Leaders in Sports
Top ten most influential Jewish athletes, arranged alphabetically
“I have no dream greater than to reach the World Cup. That would be it for me”
Assuming the number of Twitter followers you have is a measure of popularity, Yossi Benayoun’s 333,000 followers make him twice as popular as the Israeli prime minister. There are already many people who treat him as the best Israeli soccer player of all times. Benayoun also seems to be the most identifiable Israeli athlete in the world today.
One thing is hard to dispute: There is no Israeli footballer who spent so many years at the highest levels in Europe. After being discovered in Dimona, Benayoun broke out in Be’er Sheva and starred on Maccabi Haifa; at 22 he switched to Spain’s Racing de Santander. At 25, he moved over to England, to West Ham. From there he continued on to a long and successful stint in Liverpool, and then played for Arsenaland Chelsea. While in a Liverpool jersey in the Champions League, he scored the winning goal at an away game against Real Madrid in 2009. In England, he has appeared in more than 500 games, scoring 130 goals, and on the Israeli national team, he has appeared 92 times and scored 24 goals.
National Hockey League commissioner, 61, USA
Gary Bettman’s 20-year term as NHL commissioner seemed no less turbulentthan an average hockey game.
“You know what, [the fans] got an opinion. We may not agree on everything, but they care, and I’ll take that. If it were totally quiet, then I’d be worried”
Bettman, who worked for over a decade for the NBA, was appointed in 1993 to be the NHL’s first commissioner when the league had 24 teams; today there are 30. He expanded the league to some very not-cold climates in the USA like Atlanta, Nashville and Dallas – at the expense of Canadian teams – in order to put down roots all across the U.S. The number of players, mainly in the younger demographics, certainly grew, but he was criticized for “anti-Canadianism” and “forced Americanization of the game.
”Bettman also served during three League lockouts, including the one that entirely cancelled the 2004-5 season. Even so, the League’s income grew nearly eightfold under his leadership, and the players’ salary caps went up fourfold.
Coach of Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball, 53, USA-Israel
“Russia was once thought of in them U.S. as a scary, closed-off, enemy place. A red rag. I never thought I would go there, and then to work there? Today the ironic part is that both of their flags are the same colors: red, blue and white.”
David Blatt led the Russian national team to win the EuroBasket in 2007 over Spain, and to win the bronze medal at the 2012 Olympic Games in London; together with Pini Gershon, he returned Maccabi Tel Aviv to the top of Europe, including back-to-back wins in the Euroleague in 2004 and 2005.
Blatt was born in Boston and moved to Israel during the Maccabiah Games, joining the local basketball scene – first as a player, and then as a coach. One thing never changed, and it even improved: He is known as a demanding coach who succeeds to get more out of his players than other coaches do.
There has been a lot of talk in the NBA about crossing geographical and socio-demographic borders, but there still has not been a coach who reached the league via Europe. Blatt has been mentioned more than once in the American media as one who could make that crossover.
Executive chairman, ESPN/ABC, 54, USA
“Honestly, we’ll lose a contract or gain a new contract, we’ll cover a new sport or leave a branch... and the world economy will always go through shaky periods; we can’t control these things, but we can control our culture”
“Nothing in the sports world happens unless George has determined where ESPN stands on the sport,” Mark Cuban (see below) has said about Bodenheimer. “He can make or break a league.” Not bad for a man who began his career at the sports network as a mailroom clerk in the early ’80s.
Bodenheimer advanced through the sales department, was chosen in 1998 to become the network’s president, and in 2003 he was crowned by Sporting News as the most powerful person in world sports (in 2009, he was ranked third by Sporting Business Journal). Under him, the network signed many new broadcast agreements, and it flourished in other areas as well: from four local networks it grew to eight;
from 20 international networks it grew to 48; from one Internet site it went to 18; and from 1,900 employees, it grew to 7,000. Under Bodenheimer, ESPN developed 12 HD channels and a 3D channel. In 2012, he handed his job of president to John Skipper and moved to the executive chairman’s seat.
Owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, 53, USA
“When there are 10,000 people trying to do the same thing, why would you want to be number 10,001?”
Many of the owners of NBA teams isolate themselves in their suites, hiding behind their spokesmen. Few of them opt to rub elbows with the fans. But Mark Cuban appears at conferences, goes on air to argue with presenters, and sits in the upper section, despite a net worth of $2.3 billion.
Cuban was born in Pittsburgh to the Chabenisky family, Jewish immigrants from Russia. In the 1980s, he founded a software and printing company, which he sold for $6 million.
A sports broadcasting company that he started in the mid-’90s was sold to Yahoo! in 1999 for $5.9 million.Shortly thereafter, in January 2000, Cuban bought the Mavericks for $285 million; the team was built around a promising young European named Dirk Nowitzki. The club, which had been considered a joke for years, became one of the stars of the NBA under the generous Cuban. In 2011, he was rewarded with a championship.
Owner of Manchester United and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 84, USA
“It’s nice to hear them applauding you”
The culture war between Britain and the USA reached a peak when the Glazer family, led by patriarch Malcolm, bought a controlling interest in Manchester United, drove the club into deep debt and raised ticket prices by huge percentages.
Glazer, who created his wealth in real estate and owns a holding company, successfully righted the ship in recent years. The team is considered particularly profitable; it cut its losses drastically (which are still estimated to stand around £366 million) and in thepast year alone gained dozens of sponsors that helped the team to win its 20th English championship The Tampa Bay NFL team, which the family purchased in 1995, has won one Super Bowl (2002) since the Glazers took over.
Glazer’s children run the businesses: Avram is the co-chairman of Manchester United; Brian, Joel and Edward are the co-chairmen of the Buccaneers.
Windsurfer, four-time world champion, 29, Israel
“Even though the sea let me down, it’s still in my heart. To lose a medal at the last second isn’t fun, but there are more important things, like friends and to be a good person”
There are few sports in which Israel is ranked among the top worldwide, but after all, sea is one of the natural resources that is still plentiful in Israel. Korzits did not succeed in bringing home a medal from the London games, despite being ranked at the top throughout most of the competition. And still, there has never been an Israeli athlete that has so dominated a sport like Korzits on the water.
The girl from Michmoret is not a girl anymore, despite her charming naiveté. She already evaded death twice after rough surfing accidents in Hawaii in 2009 and in Poland in 2010. She is not afraid of anything. In 2003, at age 19, in Spain, Korzits became the youngest surfer to win the world title. From 2011 to 2013 she added three more impressive gold medals to her total, and in the 2016 games in Rio – if she can beat out her tough opponent from back home, Maayan Davidovich – she dreams of rounding out her collection with an Olympic medal.
Owner of NFL team the New England Patriots, 72, USA
“Every crisis is also an opportunity, if you manage it right”
Few sports team owners have merited stadiums in Israel named after them. But you will find Kraft Stadium in Jerusalem; it is used for Israel League football games, which was adopted by the Kraft family. And that is only one of the many enterprises he has contributed to the Holy Land.
Kraft’s father, a tailor by trade, had hoped his son would become a rabbi. But he went into the paper and packaging business, and at age 30 bought his first season tickets to the Patriots. In 1988, he bought the local stadium, and in 1994, after James Orthwein tried to buy out Kraft’s share in the stadium in order to move the team to St. Louis, Kraft made an impressive all-time high bid to buy the team for $175 million and keep it in Boston.
Kraft became a highly influential figure among team owners, as well. In 2011, when the NFL was on an extended lockout, he suggested bypassing the lawyers and paved the way to a new labor agreement – and all this just days after he buried his wife of 48 years, Myra.
MLB commissioner, 78, USA
“We take our responsibilities seriously when it comes to how the game affects the lives of American youth”
The owners of the MLB teams apparently love Bud Selig – a year and a half ago, they decided to give him the reigns until the end of the 2014 season, meaning until after he turns 80.
Allan Huber Selig was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to a Jewish family; his mother took Bud and his brothers to baseball games. In 1970, he purchased a team from Seattle that was on the brink of bankruptcy and brought it to Milwaukee; he remained its owner until 1992, when he led a group of owners to overthrow the then-commissioner, Fay Vincent. In 1994, the MLB went on strike under Selig’s watch as acting commissioner, and the World Series was cancelled that year. In 1998, Selig was appointed the permanent commissioner.
Selig led the MLB into the 21stcentury while greatly increasing its revenue. He introduced revolutionary changes, like awarding the winning league of the All Star Game homefield advantage for the World Series and instituting interleague play during the regular season. On the other hand, he will always be remembered for looking the other way during the era when steroids and performance-enhancing drugs became commonplace among the sport’s stars.
NBA commissioner, 69, USA
“The only thing I brought to the NBA is awareness of what is happening around us”
There is no commissioner as identified with his league as David Stern is. An attorney who began in the position in 1984, he was responsible for turning the league that just years before aired its games on delayed broadcasts into a global monster with branches all over the world, bringing in some $4 billion per season.
Under Stern, and with a great deal of assistance from the American “Dream Team” in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, the NBA made its way into houses all over the world.
The salary cap for a team in 1984 stood at $3.6 million, and today it is $58 million. In 1984, there were 23 teams, and today there are 30 teams and billions lining up hoping to get a piece.
For Stern, a New Yorker, there was no shortage of scandals. Two partial-season lockouts, a dispute with players over cultural background, and even a new synthetic ball that was removed from play within two months. But when he retires on February 1, 2014, exactly 30 years after taking the job, the entire basketball world will say thanks.
THE SELECTION COMMITTEE:
• Prof. Oz Almog, sociologist and historian, University of Haifa
• Aviv Bushinsky, chairman of Maccabi Tel Aviv Soccer Club and former chairman of the Israel Chess Federation
• Dr. Gilad Weingarten, former director of the Wingate Institute, 11-time Olympic commentator
• Joseph Siegman, author of ‘Jewish Sports Legends,’ former chairman of the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame
• Shlomo Sprung, ‘Sprung on Sports’ blogger on the Sporting News Website, columnist for basketball site Sheridan Hoops
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