Israeli Basketball Legend Anat Draigor Skips Hall of Fame Over Women’s Basketball Recognition Dispute

During the traditional gala event this week, the Israeli Basketball Association (IBA) inaugurated the Israeli Basketball Hall of Fame, naming its first inductees: Miki Berkovich, Barry Leibowitz, Aviva Bales, Aluma Goren, and Tal Brody. Notably absent was Anat Draigor, widely regarded as Israel’s greatest female basketball player. The IBA claimed they had intended to include Draigor and contacted her to inform her of her selection. However, Draigor, who runs her own "Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame" website, viewed the IBA’s initiative as insufficiently honoring women’s basketball in Israel.

The IBA responded on social media that they had invited Draigor to the event but that the phone conversation with her became unpleasant. They wished her success and good health. Draigor explained her refusal to participate to ynet, emphasizing her deeper concerns about how women’s sports are commemorated in Israel. She criticized the IBA’s event as a superficial gesture lacking the necessary long-term infrastructure, such as a comprehensive national archive for women’s basketball history, including press clippings, audiovisual archives, photographs, and recorded testimonies from players and coaches.

Draigor expressed frustration that the IBA used materials from her website without proper recognition, noting that she and her late colleagues had painstakingly collected and documented these resources over many years as a labor of love to honor Israeli women basketball pioneers dating back to 1950. She called for official recognition to respect copyright and thoroughness.

Regarding the Hall of Fame itself, Draigor advocated for transparent, objective, and chronological criteria for future selections to ensure the ceremony’s credibility and significance. She lamented that the IBA’s decisions appeared politically motivated and pledged to continue promoting, documenting, and elevating women’s basketball in Israel with genuine respect for its history and future.