Jewish men can jump: Jews dunking in basketball games
Three recent roundball revelations are giving JTA Staff an early case of March Madness.
1. On Monday night in Sacramento, Israeli-born NBA player Omri Casspi registered an alley-oop dunk that led the NBA.com announcer to exclaim -- I kid you not --"Sheket Bevakasha!" Watch from 0:19 for the Hebrew school throwback.
2. How can we talk about Jewish jammers in the year 2011 without mention of Valley Torah High School senior Aaron Liberman, who measures a whopping 6'9", is being recruited by Ivy League universities, and rang in the new year by posterizing basketball rival Yeshiva University Los Angeles (YULA)?
3. Think those dunks are big news? Get ready for the surprise of the century, as revealed before my eyes in an instant messaging chat "at the buzzer" of yesterday's workday:
Ami Eden, JTA Editor in Chief: Hey, I need you to tell me two fairly unique traits of mine from my basketball playing days at Akiba.
High school friend: You shot your free throws underhanded
Ami: That's one
HS Friend: You once stuck a grape up your nose
Ami: Also true, but not related to basketball.
HS Friend: you jammed
HS Friend (Again): As in dunked
To quote Dick Vitale, "Are you serious?!" You mean to tell me this 6'3", Jewish bookworm family man could dunk in his heyday?
If you have a "slam dunk" lead on this missing video footage or any other Jewish dunkers, comment below, tweet us, or send an e-mail to
Also, check out today's interview with opinion piece about NBA Commissioner David Stern. Tablet Magazine.
UPDATE: A friend in Israel directed me to the NY Times College Men's Notebook from February 2000 that recounts a Yeshiva University alley-oop:
[h/t Jewish Treats for the Liberman find, and JTA marketing whiz Uri Fintzy]Yeshiva's Dov Weiner and Nachum Palefsky hooked up for an alley-oop during a 96-38 victory over Pratt last Tuesday. It was a noteworthy achievement for a school not known for its athleticism, and word of the play spread quickly through campus, Coach Jon Halpert said.
''Now legend has it that the kid threw the pass from midcourt, that the other guy leaped from the foul line and held his yarmulke in one hand while dunking with the other,'' Halpert said.
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Though I never saw him do it, I could believe Ami dunking.
As for others, Eric Gingold could dunk. He famously could not upon enrolling at Williams but did later in his career. David Bluthenthal became mostly an outside player but in college he spent a lot more time in the lane and I’m sure threw down a few--don’t have youtube at work so I can’t find any clips. I saw Shahar Gordon dunk. He was a 6-10 Israeli who played for Ben Braun at Cal.
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Adam Soclof
03/01/11 10:52 PM
Update: A friend points out that I neglected to mention Tamir Goodman, a.k.a. “The Jewish Jordan.” Clumsy of me, since I saw Goodman play in December 2000 during a Towson State-Michigan matchup. No dunks in that game by Goodman, but he had some spectacular drives to the lane.
Hands down one of my favorite moments as a basketball spectator--mostly because I sat next to my hometown rabbi.
Here’s a Goodman dunk from his Towson days: http://bit.ly/eIsOAj