Meet The Israeli Star Of The NBA Draft — He’ s Not Quite Jewish
Image by getty
By Ari Feldman June 21, 2017
He may not be Jewish, and he may not live in Israel, but we’ll take it: tomorrow T.J. Leaf will become the second Israeli-born player drafted to the NBA, the only one since Omri Casspi 2009. Leaf is expected to go in the middle of the first round of the draft, which is being held in Brooklyn.
T.J. Leaf is the son of Brad Leaf, a basketball player from Indiana who somehow got Israeli citizenship when he went to play for a kibbutz basketball team in the 1980s. What kind of Jewish name is Leaf, you ask? It’s not — Brad, a onetime Israeli MVP, has no Jewish ancestry.
So what does that make T.J., the 6-foot-10 power forward who was born in Tel Aviv? Legally Jewish?
The younger Leaf has spent time in Israel since his family moved to San Diego 1999, playing in the under-18 national team in Europe’s 2015 division B tournament. His success there turned into a spot on the UCLA basketball team, where Leaf averaged 16 points and 8 rebounds a game in his freshman season. He is expected to be picked by either Atlanta, Utah, Indiana, Portland, Denver or Miami.
Contact Ari Feldman at [email protected] or on Twitter @aefeldman
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
