JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball team lost the Euroleague finals in a game that was moved up several hours so that it would not be played on Israel’s Memorial Day.
Greece’s Panathinaikos defeated Maccabi Tel Aviv, 78-70, in Barcelona, Spain. More than 5,000 Israelis traveled to the game.
Maccabi Tel Aviv, the most awarded sports team in Israeli history, was bidding for its first Euroleague title in six years. It has won four Euroleague titles since 1977.
With Maccabi reaching the Final Four in April, the league agreed to move up the start time of the championship game to 5:30 p.m. after the team said it would not play if the game coincided with Yom Hazikaron. The game ended about 30 minutes before the siren sounded heralding the start of the somber day.
Twenty years ago, the club was criticized heavily for playing in the semifinals of the European Final Four in a game that ended after the start of Memorial Day in Israel.
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