The date was Feb. 17, 1977. The place was the sports stadium in the small town of Virton, Belgium. Israel's champion basketball team Maccabee Tel Aviv had just defeated the Soviet super-team CSKA Moscow in the European Cup. During an interview with Channel 1, which broadcast the game live, Maccabee's star Tal Brody coined a new expression. Speaking in the halting Hebrew of a new immigrant from the United States, he said, "We’re on the map, and we’re staying on the map, not only in sports, but in everything!"
Since then, Brody's comment has become nothing less than a national slogan, placing sports as an important front in Israel's struggle for international recognition. Politicians have been more than happy to enter the arena hoping to reap political benefits, even if the heads of the various leagues would prefer they didn't.
