Strawberry season

It’s been a fairly dismal season for Jerusalem’s basketball team Hapoel Jerusalem, with a series of losses that have left it at the bottom of the Super League standings.

For new player D.J. Strawberry, son of Major League Baseball player Darryl Strawberry, the team’s losses are “tough.”

“It’s hard when your team’s not doing well and you’re one of the main players and everyone kind of looks at you and says what’re you doing wrong?” he said. “I’m willing to take some blame but I want to stick it out.”

Following a recent loss, a local news portal reported that Strawberry was trying to leave Hapoel and Israel. Strawberry reputed the rumor.

“There’s nothing going on, that was blown out of proportion,” he said. “There was a misunderstanding during the game, but I never talked to anybody and said I wanted to leave. Not to one of the general managers, not to a single media person.”

In fact, said Strawberry, Jerusalem is one of the best places he’s played in his brief career.

The brawny 6”5 player has played in Italy, Lithuania and the NBA D-league since graduating from the University of Maryland, where he played guard for the Terrapins. Strawberry’s plan was to return to the US, but like other American basketball athletes who just want to play ball, the NBA lockout left him few options back home.

“Friends of mine who have played here said it’s a great place to play, with good management, so I just took their word for it,” he said. “I just wanted to play and I knew they wouldn’t steer me wrong.”

After arriving in September, Strawberry spent three months playing under coach Oded Katash, until Katash was forced to quit in December due to continued losses. The new coach, Sharon Drucker, has said that he is optimistic about the future. So is Strawberry.

“I loved playing for Katash; he brought out the best in me,” said Strawberry. “I’m trying to continue that now that he’s not here. But it’s been good at Hapoel, I like playing with these guys, and yeah, I wish we could win a little bit more. We lost our starting point guard and injuries are keeping us down.”

Katash had tried to rebuild the team’s roster this season, including Americans Luke Jackson, Jarvis Varnado, and Strawberry.

Compared to Lithuania, where the “basketball was more slow-paced,” Strawberry feels that Hapoel is a good fit for him. “It’s faster-paced here and it’s a good mix of American and Israeli players,” he said.

He also likes the Israeli scene, whether he’s going out at night in Tel Aviv or sightseeing in Jerusalem’s Old City. Strawberry is living in Nof Zion, a luxury complex situated in eastern Jerusalem, which he describes as “five minutes from the Old City.”

He plans on showing the local sights to his father, now a pastor, and some other family members who will be visiting soon. In the meantime, it’s still basketball season, and Strawberry is a firm believer in working hard on his game.

“I’m here for basketball, and that comes first,” he said. “I have to be in the gym and work on my game and improve so that we can win.”