Israeli basketballer shoots for the NBA

Gal Mekel, the point guard who led Maccabi Haifa to its first-ever basketball championship earlier in June, is being courted by a number of NBA teams.

Mekel had an “eye-opening” workout last week with the Milwaukee Bucks, ESPN’s Marc Stein reported, and has been invited to try out this week with the Dallas Mavericks. The report said that the Toronto Raptors, Atlanta Hawks, Indiana Pacers and Utah Jazz have also expressed interest in the 25-year-old Israeli from Ramat Hasharon.

Last fall, Mekel had an impressive workout with the Jazz but was unable to attend training camp due to visa issues.

So he returned to Israel and led Maccabi Haifa to the Israeli Basketball Super League Championship, defeating powerhouse Maccabi Tel Aviv in the final game, 86-79. Mekel scored 21 points with seven assists and was named MVP of the game. He was also named league MVP for the season.

According to Stein, the surprising success of the New York Knicks’ 35-year-old Spanish point guard Pablo Prigioni has “spawned the belief” that the younger Mekel has what it takes to make it in the league.

“Mekel has likewise begun to convince to [sic] NBA talent evaluators that he can immediately become a rotation player in the NBA, someone who, at 6-foot-4 and 190 pounds, might actually be more effective in the NBA game than he is internationally — particularly in pick-and-roll situations — because the lane tends to be so much more clogged overseas,” Stein wrote.

Mekel played two years of college basketball in the US, at Wichita State University, from 2006 to 2008.

After leaving Wichita State, Mekel played one season for Maccabi Tel Aviv, followed by a season with Hapoel Gilboa Galil Elyon. He spent the 2011-12 season playing for the Italian team Benetton Treviso before returning to Israel to play for Haifa.

A number of Israeli basketball stars over the years just barely missed playing in the NBA, and so far Omri Casspi is the only one who actually played professional basketball in the US. The former Maccabi Tel Aviv star was drafted 23rd overall in 2009 by the Sacramento Kings, where he played for two years. In 2011 he was traded to Cleveland and played two years for the Cavaliers. He is currently a free agent.