Maccabi Tel Aviv won its 58th Israeli basketball championship on Tuesday, defeating Hapoel Tel Aviv 3-1 in the finals to secure its first double since 2020-21. Because no title was awarded last season, the club also claimed what the article describes as its third straight championship if the season interrupted by Operation "With All Your Might" is excluded, and all three came at Hapoel Tel Aviv’s expense.
The yellow team finished an exceptional campaign with a 24-3 regular-season record and an 8-1 playoff record. Across the full league season, Oded Kattash’s side went 32-4, with its only two league losses coming against Hapoel Tel Aviv. Including the State Cup and the playoff final, Maccabi finished 35-3 overall.
Hapoel Tel Aviv remains without a championship since 1969 and, according to the report, has never won a title in the Shimon Mizrahi era. Maccabi now stands far ahead in the all-time title table, while Hapoel is second with five championships. Of Maccabi’s 58 titles, Hapoel has finished runner-up 22 times, and the red club has lost 15 straight finals, all to Maccabi except for the 1979-80 season, when Maccabi were crowned champions immediately after the regular season and Hapoel finished second.
This is Kattash’s fourth championship as a coach and John DiBartolomeo’s seventh title. Maccabi last lost a playoff final in 2012-13, when it fell to Maccabi Haifa, and since then it has won all eight of its finals, with last season’s title omitted because no champion was crowned.
