The 70-year-old king: Moti Arwasti interviews Miki Berkovich/Ahrle Weisberg, photography: Yotam Ronen, editing: Gilad Mann-Manheim
Mickey Berkovich is 70 years old. Israel's basketball great will celebrate his birthday on Saturday, and in honor of the exciting occasion we met him - for the umpteenth time - together with his mythological partner ("the brother I never had", as he defined it).
But this time was different;
Muti Arrosti sat down on the interviewer's throne, and it was he who directed the questions to Mickey.
When the two entered gate 9 of their home stadium, Menorah Mivathim Hall in Yad Eliyahu, it was hard not to notice the sparkle in their eyes.
And when they got on the floor, it was no longer possible to stop them.
For long minutes they played, giving themselves to each other (yes, Berkovic also told Eroasti) and after a slight warm-up and removal of rust, the balls began to dive non-stop into the basket.
"70 years old? What is 70 years old? It's funny," says Mickey.
"Let me train, and I can play for Maccabi. I score well."
"He will enter the Guinness Book of Records as the first to play in the EuroLeague at the age of 70," laughs Arrosti.
Moti: "How did you get into basketball?".
Miki: "I grew up in Dizengoff 159 in Tel Aviv, and I studied at Tel Nordau Elementary School. I had a gymnastics teacher, Benny Conforti. He approached me and said, 'Boy, you are very talented, and I want you to come next week to the Tel Aviv Championships. Then you will go to an arranged setting with coach, and we'll see how you develop'. I started working in flower deliveries, and bought myself my first bicycle. That's how I went to Maccabi Tel Aviv's training sessions."
Berkovich: "Who is 70 years old? Me? Maybe you are 70 years old."
Arrosti: "No, I'm still young"/Reuven Castro
Mickey and Muti, Mikimuti, met as boys.
They led the youth team to fourth place in the European Championship, and won the silver medal with the Israeli team in the European Championship in 1979.
But the two are first and foremost identified with Maccabi Tel Aviv.
They played together in the senior team for 14 seasons, and in each of them they won the national championship - and also lifted two European Cups to the champions.
At the end of his career, after they left the hall, Arosti returned from retirement to join his good friend for one last season at Maccabi Rishon Lezion.
Moti: "Do you remember how we even met?".
Miki: "I was the smallest kid in the group, with Tani Cohen Mintz and Tal Brody. And suddenly this Erostas came along. But I knew you before that, I saw you in training for the youth and Maccabi Darom (the subsidiary team of Maccabi Tel Aviv)."
Moti: "Mickey always had a pretzel around his head. He was born a star. You said Mickey, you said a star."
Mickey: "What star? There are stars only in the sky."
Muti: "And you were one of them."
Moti: "We took the first youth championship together, and also a cup. He went to the seniors and I to Maccabi Darom, and then we got together. We went through all the stops together. Did we ever fight?"
Miki: "Not at all. I never fought with him once. I'm an only child, and he's the brother I never had. Our wives are friends to this day, the children, the grandchildren. I support him and he supports me. We spent such beautiful years together. Even now, we We talk every day, check that everything is fine."
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"We stayed together even after we stopped playing, thanks to his personality and giving. It's not obvious."
Mikimuti/Maariv, Adi Avishi
Moti: "The success of both of us was the success of Maccabi. If he would have scored 30 or 40 points and we would have lost, then we would have done nothing. The motto was to win, no matter how. I will deliver, he will score, or the opposite, it doesn't matter."
Mickey: "You played a big part in victories and successes."
Moti: "Yes, because you should have received the ball"...
Miki: "He would throw the ball with his eyes closed and find me."
Moti: "I'm not the greatest talent, and I didn't stay at Maccabi Tel Aviv because of my beautiful eyes. In our days, if you were at Maccabi, you knew you had to win. And if you don't win, you go home. I won 15 championships in 15 years. And it's not easy."
Mickey: "That's right. I took 16 championships in 16 years. Steve Kaplan always says to me 'Couldn't you have left me one championship?'"
Moti: "We are friends, but not because we were actors. Each has his own personality, and we both bonded. There aren't many people who played for so many years together, and remained friends even after that. It is not obvious that we stayed together for another 35 years. It is because of the person he is , because of what he projects, because of his giving to a friend."
- You were always a duo.
Two that are one...
Muti: Yes, M&M, like the candies."
- ...and if I asked you to expand into a trio, who would you add?
Mickey laughs: "I don't add anyone... I really like Olsie Perry.
And Tal is with us to this day.
I call him Charna Brodovich, and we walk together every day."
Muti: "You know what, we'll add Brody to the trio."
Berkovich: "Let me train, and I can play for Maccabi."
Arrosti: "Enter the Guinness Book of Records"/Reuven Castro
Moti recalls that Mickey's start at Maccabi Tel Aviv was quite painful, literally.
"Do you remember what Steve Chauvin did to you?", he teases his friend and takes him back to his first season in the seniors, 1971/72.
Miki: "The slap I received from him hurts me to this day... He was a beast, didn't walk through the door. He came from the NBA, and I was a brash 17-year-old boy. There was a practice here at the hall, I stole the ball from him. I took two steps back, and when he He came to grab me, I passed him between his legs and ran for a layup and a basket. He slapped me, then I didn't come to training. Yehoshua Rosin came to my house and asked, 'Mickey, why did you stop coming?'
Muti: "Mickey had a concussion... he won't forget that slap."
The last days were quite different from the present age, as the two testify.
"Motti got a Renault 9 car from Maccabi, and I drove a Mini-Minor. I couldn't get into the car in three parts," laughs Miki.
"That's why we used to go to training together. Every time one of us got stuck in the car."
In the summer of 1975, they parted ways for one year.
Berkovic moved on to study and play at the University of Las Vegas.
"Our coach was Fred Deville," Muti recalled.
"We were defeated by 47 points in Madrid, and we lost the state cup to Hapoel Gavat/Yigor, and then Shmlock Mahrovsky and Ralph Klein were in the lead and they decided - we have to bring Mickey back."
Mickey: "They called me and said they were coming to Vegas. I was waiting for them at the airport to drive them in the Chevy I got. I was standing there with the keys in my hand, and they just passed me, didn't even recognize me. I yelled Ralph! Shemlock! Ralph! Shemlock! Ralph looked and said 'It can't be, it's not his car'... They made it clear to me 'We need you to come back immediately'. I thought, and I answered: I grew up in Maccabi, I'm coming back. A year later we won the European Cup."
- How much did you lose at the casino in your year in Las Vegas?
Moti: "He didn't lose, he just learned to be a dealer"...
"He came to me in the final and said, 'Forget the timeout and pass it to me. He scored and we won the European Cup.'
Mikimuti/Ruben Castro
After the historic victories over CSKA Moscow in Wirton and over Mobiljirji and Erza in the final in Belgrade in 1977, the two became European champions with Maccabi for the first time; two years later they led the national team to the greatest of achievements, which it is doubtful will ever be repeated. "At the closing ceremony They announced that I was chosen as the outstanding player of the championship," Miki recalls. "It was one of the highlights of my career, but I couldn't believe it.
I said: Once again the guys are working on me, it's not funny...
"Suddenly an older man approached me. He introduced himself as Yobi Brown, coach of the Atlanta Hawks. 'I really like your game, the style, the speed, the shooting. I coach in the NBA, and it suits me.' He invited me to the camp and explained that there would be 20 players, with every day two dropping out, and at the end there would be one or two left. I came there, went through another day and another day, and was the last one left. Yovi greeted me. 'Come To us, I will train you and you will reach the highest places'".
Moti: "You were supposed to be the first European in the NBA."
Miki: "Here, you're my agent... but I had a contract with Maccabi, and she didn't agree to release me. I thought it would be an honor for her as well, to send the first player to the NBA. We went to court, and the judge didn't let me go. He arranged for me More money, but I wanted to make history."
Berkovic stayed, and found another way to make history.
In 1981, Maccabi Tel Aviv won the European Cup for the second time, after a dramatic 79:80 victory over Sinodina Bologna, and behind the last basket in the final hides a spicy story.
"Lucky D'Amico", the two laugh when they remember the coach at the time, Rudy D'Amico.
"He reached all the achievements, and all by a point difference."
Moti: "He took a timeout before the last attack, and we agreed on some exercise. Then Miki came and whispered in my ear, 'Forget what he said. I'm running away from here, you hand over to me'. I took a risk and listened to him."
Miki: "What audacity I had, as a kid who grew up in Maccabi, to tell him that. I passed the whole court, Motti handed it to me and I scored a layup. We won and won the cup."
"We talk every day, and our wives are also friends."
Miki and Shelley Berkovich with Moti Aroasti/Maariv, Adi Avishi
Moti: "Which player would have been able to stop you? Except me."
- Have you ever watched him in training?
Moti: "Even in training I wouldn't guard him, because I would let him score all the time, so Ralph would substitute."
Miki: "Antonello Riva. If he gave you a blow, he would knock you down and disable you. We made each other a school, until we came to an agreement that we would play in such a way that none of us would get injured."
Moti, who will celebrate his 70th birthday in six months, turns to his friend: "Miki, you are 70 years old Ototo"...
Miki: "Who is 70 years old? Me? Maybe you are 70 years old."
Moti: "No, I'm still young... What advice would you give to beginning basketball players now?".
Miki: "I would say one sentence - only with hard work will we achieve the goal. Basketball is my life, I loved the game. Journalists would ask, 'How are you not afraid to take the last shot?'. I answered them that I am not afraid of anything. What is there to be afraid of? ? It will be inside. But you only get there through hard work."
Moti: "You don't miss any game or any practice. Even when you were sick."
Miki: "That's right, there was one game against Real Madrid. I was sick all week, with a high fever, in bed. Shimon Mizrahi came to my house. He asked that I only come, for the crowd. Zvika Sharaf said, 'Bring shoes, just warm up.' I replied that I don't do that, because if I see shoes and a ball, I know what will happen. My wife, and it doesn't suit her, brought them the shoes without my knowledge
. .
The referees whistle, then five: Olsi.
Silver.
Moti.
And so on.
And Mickey.
I made a face at him like, are you crazy?
I scored 23 points and we won."
"May the government learn from us what it means to be together."
Mickey Berkovic and Muti Arrosti/Reuben Castro
Just before saying goodbye, Mickey promises the new interviewer: "I'm arranging a TV show for you, and we'll do something beautiful together."
Moti: "What do you wish for yourself? You have achieved everything."
Miki: "I really achieved everything. Our life book is full of beautiful things and experiences. I will say something on behalf of both of us. We are not swimmers or tennis players, we are a team. This togetherness brought us the European championships, we knew how to live with each other. I don't want to go into names, But we also have to work together in the government."
Moti: "The situation in the country is not good, and it oppresses us. Our hearts are with the abductees, and we pray that they will return home safely, that our country will flourish. People will be kind to each other, and we will be more friends."
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