By Aaron Troodler
For this group of young men, basketball is much more than a game.
“Rebound: A Year of Triumph and Tragedy at Yeshiva University Basketball,” which FOX Nation premiered on April 9, provides a behind-the-scenes look at the Yeshiva University men’s basketball team in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks that shocked the State of Israel and Jews around the world.
Emmy award-winning filmmaker Pat Dimon conveys the conflicts the players felt after the horrific attack as they contemplated moving forward with their basketball season, which suddenly felt insignificant after what transpired on that fateful day in October, 2023, just two days before the start of practice for the team.
YU men’s basketball has experienced a resurgence in recent years, which began after the arrival of Coach Elliot Steinmetz in 2014.
Their 50-game win streak, which stretched from November, 2019 until December, 2021 and was the second-longest in NCAA Division III history, catapulted the team to the top of the rankings.
I was at the Dec. 30, 2021, game at the Max Stern Athletic Center when the Maccabees’ historic win streak came to an end against Illinois Wesleyan University, which was ranked fourth in the nation at the time. The energy and excitement in the gym that night was palpable.
The film opens with YU guard Adi Markovich describing learning about the events of Oct. 7, including that one of his friends was murdered. As he’s talking, we see scenes of destruction and devastation from the Hamas attack, which is followed by a scene in which Markovich walks onto the basketball court at YU holding a ball in his left hand.
The juxtaposition encapsulates the dichotomy skillfully conveyed through “Rebound”: the players’ inner turmoil and how to reconcile that with their passion for basketball, which seemed relatively trivial in light of the suffering of their Israeli brethren.
We hear YU guard Roy Itcovichi, a native of Israel, say that, “it feels selfish” to be playing basketball “when other people are protecting my country, our country,” a sentiment shared among the team’s Israeli players.
The film offers some star power, with appearances by Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots; and Josh Harris, managing partner of the Philadelphia 76ers, Washington Commanders and New Jersey Devils.
The film provides a glimpse into the lives of the YU players and how they balance religion and basketball as it transitions from a clip of the players davening Shacharit, led by Zevi Samet, wearing a white shirt, black jacket and black hat along with his tefilin, to a play that may be among the best in YU basketball history, in which forward Gabriel Leifer threw a behind-the-back alley oop to guard Ryan Turell, YU’s all-time scoring leader, who then dunked the ball with authority as the crowd erupts in cheers.
‘We play for the Jewish people’
As YU guard Tom Beza, whose good friend, Ofir Engel, was kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7, talks about the diverse religious backgrounds of the players, we see scenes of the team praying and eating together, giving us a sense of the camaraderie these players feel.
We hear Samet talk about how he wouldn’t play on the Sabbath, even if it could give him an opportunity to play basketball at a higher level. Samet’s mother, Jenny, describes the meaning and beauty of Shabbat as she, together with her husband and son, prepare challah in the family’s kitchen.
Samet has earned a name for himself during his time as a YU Maccabee, with his three-point shooting prowess and offensive arsenal. Yet, in “Rebound,” it becomes apparent that basketball, as important as it is to him, takes a back seat to his commitment to Judaism. He says that the prospect of compromising his religion to further his basketball career is “nonnegotiable.”
The film conveys the distinctive nature of Yeshiva University as it relates to athletics. Beza sums up what it means to him to be a Maccabee: “Judaism for me is to be an Israeli, to be a representative of the only Jewish country in the world. I’m not necessarily the most religious Jew, but I do believe that it’s important to be here and to represent the Jewish people.”
“We want to show that Jews can play basketball, and we want to make the Jewish community proud,” Turell says, summing up the Maccabees’ mission.
“We play for the Jewish people,” Samet says.
‘You areour ambassadors’
But it’s the film’s focus on Oct. 7 that captures viewers’ hearts and minds.
“After Oct. 7, everything changed,” Samet says. “It was definitely very difficult to be playing basketball.”
At the first home game after Oct. 7, the players warm up wearing T-shirts with photos of the hostages, and listen as Samet gives an impassioned pregame pep talk to the team in the locker room, which ends with the team proclaiming “spirituality before physicality” in unison before taking the court.
The image of the YU players from Israel unfolding a large Israeli flag at half-court as the crowd sings “Hatikvah,” Israel’s national anthem, captures the moment and the mood.
“Rebound” spends a great deal of time giving us an inside look into the team’s emotionally charged January, 2024 trip to Israel, which Steinmetz says was an opportunity for them “to show our brothers and sisters in Israel that we’re here with them.”
While in Israel, Itcovichi’s father explains to the players the impact that they have by playing basketball for YU and standing in solidarity with the Jewish state. “You are supporting us
. . . you are our ambassadors,” he says.
Through scenes of the team praying at the Western Wall, visiting an injured Israeli soldier in the hospital, touring the Nova music festival site, going to Hostage Square in Tel Aviv and visiting Kibbutz Be’eri, where over 100 people were murdered on Oct. 7 and 30 were taken hostage, we have a front-row seat that enables us to comprehend what the players experienced during their trip.
The segment at the Nova music festival site is particularly jarring. “6:29 is when the music stopped,” a survivor of the attack tells the players, a reminder of how everything changed in an instant on the morning of Oct. 7.
We watch as the players examine the exhibit, including mounds of shoes and glasses, which to me, evoked memories of the Holocaust and the atrocities that the Jews endured at that time.
The team’s Israel trip culminated with an exhibition game against Hapoel Tel Aviv, and the enthusiastic reaction of the large crowd speaks volumes about what it meant to the Israeli people to have the YU Maccabees with them in the Jewish state.
“On such a different level, it was the first home game we ever played,” Steinmetz says.
“Even your opponents are your brothers — I never felt like that before.”
Samet aptly sums up the lasting impact that the trip had when he says, “It was a wake-up call to recognize why I’m living.”
“We came back stronger as a team, mainly off the court, as one unit, as brothers,” Markovich says.
