It wasn’t yet dawn on the morning of March 13, 2020 when Ryan Turell settled into the back seat of a blue-gray SUV destined for BWI Airport outside Washington D.C. The day should have been a joyous one: The sophomore wing for Yeshiva University had scored 71 points in back-to-back Division III NCAA tournament wins, and the Maccabees, historically a sub-.500 team, had advanced to the Sweet 16 and were cresting toward their first Final Four.
But the afternoon before, the onset of the coronavirus and the accompanying shutdowns had forced the cancellation of the entire tournament. Faced with the possibility of being stuck across the country from his parents at the start of a pandemic, Turell scrambled to book a one-way ticket to his Los Angeles home. As he sat in I-95 traffic, however, he stewed about his lost opportunity.
“I was in shock,” he says. “We had this amazing season without an ending, and I didn’t how to process it.”
The car’s driver was Harold Katz, an unofficial scout for Yeshiva and the former coach of Tamir Goodman, the much-celebrated guard from the late 1990s whose nickname, “The Jewish Jordan,” highlighted both his skill set and unique background. Katz remembers Turell “wallowing in self-pity.”
Turell’s field goal percentage during the tournament (77%) had attracted national notice that was now destined to be a footnote in some record book, and NBA scouts would have to wait another year to fully evaluate Turell. But as Katz pulled into the BWI departures lane, he assured Turell that the scouts would return, that his quest to be the first Orthodox Jewish player in the modern-day NBA had not diminished.
Read more at Yahoo News.
{Matzav.com}
So heartwarming….
Neat. Maybe the ugly reform will note our very important sabbath. They build castles of strike down.
Fond if it works.
Oy, I’m nauseous. This is what Klal yisrael needs, an “Orthodox” NBA ball player? This is a “tragedy” of the coronavirus, that it left his great season in limbo?
Oy I’m really nauseous…
Is this our values. We don’t care!!!! i thought we defeated the יונים!! We try not to emulate them or praise the people that do. Enough fascination with this stupidity, and anti torah Philosophy. Maybe we can have a article celebrating a bochur whos aid a nice chabura or got Farhered on a Mesechta. is this really the websir=te of the “Torah world”???!!!!
Nu, so what’s the latest update? Very shoddy report.
Fifty to sixty years ago true accomplishment for a frum college-age, career-minded individual was him sacrificing that same career for his shmiras Shabbos or similar religious convictions. Now, we are supposed to saw “wow” one of us may become the first shomer Shabbos NBA player! He’ll get to shower in the same locker room with all the pros, hear their nivul peh, listen to their sstories of their “affairs” (tartie b’mahmah), perhaps share in the victory celebrations at the local pub or hotel. Isn’t this wondereful. We have really come such a long way! Won’t the Macabiem be so proud.
Should try to get onto Amare Stoudmires Nets as a frum coach understands the issues
For whatever reason (maybe the Aibishter purposely made it that way) there has never been a real “frum” player to make it to the NFL, MLB, NBA, or NHL. Never happened. Never will happen. Tamir Goodman was never going to make it to the NBA. Oh please. Nice Jewish white stiff. It’s all nice and good to do well playing for some obscure level 26 College that nobody ever heard of. Being drafted by an NBA team is very very difficult. Only a minority of a minority of the thousands that come out of College every year and are eligible for the draft, ever make it. Just because some nice white jewish kid can get the ball in a basket, playing a 3 on 3 game behind the Eden Roc Hotel in Miami Beach on Chal Hamoed Pesach, means diddly-squat. We Yiddelach are not build for the rigors of basketball. It’s a reality of life we have to except.
Even if some white jewish kid ever miraculously makes it to be bentch warmer, the only chance of ever getting on the court would be in garbage-time when your team is being slaughtered by 40+ points.
Ya – but because of corona virus they have a lot of players back for a 5th year like Gabe Leifer. This year’s team should be their best ever!!