Israel Basketball Team Announces August Roster Without Avdija and Saraf for World Cup Qualifiers

The Israeli national basketball team has revealed its roster for the upcoming August window of the FIBA World Cup qualifiers. Preparations will begin on August 16, with 16 players called up for training. Fourteen of these players will travel to Georgia for a warm-up game on August 23, before competing in two qualifier matches in Latvia against Poland on August 27 and Latvia on August 30.

Notably, Rafi Menco returns to the squad for the first time since the European Championship. The participation of Tomer Ginat remains uncertain due to injury; his condition will be assessed at the start of training to determine if he can continue with the team. Key absences include NBA players Deni Avdija and Ben Saraf, whose clubs did not approve their participation. Similarly, Noam Yaakov and Alon Michaeli are also unavailable. Additionally, Nimrod Levi, Joaquin Szuchman, Gur Lavi, and Yuval Zosman have not fully recovered and will not participate.

The full roster includes Yam Madar, Tamir Blatt, Kadin Carrington, Eitan Burg, Yair Kravitz, Guy Peltin, Adam Ariel, Rafi Menco, Netanel Artzi, Lior Karera, Roman Sorkin, Tomer Ginat, Yotam Hanochi, Eli Dolinsky, Idan Zalmanson, and Itai Segev. The team is led by coaches Ariel Beit Halachmi and Guy Goodes as they prepare for the critical World Cup qualifying matches.