211 games in the Israeli Super League.

Brody also played for the senior Israeli National Team, winning 1,219 points in 78 games. He competed on national basketball teams of both the United States and Israel, as well as serving in both countries' armies. Brody called it "the completion of a circle" when the Israeli Omri Casspi was drafted by the Sacramento Kings in the first round of the 2009 NBA draft to play in the United States.

In 1977, the pinnacle of his career came. It was the apex of the Cold War, and the Soviet Union was boycotting Israel. Maccabi Tel Aviv defeated Real Madrid, Spain's top league, in the first round of the European top-tier competition at EuroLeague (later renamed to EuroLeague). It defeated Zbrojovka Brno, a top-tier league in Czechoslovakia's top-tier league, 91–76, on February 15, 1977.

Maccabi Tel Aviv was matched against CSKA Moscow, the Red Army team, in the FIBA European Champions Cup 1976–77 season semifinals. CSKA Moscow was a powerhouse. The Soviet Army team had won the previous USSR Premier League basketball title. Six of the country's best-known opponents, Sergei Belov, was one of the team's captains, and six of its players had competed against the US in the 1972 Summer Olympics, and six of its players had been with the Soviet national team that had controversially defeated the US in the 1972 Summer Olympics, and one of his toughest opponents was Brody. The Communists were also known for using sports to promote what they referred to as their ugliest emperor over the West.

A decade ago, the Soviet Union had broken diplomatic relations with Israel, and had encouraged Israel's Arab enemies both politically and militarily. CSKA Moscow also declined to play in Tel Aviv, citing a technical failure. The Israelis were also refusing to issue visas to them in Moscow to allow them to participate in Moscow. Maccabi Tel Aviv's "home game" was played in Virton, Belgium, at the small, non-existent town.

The game was played in a moment of heightened emotion and political turmoil. It was a point of tremendous symbolic significance for Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters and for many Israelis who had no interest in basketball. The capitalist West and the Communist East were matched against Israel, which was supplying arms to the nation. With their 290 million inhabitants, the game also met Israel, which had a population of fewer than 400,000 people against the Soviets. The game was described as "the war between David and Goliath" in the newspaper Maariv. The majority of Israel's people watched the game, which was shown on Israel's only television station at the time.

Maccabi Tel Aviv defeated the Soviets, who are overwhelmingly favored, 91-79. Brody was carried off the court by passionate followers. The Israelis' reaction was not simply that CSKA Moscow had been defeated, but that a victory, although modest, had been forged against the mighty Soviet Union. For decades, the game has been recognized as a key event in Israel's national identity emergence. Even decades later, it was being replayed on Israeli television on a regular basis.

"We are on the map!"

As a TV announcer pushed a microphone in front of him for a game quote, an elated, euphoric Brody with his heavily American-accented Hebrew, people erupted, throned the hora, while others danced the hora around him in elation and joy. "We are keeping on the map, not just in sports but also in everything."

The remark was spontaneous and unprepared. It just "came out of my heart at that moment," Brody described it. Brody was called into his office by the Queen-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who told him that Brody's remark had brought tears to his eyes and had indelible influence on Israeli society's morale.

The phrase "We are on the map!"

("Anachnu al hamapa, ve'anahnu nisharim al hamapa!" A literal translation of an English word into his adopted language, but a novel in Hebrew became a new, common term in Israel. It reflected both a physical victory of the nascent Jewish Zionist dream and national pride. It became Israel's most famous quote. The word was as relevant for Israelis as well as US astronaut Neil Armstrong's remark "One small step for man; one major step for mankind" – had been for Americans vis-a-vis the space age.

The saying became a staple of Israeli speech. In 1981, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin adopted the word as an election campaign slogan. In 1998, former Soviet refusenik and Israeli Yisrael BaAliyah party leader and Industry and Trade Minister Natan Sharansky used it. In a television commercial in which a winning racehorse with an American accent said, the Israeli National Lottery Board spoofed it: "We are on the racetrack, and we will remain on the racetrack." In the same way, when Israel's Davis Cup team defeated the powerhouse Russian Davis Cup team in a dramatic victory in the 2009 Davis Cup tennis quarterfinals, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu phoned the Israel Tennis Association Director General, repeating Brody's words from more than three decades ago: "We're back on the map."

Hundreds of thousands of Israelis gathered spontaneously in the streets, and 150,000 in Tel Aviv congregated in honor of what is now Rabin Square. Many people hopped into its fountain, splashing in water and champagne. An Israeli in the book From Beirut to Jerusalem told Thomas Friedman that on one level, it was Brody the star basketball player and his allies defeating the Russians, but on another level, it was "my grandfather defeating them." It was our retroactive win over the Cossacks." Brody was credited with so inspiring that basketball became Israel's top-one sport, overtaking soccer.

The FIBA European Champions Cup finals were held in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, on April 7, 1977. Yugoslavia was a Communist country with whom Israel did not have diplomatic relations, and the El Al plane that brought the Maccabi Tel Aviv players over to it for the game was the first Israeli plane to land there. The Israelis were paired against Mobilgirgi Varese, Italy's top league champions, in a highly favored match. When Brody first started playing for Maccabi Tel Aviv, he defeated the Israelis twice and then defeated them in the European second-tier competitions. The entire nation watched the game on television back in Israel.

Maccabi Tel Aviv won the FIBA European Champions Cup Finals by a single point, 78-77. Brody, the team's captain, received the European Cup trophy from FIBA's Secretary General and held it over his head.

It was Israel's first FIBA European Champions Cup basketball championship in the 23-nation league. It was also the first time Israel had won a championship of that caliber in any sport, and it was also Israel's highest success in international sports at the time. The victory had a major boost on the country's spirit and morale. 200,000 people gathered in Israel's National Park to commemorate the event as a national holiday. The team returned home and found 150,000 Israelis eager for it. Brody himself is widely regarded as an Israeli national hero and a symbol of Israel's achievements.

In 1978, the team made it to the semi-finals of the 1977–78 FIBA European Champions Cup basketball tournament. When Brody retired from basketball in 1980, a special official retirement game was held in his name, and the FIBA European Selection All-Star Team assembled in Israel to face Maccabi Tel Aviv.

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