Israel basketball premium league known as- ‘Ligat Ha’Al’, is the top rank of league basketball competition in Israeli basketball, making it Israel’s primary basketball competition.
‘Ligat Ha’Al’ was founded in 1954, containing the top twelve basketball clubs in Israel. The league itself is most known in Europe due to the success of the Israeli teams in the European competitions such as the Euro league, Euro-cup (formerly ULEB Cup) and FIBA’s Euro-Challenge (formerly Euro-Cup).
Many undrafted and free agent players from Europe and the NBA play in the Israeli league as an alternative to NBA competition.
The league is the first division in Israeli basketball: the team that finishes last in a season is relegated to the Second Division- top 8 teams compete in the play-offs right after the end of the regular season. The team that reaches the final series is promoted to the Premier League for the following season.
The way the competition works in Israel:
12 teams play against each other twice in the league manner, one home game and one and one away game. At the end of those two rounds, the teams are divided into two equal group- top group and bottom group. Each team in these groups play against each other once. All of the teams in the top group and the two top teams in the bottom group advance Quarterfinal (five game series).
The winners of the Quarterfinals then advance to the Semifinals (five game series). The two top advanced teams in the semifinals play two games in the Final to determine the league champions.
Furthermore, in 2011, the league imposed a limit of four non-Israelis per team, thus allowing only three non-Israeli players to play per gam.
During the 1980s and the early 1990s many games were played in Israel between the Israeli League stars and NBA teams such as the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Orlando Magic, and the Los Angeles Lakers. And in October 2005, Maccabi Tel Aviv defeated the Toronto Raptors 105–103 in an exhibition game making it the first victory for any European or Israeli team over an NBA team at its home court. In addition,in 2009, Omri Casspi became the first Israeli-born NBA player with the Sacramento Kings.
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