The Israeli national team, which will begin its journey in EuroBasket on Friday, dreams of finishing in the top eight.
The last time it happened was in 2003 at the championship in Sweden, when Molly Katsurin's team finished in seventh place.
In 7 consecutive championships this achievement was not repeated, and now the goal is to do it again.
Also in 2003, the team broke a 20-year drought.
Before the start of that tournament it looked like we wouldn't do it, but this championship taught us what tournament dynamics are, and how things can turn around in an instant.
The tournament took place in Sweden and the team visited three cities during it: Norsfing, the picturesque city of Lulio and Stockholm in the final stages.
The day before the championship, the journalists were excitedly waiting for Dirk Nowitzki for a short interview before the opening game of the tournament against Germany, the next day the big star led his team to an 81:86 victory over Israel.
Before the second game with Lithuania, we met for an introductory interview with Charonas Yaskovicius, who made the move to Maccabi Tel Aviv that summer, before we knew what effect he would have on the Yellows.
In the game against Israel and in the entire tournament, Charas had a huge impact.
Lithuania defeated Israel by 32 points, and went on to win the title, with Sharas winning the MVP title.
Charas
They haven't met him yet, photo: getty
A 2:0 start and one game away from relegation.
The last chance was a victory over fourth-seeded Latvia in the early stage, in a head-to-head battle for promotion to the intermediate stage.
Here came one of the highlights of the tournament - with the performance of Ido Kojikro against the gigantic Latvian center Kasparas Kamble.
Kojikro faced him bravely, and Israel won and stayed in the tournament.
Katsurin then said about Kojikro's performance: "You have to learn from her."
It was a victory that changed momentum for the team.
From a situation of almost relegation to suddenly a possibility of a great achievement, everything depended on the game with Slovenia who was the favorite, a win and we are in the quarter finals.
The Slovenians already led by 17 points, but Israel made a great comeback thanks to a winning basket by Tal Burstein - 78:76 at the end.
Burstein.
Big victory basket, photo: Alan Shiver
We are going to Stockholm for the final stages after we have almost packed our bags.
In the quarter finals we lost to Spain and we went to play for places 5-8.
We lost to Greece, but then in the seventh place game - another achievement: an 82:89 victory over Russia with Andrei Kirilenko, and a very respectable seventh place win.
Meir Tapiro gave a great championship, Burstein was excellent.
Katsurin brought in a citizen for the first time in the guard positions after we always went for citizens in the interior positions, it was Derek Sharp who made a big contribution from the bench.
Kojikro and Viniv Green provided heroic struggles under the baskets.
Beyond the individual performances, Katsurin explains the secret: "The unity of the team was the main factor of success.
Sacrifice play and high level team defense were the big story, the connection between the players professionally and socially helped us get the best out of the team.
In the European Championship, you have to be ready to sacrifice in defense and give a little more, and that's what we had as a team.'
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