Tal Brody
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Tal Brody (born August 30, 1943 in Trenton, New Jersey, USA) is a former basketball player.
Height: 1.87 m (6' 1½"). Position: Shooting guard.
Brody spent most of his career with the Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball club. In Israel he is widely recognized as a national hero and a symbol of young country's achievements, not only in basketball. His famous remark "we are on the map" became a part of Israeli culture and is often used in various situations and contexts, from political speeches to National Lottery commercials.
[edit] Career
In 1965 Brody, recently graduated from the University of Illinois and picked 13th in the NBA Draft by the Baltimore Bullets, led USA team to a gold medal at Maccabiah Games. Immediately he was approached by Maccabi Tel-Aviv managers who wanted him in their team. Among those who asked Brody to stay in Israel were also Education Ministry officials and even another future symbol - Moshe Dayan. Eventually, it worked. Brody completed his master's degree in educational psychology, was back in 1966 and helped Maccabi to reach European Cup finals. He returned to USA in 1969 to fulfil his military duty, played for US Army All-Star Team, then for US National Team at 1970 World Championship in Belgrade, Yugoslavia (bronze medal). Then Brody returned to Israel for good.
Brody played for Maccabi till 1980, winning 10 domestic championships and 6 cups. With Maccabi he appeared in 81 European Cup games, scoring 1378 points. The highlight of his career came in 1977. In European Cup semifinals, Maccabi was matched against CSKA Moscow, a team with 4 European Cup titles. Because of political reasons, neither CSKA agreed to come to Tel Aviv (which resulted in technical defeat) nor was the Israeli club welcome in Moscow. Finally CSKA hosted Maccabi in Virton, Belgium. The game was of huge symbolic value for Maccabi and its fans and for many of those Israelis who weren't usually interested in basketball. When Maccabi won 91:79, the feeling was that not only CSKA has been defeated, but a victory, albeit small, has been achieved against the mighty Soviet Union, the power behind Israel's enemies. "We are on the map," - proclaimed Brody in Hebrew with heavy American accent, - "We are staying on the map, not only in sports, but in everything". Maccabi proceeded to win its first European title, defeating Mobilgirgi Varese 78:77 in the final game in Belgrade.
Brody also played for Israeli National Team, scoring 1219 points in 78 games.
[edit] Retirement
When Brody retired from basketball in 1980, a special retirement game was arranged in his honor. The European All-Star Team arrived to Israel to play against Maccabi Tel Aviv. Brody continued with Maccabi as an assistant coach, then became sports commentator for Israeli television. Currently he runs an insurance business.
In 1979, Brody was the first sportsman to be awarded the Israel Prize. In 2004, he lit a torch at the 56th Independence Day ceremony.
