RISHON LEZION (Basketball Champions League) - Newly-crowned Israeli champion Maccabi Rishon LeZion was founded in 1976 but its mission statement as a club was sealed a few months later, on 7 April 1977, and many kilometres away from Israel were the Rishon side was just starting to compete in the lowest division.

Itzhak Perry, Maccabi Rishon's founder, was at the time 28 years old and a Maccabi Tel Aviv supporter. Perry and his wife were also among the approximately 800 Israeli fans who managed to make their way to Belgrade for the FIBA European Champions' Cup final between the rising Tel Aviv team and the legendary Varese side of that era.

"Maccabi won 78-77 almost at the buzzer to lift Israel's first European trophy, and what happened next was incredible,” Perry told fiba.com. "There was an outburst of joy, everyone started singing the Israeli anthem, we were all so happy. I looked around and I remember thinking to myself 'if Maccabi can do it, maybe one day my club can do it too'."

For us, it all started with FIBA 40 years ago and it feels fitting that the year we win our first ever championship, FIBA is organising the inaugural Basketball Champions League - Itzhak Perry

The Rishon club had first to climb up the ranks of Israeli basketball. They reached the top flight in 1988/89, and later competed in the European Cup Winners' Cup and the Korac Cup. They returned to European competitions in the 2015/16 season, with a great run up until the quarter-finals of the FIBA Europe Cup. But their most unexpected big moment came on 9 June, when Rishon defeated overwhelming favourites Hapoel Jerusalem in the final and lifted their maiden Israeli Winner League title.

"We are a city of 250,000 and the day after we won the championship everyone was smiling, everyone was nice to each other, it was like a huge party," Perry said. "It took me one hour longer to reach my office because everybody stopped me and wanted to greet me. The last time I had seen the city like this was on Independence day when I was ten years old.   

Just like it happens in football with FIFA and UEFA, FIBA has to be in charge of basketball competitions in Europe. This is sport, a team that becomes champion should earn the right to play - Itzhak Perry

"Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu received us to congratulate us for the championship. He called us the 'Leicester City of Israel' (football club Leicester City F.C. sprung a monumental surprise by winning the English Premier League). I don't know which team the prime minister supports, but I think everyone likes an underdog.

"Now that we've been crowned Israeli champions I have fulfilled one part of my dream. If we win the Basketball Champions League, I will have fulfilled my entire dream and I will be able to go back to my office and my business partner will no longer say that I dedicate half my day to basketball," the Rishon chairman added jokingly.

Some would argue that Rishon realistically stand a better chance to defend their Israeli Winner League title next year if they only focus on the domestic competition. The club however found through their FIBA Europe Cup experience this season that the opposite is true.

"When we decided last summer to play in the FIBA Europe Cup the media said that I was crazy, that we did not have the roster to play in two competitions and that we would pay a high price for that decision," Perry said. "We knew we had to make a huge effort, it was not easy at all as a typical trip to a European destination would start at around 3 am in Rishon and last 12-13 hours. I told the team at the beginning of the season that the FIBA Europe Cup could either break us, or make us a better team.

"We ended up having a great campaign in the FIBA Europe Cup, we were the only team to beat eventual champions Fraport Skyliners and I think it helped us improve enormously and ultimately win the Israeli championship. The players spent time together on the road, there were incidents that helped them unite as a group also outside the court and I believe that without that European experience perhaps we would not have made the big leap in the Israeli league play-offs and the Final Four.

"The mayor of the city is helping us build our new arena, that will seat 10,000 and should be ready in 2018. He wants the team to remain at the top of Israeli basketball and play a big role in the Basketball Champions League. Hopefully, we will get to live many great European nights in both our current gym and at our new home."

FIBA