{"id":517459,"date":"2026-06-30T01:28:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T01:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/517459\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T01:28:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T01:28:09","slug":"israel-national-basketball-team-prepares-for-world-cup-qualifiers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/517459\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel National Basketball Team prepares for World Cup qualifiers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Israel National Basketball Team<\/a> is preparing in earnest for the upcoming World Cup qualifying games against Germany and Croatia, as coach Ariel Beit Halachmi will be without many of his regulars due to injuries.<\/p>\n

The blue-and-white will head to Latvia to play Germany<\/a> in what is a \u201chome\u201d matchup due to the security situation on Friday, while it will then head to Osijek for a road game on Monday against Croatia for what will be the final two games of Group E action.<\/p>\n

Israel has already advanced to the next stage of qualifying, which will take place at the end of August. Its record will carry over to the second round, and heading into these last two clashes, Beit Halachmi\u2019s squad sits at 2-2.<\/p>\n

Israel National Basketball Team captain, coach describes upcoming challenges<\/p>\n

Ahead of the team\u2019s departure to Riga, both the head coach and captain, Tomer Ginat, spoke about the challenge that lies in front of them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve worked really well over the past week,\u201d Beit Halachmi began. \u201cThe news that Tomer Ginat was able to join us is very, very important. We\u2019re doing everything we can, preparing as best as possible, and like I told you before, we need to give these players confidence, empower them, and I hope everything will go well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"IsraelIsrael National Basketball Team head coach Ariel Beit Halachmi (credit: YEHUDA HALICKMAN)<\/p>\n

Over the past week, the team has tried to develop as much chemistry as possible, and while it is a young and inexperienced roster for the most part, the bench boss feels that he can get the most out of what he has.<\/p>\n

\u201cOverall, we have players here with a tremendous amount of motivation. This is an opportunity for them to come in and play a lot of minutes, and a lot of players here are getting a chance, and I trust them. We\u2019ll be using some unconventional lineups, let\u2019s call them that. On the one hand, that can actually work to our advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are a number of players, including star center Roman Sorkin<\/a>, who are injured, as well as a pair who were not released from the NBA teams<\/a>, which made it challenging for Beit Halachmi to put together the best team that he would want.<\/p>\n

\u201cRoman is one of our most important players, but he\u2019s also one of the most committed players we have,\u201d noted the coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis injury is something that absolutely requires rest, and we don\u2019t want to jeopardize any player\u2019s future. In his case, the injury is genuinely significant. As we\u2019ve already said, this window is the result of a combination of circumstances \u2013 many injured players, and our NBA players who weren\u2019t released. On top of that, you can\u2019t ignore the fact that it\u2019s been an extremely long season, especially with everything that\u2019s happened during the war. I\u2019m confident that whoever is able to come for the next window will be there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ginat will be joining the team despite not being 100% healthy, but he felt it important to be a part of the squad after having missed the last two national team windows, where Israel fell to Germany and Croatia in the first but defeated Cyprus twice in the second.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is important to me,\u201d Ginat started off. \u201cI missed both the November and February windows because of my injury. So now there are two very important games. I\u2019ll do everything I can to help the national team. Hopefully, we\u2019ll play well, represent the country with pride, and win. My condition didn\u2019t really improve during the last two Finals games. I went through various medical treatments to feel a little better, and I\u2019m still dealing with it. I hope it\u2019ll hold up through this upcoming week with the national team. We\u2019ll take it day by day, see how I feel, see what I\u2019m capable of doing. Of course, I\u2019ll give everything I have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ginat was nowhere near being at his best since coming back from his most recent injury during the Israeli league playoffs and while he is with the national team, many others are not. However, he made clear he is not going to judge anyone else or their situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, we\u2019ve been through a really long and difficult season. A lot of people are injured. Even if the injuries are relatively minor, many guys played through them. It\u2019s been a very demanding season, with a lot of travel and a lot of games. Everyone who\u2019s absent has their own reason for not being here. But ultimately, we have to focus on the players who are here. We\u2019ve got guys who can have a great week and produce great results. That\u2019s what we\u2019re here to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ginat committed to national team’s success<\/p>\n

Despite also not being at full strength, Ginat will do as much as he can to help the national team succeed.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst of all, I think you saw during the playoffs that I wasn\u2019t always able to do what I normally can. I\u2019m trying. Again, I\u2019m in pain. I\u2019m not 100% healthy. I\u2019m doing everything I can. Sometimes that means contributing in different ways than I\u2019m used to, or than people are used to seeing from me. But I think my presence alone is important. Just being here matters. It was important to me to be here and I put in a lot of effort to make it happen. I hope I\u2019ll also be able to contribute on the court as much as possible and help the national team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ginat went through a process to see if he was in good enough shape to join the national team.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d been in contact with Ariel and team manager Moti Daniel for a month or two before the season ended. It was clear that I wasn\u2019t at 100%. We wanted to see how the playoffs progressed. Unfortunately, things didn\u2019t improve as much as I\u2019d hoped. I was hoping to feel a lot better during the playoffs. When the season ended, we met and talked. In the last few days of the season, during the final two games, I felt a little better. At the end of the day, it came down to a decision. From a medical standpoint, the right decision for me would have been to rest. But I can also rest after these games.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bottom line is, we\u2019ll have to deal with what we have and go with the group that we have. I think it\u2019s a group that\u2019s good enough and I also think we\u2019re a very close-knit and mentally tough team. We\u2019ll come in and give everything we\u2019ve got. That\u2019s what Israel is and that\u2019s how Israel has to play.\u201d<\/p>\n

See more Israeli sports coverage at www.sportsrabbi.com\/en<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Israel National Basketball Team is preparing in earnest for the upcoming World Cup qualifying games against Germany…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":517460,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4290,85,46,106,43,105],"class_list":["post-517459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-basketball","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-israel-sports","tag-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=517459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/517460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}