Hapoel Jerusalem lost the Champions League final to Telecom Bonn in Spain. Coach Aleksandar Dzikic missed the Final Four to pay his mother's last respects.
"My role model in European basketball is Tyrese Rice," Jay Shorts told me. Hapoel's marketing and community relations department underwent a huge upgrade this year, says Yaakov Meir, the FIBA's director of media and public relations in Europe. The word that for me symbolizes the current Final Four is sporting fairness, he says.