101 Greats of European Basketball

Vladimir Stankovic
via to the fight for the bronze while Israel entered the
great final, which it lost to the USSR 76-98.
During most of his career, Berkowitz played without
the existence of three-point baskets, which were introduced
only in the fall of 1984. That surely makes his
numbers lower, even though shooting was not his main
weapon. I remember him most for his drives, his quickness,
his hands stealing a lot of balls, his sixth sense
to find the right spot for the rebound... Miki was also
a great defender. He was a complete player and most
of all, a winner like he says in his autobiography “Born
to Win.” The last shot or the decisive play was always
set for him. He liked challenges and didn’t know the
meaning of the word “fear.” He decided many games,
and many of them were really important.
In the 1981 final of the EuroLeague, in Strasbourg
against Virtus Bologna (80-79), he scored the last 5
points for his team. First, with the game tied, he made it
78-75 with a basket-plus-free throw combination. Then
he made it 80-77 in the last offensive play by Maccabi.
He finished with 20 points, more than Aulcie Perry (18),
Earl Williams (17) or Jim Boatwright (14). He took part in
another three finals, but Maccabi would lose all of them:
1982 against Cantu (80-86, 16 points); 1987 against
Milano again (69-71, 9 points); and 1988 against Milano
again (84-90, 3 points) in the first Final Four of the modern
era, played in Ghent, Belgium.
In 1984, in a tourney in Tel Aviv with Hapoel Tel Aviv,
the New Jersey Nets and the Phoenix Suns, Maccabi
repeated the heroism of six years before. The first day
it beat the Nets 104-97 with 26 points by Berkowitz
and 23 by Kevin Magee, and in the final Maccabi defeated
the Suns 113-98 with 36 points by Magee, 28
by Lee Johnson and 20 by Berkowitz. Thanks to him,
Israel played in its only World Championship in 1986,
winning the qualifying tourney in the last game against
Czechoslovakia 92-90, with his basket on the last
offense. In the Worlds that followed in Spain, Miki averaged
16.8 points. In his seven EuroBaskets between
1973 and 1985, only in the first one (6.4 ppg.) and the
last one (15.3 ppg.) did Berkowitz average below 20
points.
Israeli Legend
Apart from being considered the best basketball
player of all time in Israel, Miki Berkowitz is among the
most famous people ever in that country. A survey on
the Ynet portal once put him in 35th place in a list of
the 200 most popular figures of the history of Israel. He
was even named “King of Israel” by the local press. He
handled his fame naturally, as he was always a humble
and kind man.
A role model.
His two sons followed the tradition and even managed
to play in the Israeli first division, but the Berkowitz
last name was more a curse than a blessing and
their performances were always compared to those of
their irreplaceable father.
I can offer you some more numbers on Berkowitz:
• Second best scorer of all time in the Israeli League
with 8,465 points, behind only Doron Jamchy.
• 3,588 points for Maccabi in 211 EuroLeague-level
games.
• 2,842 points in 165 games with the Israeli national
team.
• Best scoring performance in an Israeli League
game was 42 points.
• Best scoring performance with the Israeli national
team was 44 points against Turkey in the 1975
EuroBasket.
40
41