The Israel men's national basketball team () represents Israel in international basketball tournaments. They are administered by the Israeli Basketball Association. Israel is currently ranked 29th in the FIBA World Ranking.
Israel has qualified for the EuroBasket 31 times throughout their history. They have also made two appearances at the World Cup, and one at the Summer Olympics. Israel also participated at the Asian Games from 1966 to 1974. The most success Israel has had on the international stage to date, is finishing as the runners-up at EuroBasket 1979, as well as winning two gold medals (1966, 1974), and one silver medal (1970) at the Asian Games.
History 1952 Olympic Games
The Israeli national team played in their first international competition at the 1952 Olympic Games. However, the team would quickly be ousted in the preliminary tournament, with a (0–2) record and losses to the Philippines, and Greece.
EuroBasket 1953
Israel made their European Basketball Championship debut at EuroBasket 1953 in Moscow. In the preliminary round, the Israeli squad won their group by tie-breaker after being one of three teams to finish with a (3–1) record. They then advanced to the final round, managing to defeat perennial power Czechoslovakia, and getting revenge on Yugoslavia for their only preliminary round loss. Their record in the final round was (4–3), putting them in a 4-way tie for second place behind the undefeated Soviet Union. Israel eventually came out on the bottom of that tie-breaker, finishing in 5th place of the 17 teams.
Israel's overall record of seven wins and four losses included two wins by forfeit over Lebanon (in the preliminary round) and Egypt (in the final round), each of which had refused to play against Israel due to political reasons.
1954 World Cup Israel reached the World Cup for the first time in 1954. The national team would be placed in Group D in the preliminary round, where they would finish in a 3-way tie, after splitting their two games. They would ultimately secure a spot in the final round based on point difference. There Israel would be overwhelmed, as they dropped six of their seven matches to accumulate a (1–6) record, with their only win coming in a 48–45 overtime victory against France. Israel would end their inaugural appearance at the tournament in eighth place.
1966 Asian Games
Israel appeared at the Asian Games for the first time in 1966. Being drawn into Group B in the preliminary round of the tournament, the national team throttled Iran in the first game 87–55. After that result, Israel would go on to finish out the rest of the round with a (4–1) record, to move on. In the semi-finals, Israel breezed passed Japan 57–34 to reach the title game. In the final, Israel capped their run through the competition by dismantling Thailand 90–42 to capture their first gold medal at the Asian Games.
1970 Asian Games Heading into the 1970 Asian Games, Israel looked to repeat their performance from 1966. Israel swept their preliminary phase opponents to make it to the final stage. Sitting at (3–0), Israel looked dominant in their first three wins, and appeared poised to become back-to-back Asian Games champions. After winning their first seven games of the final round, Israel needed one more win to finish with a flawless record, and take home the gold. However, South Korea prevented it all from happening, defeating Israel convincingly 81–67. The result landed the team into a second-place finish overall.
1974 Asian Games The 1974 Asian Games would be the final appearance for Israel at the tournament. The team looked to achieve the gold medal once more before departing. Israel easily made it through the first two rounds to a (3–0) record, setting up a clash in the semi-finals. There the team went up against the Philippines, and outlasted them in a high scoring affair 123–101, to reach the final. In the title game South Korea awaited Israel once again, who was determined to avenge their lost to them at the prior Asian Games in 1970. This time around Israel would come out as champions, winning a hard-fought tussle 92–85 to reclaim the gold medal one last time.
EuroBasket 1979 The EuroBasket 1979 was the 12th appearance for Israel at the European Basketball Championship. The team began their tournament journey with an opening phase defeat against France. Although the team would refocus, and win their next two matches against Poland, and Yugoslavia. The (2–1) record the team achieved was enough to advance to the final stage of the competition. There, the team won three out of their five games to finish in second place in the group, only behind the Soviet Union. This result gave Israel their first medal finish at the tournament.
1986 World Cup Israel qualified for their second World Cup appearance in 1986. The national team was drawn into Group B in the preliminary phase. Their first game of the tournament was a 79–84 win against Uruguay. Israel would go on to attain second place in group play with a (3–2) record, to move on to the next round. However, Israel was not as successful in this phase, as they would finish up with a losing record (2–3) to be relegated to the classification round. There they went (1–1) to come in 7th place at the competition overall.
EuroBasket 2017 Israel won the rights to be one of four co-hosts for EuroBasket 2017. With Israel hosting Group B in Tel Aviv, the team went up against Italy in their first game, and were thoroughly dominated in a 69–48 defeat. Heading into their second game of the tournament, Israel had Lithuania standing in their way. Israel ran out to an early first period lead, but the team could not maintain the momentum, as they fell to (0–2), and desperately needing a win in their next game. Germany was the opponent for the national team in their third match of group play, and they were victorious in a remarkable 80–82 win. Sitting with a (1–2) record, Israel were intent on getting a win versus Georgia. However, even behind the strong performance from Gal Mekel, his 23 points were not enough. Israel would lose a heartbreaker in overtime 91–104. Their last game of group play, and positions nearly determined, Israel would fall once more. This time at the hands of Ukraine, 88–64, to end the tournament with a (1–4) record.
2019 World Cup qualification During the process for Israel to reach the 2019 World Cup, the team went through World Cup qualifiers, where they were drawn into Group H for the first round of qualifiers. Israel's first game was a comfortable 88–68 win at home against Estonia. Heading to play Greece on the road in their next game, the team looked to move to (2–0). Although Greece would have none of it, as they dominated Israel 82–61, dropping the team to a record of (1–1). Israel would eventually get things on track, as they finished the rest of group play at (3–3), enough to advance to the second and final round of qualifying.
For the second round of World Cup qualifying, Israel was placed into Group L. Their first two matches of group play were tough losses against Georgia, and Germany. Although they eventually picked up an impressive win in their third game at home versus Serbia. Unfortunately, the national team would only earn one more victory during the rest of the qualifiers, which saw their hopes at (5–7) and clinching qualification vanish.
Honours Medals table EventSummer Olympic Games020000FIBA World Cup7110000EuroBasket771130101Asian Games1922103Total1031282204
Competitive record
FIBA World Cup World CupQualificationYearPosition 1950Did not enterDid not enter 19548th927Directly qualified 1959Did not enterDid not enter 1963Did not qualifyEuroBasket servedas qualifiers 1967 1970 1974 1978 1982 19867th1055Q651 1990Did not qualifyEuroBasket servedas qualifiers 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 20195th 12 5 7 20235th 12 4 8 2027To be determinedIn progress 2031To be determinedTotal2/1919 7 12 30 14 16
Olympic Games Olympic GamesQualifyingYearPosition 1948Did not enter 195220th202 1956Did not qualify 1960734 1964844 1968835 1972743 19761046 19801064 1984936 1988312 19921257 1996Did not qualify 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020 2024422 2028To be determinedTo be determinedTotal1/202 0 2 78 35 43
Asian Games Asian GamesYearPosition 1966761 1970871 1974660Total21192
EuroBasket EuroBasketQualificationYearPosition 1939Did not enter 1946 1947 1949 1951 19535th1174 1955Did not enter 1957 195911th835 196111th725 19639th945Directly qualified 19656th954 3 2 1 19678th945 3 2 1 196911th716 4 3 1 197111th716 3 2 1 19737th73411 10 1 19757th752Directly qualified 19775th743 1979954 19816th835 19836th734 19859th734 198711th725 12 10 2 1989Did not qualify 3 2 1 1991 DNQ 10 5 5 199315th312 1st 6 5 1 19959th624 2nd 6 5 1 19979th844 3rd 10 6 4 19999th624 2nd 10 7 3 200110th413 1st 10 8 2 20037th734 3rd 10 5 5 20059th422 Q 12 9 3 200711th624 Q 14 9 5 200915th303 2nd 6 3 3 201113th523 2nd 8 5 3 201321st514 2nd 10 6 4 201510th633 1st 6 4 2 201721st514Qualified as co-host 202217th523 1st 6 5 1 202514th633 1st 6 5 1 2029To be determinedTo be determined Total 31/40 205 84 121 169 118 51
Results and fixtures
2025
2026
2027
Team Current roster Roster for the 2027 FIBA World Cup Qualifiers matches on 27 and 30 August 2026 against Poland and Latvia.
Depth chart
Notable players Current notable players who have played for the national team:
|valign=top| Legend Club – describes lastclub on 1 March 2026 Age – describes ageon 1 March 2026
Head coach position
Gallery
Past rosters 1952 Olympic Games: finished 20th among 23 teams
3 Avraham Schneor, 4 Zacharia Ofri, 5 Daniel Levy, 6 Menahem Korman, 8 Amos Linkowsky, 9 Shimon Szmuckler, 10 Yehuda Wiener, 11 Ralph Klein, 12 Reuben Perach, 13 Eliahu Amiel, 14 Dan Boksenbaum, 15 Marcel Hefez (Coach: Jacob Saltiel)
1953 EuroBasket: finished 5th among 17 teams
3 Avraham Schneor, 4 Zacharia Ofri, 5 Daniel Levy, 6 Menahem Korman, 7 Alfred Cohen, 8 David Heiblum, 9 Shimon Szmuckler, 10 Ernst Winer, 11 Ralph Klein, 12 Marcel Hefez, 13 Mark Mimran, 14 Dan Boksenbaum, 15 Reuben Perach (Coach: Jacob Saltiel)
1954 FIBA World Cup: finished 8th among 12 teams
3 Avraham Schneor, 4 Zacharia Ofri, 5 Daniel Moshe, 6 Reuben Perach, 7 Alfred Cohen, 8 Tavil Israel, 9 Shimon Shelah, 10 Yehuda Gafni, 11 Rafael Ram, 12 Marcel Hefez, 13 Azriel Luboshitz, 14 Dan Erez (Coach: Jacob Saltiel)
1959 EuroBasket: finished 11th among 17 teams
3 Avraham Schneor, 4 Albert Hemmo, 6 Haim Kastan, 7 Amos Lin, 9 David Tari, 10 Jacob Edelist, 11 Ralph Klein, 12 Igal Volodarsky, 13 David Kaminsky, 14 Haim Hazan, 15 Erez Lustig, 16 Shabetai Ben-Bassat (Coach: Eli Amtel)
1961 EuroBasket: finished 11th among 19 teams
4 Tanhum Cohen-Mintz, 5 Erez Lustig, 6 Ami Shelef, 7 Hanoch Barkon, 8 Albert Hemmo, 9 Offer Eshed, 10 David Kaminsky, 11 Ralph Klein, 12 David Tari, 13 Abraham Hoffman, 14 Haim Hazan, 15 Igal Volodarsky (Coach: Yehoshua Rozin)
1963 EuroBasket: finished 9th among 16 teams
4 Tanhum Cohen-Mintz, 5 Offer Eshed, 6 Ami Shelef, 7 Zvi Lubezki, 8 Albert Hemmo, 9 Abraham Gutt, 10 Igal Volodarsky, 11 Ralph Klein, 12 Shlomo Ben-Zeev, 13 Abraham Hoffman, 14 Haim Hazan, 15 Ilan Zeiger (Coach: Yehoshua Rozin)
1965 EuroBasket: finished 6th among 16 teams
4 Tanhum Cohen-Mintz, 5 Offer Eshed, 6 Ami Shelef, 7 Zvi Lubezki, 8 Albert Hemmo, 9 Igal Volodarsky, 10 Abraham Gutt, 11 David Kaminsky, 12 Gideon Freitag, 13 Abraham Hoffman, 14 Haim Hazan, 15 Ilan Zeiger (Coach: Shimon Shelah)
1966 Asian Games: finished among 11 teams
4 Amnon Avidan, 5 Tanhum Cohen-Mintz, 6 Igal Dar, 7 Gershon Dekel, 8 Offer Eshed, 9 Abraham Gutt, 10 David Kaminsky, 11 Zvi Lubezki, 12 Itshak Shachar, 13 Ami Shelef, 14 Haim Starkman, 15 Ilan Zohar (Coach: Shimon Shelah)
1967 EuroBasket: finished 8th among 16 teams