Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Israel-Born T.J. Leaf Drafted By Indiana Pacers

T.J. Leaf the Israeli-born (but not quite Jewish!) former UCLA basketball star was drafted by the Indiana Pacers in the first round of Thursday’s NBA Draft. Leaf was the 18th pick overall.

Leaf, who played on an Israel under-18 national team, was noted by commentators for having a European-style game, including good passing skills and strong shooting percentages at the three-point range — a rarity for a big man like Leaf, who is 6-foot-10.

Leaf told ESPN that his father Brad, who played in Israel on a kibbutz team, gave him some advice on how to act in the NBA: “No. 1, just be a professional about it.”

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

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.