page_title: Tal Brody
section_title: The FIBA European Champions Cup Championship; "We are on the map!"
hierarchical_section_title: Tal Brody / Later Israeli basketball career (1973–80) / The FIBA European Champions Cup Championship; "We are on the map!"
caption_attribution_description: Tal Brody drive to the hoop for a layup during the Maccabi Tel Aviv game against Italian team Bologna, held at Tel Aviv's Yad Eliyahu Stadium. טל ברודי עומד לקלוע שתי נקודות במשחקה של מכבי תל אביב כנגד בולוניה, באיצטדיון יד אליהו בתל אביב Photo: Yaakov Saar &#160;(1951&#8211;)&#160;&#160;Alternative names SA'AR YA'ACOV; Jacob Saar; Saʻar, YaʻaḳovDescriptionIsraeli photographerDate of birth 1951 Authority control : Q28751896 VIAF:&#8201;298161188 NLI:&#8201;001394176 creator QS:P170,Q28751896 , 10/28/1976
context_page_description: Talbot "Tal" Brody is an American-Israeli former professional basketball player, and current Goodwill Ambassador of Israel, who lives in Israel. Brody was drafted # 12 in the National Basketball Association draft, but he chose to pass up an NBA career, to instead play basketball in Israel. He played on national basketball teams of both the United States and Israel, and served in the armies of both countries.
  A New Jersey All Star basketball player in high school, Brody led his team to an undefeated state championship. In college, he was a high-scoring, slick-passing All-American and All-Big Ten point guard in 1965, while playing for the University of Illinois. That year, he was drafted 12th in the NBA draft. Before the NBA season started, he traveled to Israel, where he led the American team to a gold medal in the 1965 Maccabiah Games. Convinced by Moshe Dayan and others, to return to Israel to help elevate the country's basketball team and morale, he passed up his NBA career, to instead play basketball for Maccabi Tel Aviv.
  In 1977, he led Maccabi Tel Aviv to the FIBA European Champions Cup championship.
context_section_description: The highlight of his career came in 1977. It was the apex of the Cold War, and the Soviet Union was boycotting Israel.  In the first round of the European-wide top-tier level FIBA European Champions Cup (later renamed to EuroLeague), Maccabi Tel Aviv defeated Real Madrid, of Spain's top league, 94–85. In the second round, it beat Zbrojovka Brno, of Czechoslovakia's top-tier league, for the first time, 91–76, on February 15, 1977.
  In the FIBA European Champions Cup 1976–77 season semifinals, Maccabi Tel Aviv was matched against CSKA Moscow—the Red Army team.  CSKA Moscow was a powerhouse. The Soviet Army team had won the prior USSR Premier League basketball title.  Six of its players had played on the Soviet national team that had defeated the United States in the 1972 Summer Olympics, and their captain was Sergei Belov (who years later recalled that Brody was one of his toughest opponents).  And the Communists were well known for using sports to glorify what they billed as their supremacy over the West.
  The Soviet Union had broken off diplomatic relations with Israel a decade earlier, and politically and militarily backed Israel's Arab enemies. For political reasons, therefore, CSKA Moscow refused to play in Tel Aviv (which would have resulted in a technical defeat). And the Soviets also refused to grant visas to the Israelis, to allow them to come play in Moscow.  In the end, Maccabi Tel Aviv's "home game" was played in the small, neutral town of Virton, Belgium.
  The game took place in an emotional and politically charged atmosphere. It was of huge symbolic value for Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, and for many Israelis who ordinarily had no interest in basketball.  The game pitted the capitalist West against the Communist East, and Israel against the country that was supplying its enemies with weapons.  The game also matched the country of Israel, with a total of a mere 4 million inhabitants, against the Soviets, with their 290 million people.  The newspaper Maariv billed the February 17, 1977, game as "the fight between David and Goliath."  Most of Israel's population watched the game, which was broadcast on Israel's only TV channel at the time.
  Maccabi Tel Aviv upset the heavily favored Soviets, 91–79.  Enthusiastic fans carried Brody off the court on their shoulders.  The feeling among Israelis was not only that CSKA Moscow had been defeated, but that a victory – albeit small – had been achieved against the mighty Soviet Union.  The game has for decades been recognized as a key event in the forging of Israel's national identity. Even decades later, it was being replayed repeatedly on Israeli television.
  "We are on the map!" proclaimed an elated, euphoric Brody in his heavily American-accented Hebrew, as a TV announcer pushed a microphone in front of him for a post-game quote, while people danced the hora around him in excitement and celebration.  "And we are staying on the map – not only in sports, but in everything."
  The remark was spontaneous, and unprepared. As Brody put it, it just "came out of my heart, at that instant."  Then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin called Brody into his office, and told him that Brody's statement had brought tears to his eyes, and had immeasurably impacted the Israeli people's morale.
  The phrase "We are on the map!" ("anachnu al hamapa, ve'anahnu nisharim al hamapa!"), a literal translation of an English phrase into his adopted language, but a novel saying in Hebrew, became a new, popular phrase in Israel.  It reflected a physical victory by the nascent Jewish Zionist idea, and national pride.  It became Israel's most famous quote. The phrase was as significant for Israelis as U.S. astronaut Neil Armstrong's statement – "One small step for man; one giant step for mankind" – had been for Americans, vis-a-vis the space age.
  The saying became a staple of Israeli speech. Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin co-opted the phrase as an election campaign slogan in 1981.  It was also used by former Soviet refusenik and Israeli Yisrael BaAliyah party leader and Industry and Trade Minister Natan Sharansky,
caption: Brody drive to the hoop for a layup during a game
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