It's real hard to get a good photo of Dani playing basketball with my little digital camera. The zoom isn't strong enough, and the lighting is such that everything is either blurry or too dark to see. Nonetheless, I thought you all might like to see Dani (or his back) playing basketball for Alitsor Ra'anana with the Israeli flag in the background and the kippah on the head. He's the kid on the right hand side without a number on his shirt.Here's the short story. His team is 2 and 1. The first game (at home) I attended and watched Dani play the 3rd quarter. They play with small basketballs, and low hoops. I can practically touch the hoop. So this is a little different that what Dani is used to in the States. Dani had a good game and scored 5 points (or 7) in a game that they won 40 to 30. The second game was an away game at Kochav Yair, which as Dani tells it, is practically in the West Bank. What he means is that it is next to the security fence. It is not actually in the West Bank. I missed that game, and they lost, 60 to 50, though it seems like there were some irregularities with the scoring, and the true score might have been 54 or even 56. Dani had a great game, playing the 2nd quarter and the 4th quarter. A few days after that game we rented Coach Carter a great movie about a coach he turns a losing inner city high school team into an undefeated team. I was inspired. The third game was this week, and I missed the first quarter which unfortunately was when Dani played. His team won 60 to 52. Dani had to guard a guy that was at least a foot taller than him, though luckily for Dani , the giant was not particularly coordinated. He got called from traveling more times than I can remember. Anyway, it was quite a challenge for Dani to guard such a tall guy without fouling him.
