Aliyah or NBA? New ‘Jewish Jordan’ Dreams of Playing in Israel

Ryan Turell led Yeshiva University to a 50-game winning streak and has his sights set on a professional career. Will he make aliyah and play in Israel, or earn a spot in the NBA?

By United with Israel Staff

While trailblazing point guard Tamir Goodman will always be the original “Jewish Jordan,” Yeshiva University’s Ryan Turell has emerged as the world’s next great Orthodox Jewish basketball player.

Turell led his Yeshiva University team to a 50-game winning streak, which is the second longest streak in college basketball. Now, he is moving on to a professional career.

The big question is whether he will follow a lifelong dream of making aliyah and play in Israel, or cut the mustard in the U.S.’ National Basketball Association (NBA), the world’s top professional league.

Admittedly, the NBA is a long shot for the 6’7″ forward from Los Angeles. While his stats at YU were impressive, the school plays in the NCAA’s Division III, a lower level of competition than the background of most NBA players. With that being said, he averaged 27.1 points a game and notched a 59% shooting average from the field.

Turell’s role in YU’s 50-game streak also most likely caught the eye of NBA scouts.

Turell, for his part, has expressed a desire to make aliyah, a step through which he would fulfill the “mitzvah” according to Jewish ritual law of living in the Land of Israel.

“My dream has always been to play professional basketball in Israel,” Turell told Israel Today a few months ago. “I remember visiting Israel at the age of 9 and since then I have a special connection to it. All this time, I [worked] to play in the Israeli league.”

While there have been dozens of Jewish players in the NBA, including a few Israelis, none of them was Sabbath-observant because games are played and teams work and travel on Friday evening and Saturday, during Shabbat.

Turell could break that barrier and become the first Shabbat-observant NBA player, carrying on the tradition of kippah-wearing ballers started by Tamir Goodman.

“A lot of kids can now be proud Jewish basketball players,” Goodman told the LA Times in an interview last year, “but back then, I was just a curiosity.”

“We’re serious. Jews can play basketball,” Turell said in the Times piece. “I made a decision to really be a part of something special, to be a Jewish hero and to create the dream — a basketball culture for Jews.”

The “basketball culture for Jews” is alive and well in Israel! Will Turell heed its call?

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