Ido Kozikaro stepped from his car two weeks ago and was engulfed by a delirious mob of fans in Haifa who grabbed him and hoisted him onto their shoulders.
Kozikaro was holding the championship trophy of the Basketball Super League, Israel’s highest division. He and his Maccabi Haifa teammates had wrested the trophy an hour earlier from Maccabi Tel Aviv in a stunning upset of the dynastic squad.
Haifa’s 86-79 victory over Tel Aviv, winner of 50 of the previous 58 titles, came on June 13, just a year after Haifa had finished in last place with a 5-21 record.
“It is just an unbelievable feeling,” said Kozikaro, a 16-year veteran. “We made history in Israeli basketball.”
Following the dismal 2011-12 season, a Haifa housecleaning — fueled by Florida-based billionaire Jeff Rosen, who bought the team in 2007 — yielded an overhauled roster featuring three American players with NBA experience and a head coach, Brad Greenberg, 59, who served as an assistant for two NBA teams and an executive for two others.
The Long Island native had never visited Israel before arriving last year to lead Maccabi Haifa.
The team finished 17-10 this season and won its first championship since the club was established in 1953. One of Maccabi Haifa’s exhibition games this season was in Oakland, a competitive 108-100 loss to the Golden State Warriors on Oct. 11, 2012.
After last season, Rosen assembled a cast of players who blended experience and youth and came from winning backgrounds. Key additions included Kozikaro; former NBA players Donta Smith, Cory Carr and James Thomas; American Pat Calathes; and league MVP Gal Mekel, a Tel Aviv native. — jta