NBA · Maccabi Tel Aviv beat Toronto Raptors (page 1)

ESPN - Maccabi Tel Aviv beat an NBA team for the first time in 27 years, topping the Toronto Raptors 105-103 on Sunday on Anthony Parker's jumper with 0.8 seconds left.

Maccabi, the winner of 45 of 51 Israeli titles and three of the last five Euroleague championships, had lost nine straight exhibition games against NBA teams since beating the then-champion Washington Bullets in 1978.

"This is history," Maccabi center Yaniv Green said. "They are still talking about [Maccabi's win over the Bullets] and I'm sure 20 years from now, they will still be talking about this one."

Parker, who played in the NBA for Philadelphia and Orlando, had 24 points, and Nikola Vujcic added 21 points and 10 rebounds. Chris Bosh had 27 points and 12 rebounds in 45 minutes for Toronto, and Jalen Rose had 18 points in 41 minutes.

"They played this game like it was their championship game, and rightfully so," Rose said. "Those guys are hungry for NBA jobs. You don't just go to Europe because you're turning down the NBA, you're going to Europe because you want to be in the NBA so when you're standing up against a guy in front of you that's is in the NBA, you want to prove to anybody that's watching that you're NBA-worthy."

No box score available yet.

I'm annoyed.



[Edited by - enyspree on 10-16-2005 10:23 PM]

Hmmm what about nikola vujcic if he can score 21 and 10 against bosh he might be able to play in the nba

After the 2004 olympics and now this, we must be an a complete joke to Europe as far as basketball is concerned. And I can't blame them. They should be laughing at us.

Don't Phuch with Isreal!

yeah, but they are playing one of the worst teams in the NBA. on top of that, it's just a preseason game to toronto - none of their players are going to give 100% in the preseason and risk getting injured, and i'm sure they were experimenting with lineups more than trying to win. for tel aviv, this was as big as a championship game to them, so they left it all out on the floor.

Posted by nyballer:

yeah, but they are playing one of the worst teams in the NBA. on top of that, it's just a preseason game to toronto - none of their players are going to give 100% in the preseason and risk getting injured, and i'm sure they were experimenting with lineups more than trying to win. for tel aviv, this was as big as a championship game to them, so they left it all out on the floor.

jalen played 41 mins. bosh 45 mins. tell me this was a nothing preseason game again. thanks.

this is a brilliant marketing ploy by David Stern. Put a powerhouse Euroleague team up against a horrible NBA team in the preseason. Toronto loses, no one this side of the Atlantic cares, but Europe will go crazy and more people will pay attention to basketball instead of soccer.

Dude, no offence but that show how much you know about soccer. Basketball will NEVER get close to soccer in 90% of the world. They don't give two hoots about some exhibition basketball game.

Considering this has already been done in '78, and that was to the best team in the NBA back then, I don't think this is that big of a deal.

I'm happy for Maccabi as that is the team I rooted for back in Europe, (well them and CSKA, double alligence here being russian and jewish at the same time), but ohnestly beating the Raptors in preseason arent that big of a deal.

And about soccer, I don't think any game will ever even come close to challening soccer as the defacto number one sport in Europe. Or the world really.