An American basketball player’s season in Ashkelon

March 29, 2011 - 9:48 AM by

Jon Jaques in his Ironi 'Eldan' Ashkelon uniform.

Jon Jaques is an American Jewish graduate of Cornell University who was a starter on Cornell’s basketball team that last year became the first Ivy League team to advance to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA annual tournament – March Madness!

Not quite talented enough to shoot for a career in the NBA, Jaques decided to take a year before getting on with his life by signing a year-contract with Ironi ‘Eldan’ Ashkelon in the Israeli Super League, where he’s spent the last three months.

In a long, insightful first-person account for the American sports bible Sports Illustrated, Jaques has written about his experience going from playing last year in the cavernous Carrier Dome to the “the cramped, cookie-cutter gyms of Israel.”

…while Ashkelon and Ithaca, N.Y., may be similar in size, the similarities end there. If moving to Tel Aviv or Jerusalem for a whole year is a culture shock, then moving to Ashkelon is the equivalent of a cultural ice bath. In a lot of ways, Ashkelon is unlike the bigger, more citylike parts of Israel, and for that reason the cultural adjustment to living here is probably as big as it could have possibly been. But the small-town feel of Ashkelon is one of the characteristics I appreciate most.

Ashkelon basketball fans, like I’d imagine most fans of small-town/lower budget European teams, are extremely passionate about the team. They are everything a basketball player could ask for in a fan base: loyal, proud, and feverishly supportive. The fans, which are mostly made up of adolescent boys, travel to all away games, bang drums in the stands, paint their chests and blow vuvuzelas. They pack the energy and enthusiasm of European soccer into basketball arenas wherever we travel.

However, Jaques is not wearing rose-tinted glasses, as he continues…

On the flip side, like most Israelis, they are also not shy about voicing their displeasure when things don’t go well. It’s wrong to call it rudeness, but some Israelis possess this unbridled honesty that enables them to ask questions and make comments that many Americans would keep to themselves. For example, after we lost our opening game of the season to local rival Ashdod, I returned home to order a pizza. Before handing me my food, the deliveryman greeted me with, “It’s you! How’d you guys lose tonight? I was embarrassed to watch the game.” That’s pretty bold coming from a man whom I had yet to tip, but that is the reality of life as a professional basketball player.

Go here to read Jaques’ full account of his eye-opening experience in Israel.

Tags: • Category: A New Reality, Blogging, General, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Life, Profiles, Sports, Travel 

Comments

2 Comments on An American basketball player’s season in Ashkelon

  1. fileserve premium on Wed, Mar 30th 2011 6:40 AM

    2. nice post mate..i love basketball soo much

  2. Ben D on Fri, Jun 3rd 2011 2:14 PM

    3. The NCAA tournament is better than the NBA playoffs in my opinion. pro basketballer eating pizza after a game, Jon you should be in recovery – an ice bath perhaps!

    Did you tip him, thats the question?

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