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Wickside: A weekly column by Ahrela Weisberg

"Like I Was in a Computer Game": 30 Years of Doron Jamchi's 49-Point Show in Limoges

"I did not see the family, I went back to sleep with my parents, and the strangers stayed in Switzerland. In the middle of training there were alarms, and passers-by entered with us in the dressing room with IBA masks.

But that's what made the game special.

I remember exactly where I got each delivery. "EXCLUSIVE: Number 12 restores the historic record

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• Doron Jamchi

Ahrela Weisberg

Sunday, 07 February 2021, 16:30

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Jamchi recreates the 49th, a la Wilt Chamberlain today (Photo: Official website, courtesy of the photographer)

Thirty years ago, similar to and different from today's reality, the State of Israel was in a kind of closure.

The streets were deserted, the nightlife ceased, the education system went into a freeze and the citizens did not allow themselves to move without masks.

Not cloth masks, but ABC masks. The days were the days of the Gulf War, and almost every night Scud missiles were fired from Iraq at the population centers in the center of the country.

But for one evening, today three decades ago - on February 7, 1991 - Israeli sports fans won two hours Of escapism: Maccabi Tel Aviv won in Limoges 95: 114 in the final of the European Champions Cup (51:51 in the first half), and enjoyed a historic performance by Doron Jamchi. Number 12 shot no less than 49 points in rare percentages - 15 "13 for two, 7-4 for three and 14-11 from the penalties - and set the shooting record for an Israeli basketball player in the all-time top European factory.

" Due to a missile attack on Limoges, "the headline in one newspaper," Lowering the rain, "read another. 30 years have passed?

Faye, "Jamchi was surprised to find out today (Sunday) in an interview with Walla! Sport, and recounted in great detail the unforgettable game and the hallucinatory reality that prevailed around him during the war." You see, not only did we snatch bombs and shelling.

We also had one evening where we responded. "

Jamchi's historical show on this very day (from Channel 1)

War on every bullet

"The period itself was simply hallucinatory. When the Gulf War broke out we were in Thessaloniki, playing against Aris. We still did not understand exactly what that meant, and we did not know if Israel would be part of this campaign, but we felt from the moment we landed that something in the atmosphere had changed. A finger on the trigger, and sometimes it seems like the war is taking place in Greece and not in Iraq.

"After the game, in which we lost, everyone was quick to catch up on what was happening in the country.

Everyone gathered in the hotel room of one of the journalists, because only he had a TV, and watched the news.

At one point I went to sleep in my room, asking them to wake me up if anything happened.

At two in the morning I was called.

It was the first night of the missiles, and missiles landed in the Tel Aviv area.

I saw the pictures, and refused to believe.

I called my wife most, and she said to me in a sealed room, sounding far because gas mask she wore. The hysteria was large. Start discussions if ever we fly home, and how. A friend came to pick me up from the airport, and insisted on moving where the missiles fell.

"Here we entered For a rolling event.

The league in the country was stopped, and of course we could not bring foreign teams here, so we continued to play in the European Cup away.

It was the first season after Kevin Maggie and Ken Barlow left.

Foreigners Donald Royal and Ed Horton stayed in Switzerland, and we would meet with them on Tuesdays ahead of the games on Thursday.

The rest of the week we trained with a missing staff, and this too would happen in the afternoon, because usually Saddam Hussein launched the missiles in the dark.

"That's how an emergency routine started. There were several times that at the end of training I was left to throw a little more in the basket, and suddenly the alarm still caught us in the hall. A surreal situation arose. Still, it gives a sense of security ... What's more, quite a few missiles fell around, in Ramat Hen and in the Hatikva neighborhood, at a very small distance from Eliyahu. "

More on Walla!

NEWS

As in the days of Doron Jamchi: the numbers behind the show of Maccabi Tel Aviv

To the full article

49 points to the Pantheon.

The newspaper article the next day (Photo: Image Processing, Maariv, from the JPRESS website)

A routine without the family

"I sent my wife Meirav and the daughters to Eilat, and I tried to persuade my older parents to join them, but they did not agree in any way. It was unusually worrying, and I came to sleep with them because I worried about them and did not want them to be afraid while the missiles fell close to them.

" A situation arose where the family and I actually lived separately.

At some point, after one of the games abroad, I really wanted to see the family. I asked Royal for permission to use his car, and decided I was going to Eilat for a few hours. When I passed near Ashdod there was suddenly an alarm, and it was raining outside. I did not know what to do. And I kept driving.

"The roads were empty.

I stopped at a Pomegranate Negro inn on the Arava Road.

It was around nine or ten in the evening, the place was completely deserted and he was surprised and asked 'Doron, what are you doing here?'.

I arrived in Eilat late at night, and the next afternoon I went back to training in Tel Aviv. "

Closure and masks, as today (Photo: Ministry of Defense, courtesy of the IDF Archives at the Ministry of Defense / Michael Tzarfati)

Missile Attack on Limoges

"In this psychic routine, you have to somehow take care of yourself, keep fit and be sharp. The training is not training, because you are constantly on the missing staff. The game in Limoges took place three weeks before the war. There were almost no flights to and from Israel. We landed in Switzerland, we continued from Paris, took a taxi and trains, the cold and snow, and it was an arduous journey. beyond the situation stressful and non-obvious, yes we were at the top we have to play basketball and win - that if someone is interested in something beyond the news, it was Maccabi games.

"I did not feel anything Special before the game.

But at a very early stage, as the game progressed, I realized I had caught a hot hand.

Versatility helped me: I scored a three, then penetrated the basket, hitting from half distance as well.

The teammates understood what was going on, and found me in all sorts of situations.

I did not stop running and turning, and I got the balls.

Limoges recognized that I was hot from three and a half distances, and changed my guard.

The tiny Valerie Demori [1.78m] clung to me aggressively, and I took advantage of the height on him.

"At some point I already really felt how every ball I throw in the basket would go in. The score was very high, we opened a gap and the victory was already guaranteed, and towards the end I got a delivery in the corner. I remember thinking, 'If all goes well, I might throw in the basket In some extreme arc. 'I did it, and even that ball dived in. It's like I was in a computer game. I remember exactly how I got the dedication, and where I threw the balls, right on the scales.

"As the game flowed, I did not know how many points I had reached.

If I was aware, I would make sure to at least try to cross the 50s.

I assumed I had 30 or so points, maybe 40, but I did not assume I had reached 49.

At the end, when I was interviewed for TV, I was told what had happened.

I had a rare percentage from the field that evening, but I actually fumbled like a jerk three times from the penalty spot.

In retrospect, how did I not score at least one more shot "...

Anyone like him knows how many 49 points are a rare sight.

Shane Larkin (Photo: Official Website, from Anadolu Efes' Twitter)

The festivities that followed

"The truth is that there were no real celebrations. We realized we were doing something unusual here. At that time there were a few players who reached such numbers, like Nicki Gallis, Drazen Petrovich and Oscar Schmidt. But in the situation we were in, we quickly broke away from victory and again worried about what was happening at home. To our families and the country, and whether there was an alarm tonight or not. I remember that due to adrenaline, I was not even hungry after the game, and Guy Goodes laughed at me because of it.

"To me, this is not the biggest game I have had in my career, because this title does not depend on points I shot.

Today, looking back, I would have chosen to win the West German team of the late Ralph Klein at the 1985 European Championships. To play against the Germans at that time, in Eurobasket, at home, with all the historical baggage, it was something crazy, and more stars stood in front of us Like Detlef Shrampf, Hansy Gennadon and Christian Wolf, and Ralph who put me on the team was on the lines. I scored 42 points, and even took ten rebounds.

" It only sharpened my understanding of how rare the evening I had then was.

"49 points in the Euroleague is something that hasn't been around for a very long time, and in general, Larkin had a super crazy year last season, which I don't remember."

"Imagine the crowd coming back, and shivering."

Jamchi vs. Dusko Ivanovich (Photo: Flash 90, Moshe Shai)

Return of the audience after the war (and the corona)

"The management of Maccabi Tel Aviv managed to replace the home team with the rivalry in the European Cup, and our situation in the final table was not bright because of the streak of away games we were awarded. After the victory in Limoges we were in sixth place, still far from the top four, but immediately after the war, we returned home. Four home games in Yad Eliyahu.We knew we had to win them all to advance to the Final Four, and there was complete madness around this event.

"People were detained in homes for a month and a half, in a kind of closure, and gave us a huge boost of adrenaline.

We won all those games, and I can imagine now what the hall will look like when it is refilled after the corona.

It's just that thought that makes me shiver. "

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