David Blatt said goodbye to Willie Sims: "Much more than a basketball player" | Israel today

The late Willie Sims and David Blatt of Israel passed a common route in Israel.

They came to Israel for Maccabiah with the US team in 1981 (Sims competed for his first Maccabiah in 1977) and chose to stay in Israel and build their homes here. They also started the journey together at Maccabi Haifa in the early 1980s.

Blatt, who now serves as a professional consultant for Maccabi Tel Aviv, told "Israel Hayom": "A dear friend has left us, but only in his body and not in his spirit.

We were friends even before the basketball career.

We came to Maccabiah together after a training camp in New York, and from the first day I saw how special he was.

Very dominant, an excellent player with many abilities, but equally makes everyone around him happy.

He had the ability to gather people around him and make them his friends.

We were teammates, roommates, competitors in training, and above all - true friends."

Blatt adds about the friend who passed away at the age of 64: "He had a wonderful career and a wonderful life in Israel with his lovely wife Ariela and the wonderful children. He was much more than a basketball player and made everyone around him feel special, all with humility and giving. He was a true newcomer who fell in love with the country, and she She fell in love with him back. A special man who made others feel good about themselves, one who was always present and sensitive to others. We will always remember and miss him very much."

A tough image, but a smile and a gentleman

In the late 1980s, Sims' professional peak period, I started writing about basketball in the press.

The actor was a consensus, a man that everyone loved to love and appreciated very much on and off the floor.

personality.

I remember Sims on the court - an excellent player, a guard with good shooting who improved over the years in carrying the ball, and later also functioned as a center and as the best defensive player in every team he played for.

The second angle is as a pleasant, smiling, polite, respectful and intelligent man.

The smile was his natural expression.

The third angle is the silence that lies from him.

Contrary to his tough image on the court, off the court he was a person with whom you always felt very comfortable and welcome.

gentleman.

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