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Friday August 15, 2008

Ralph Klein, Israeli basketball legend, dies

Ralph Klein, the coach who led Maccabi Tel Aviv to the European basketball title, died Aug. 14 from cancer. He was 77.

Born in Germany, Klein immigrated to Israel in 1951 from Hungary, where Raoul Wallenberg had saved him and much of his family.

As a teenager, he played basketball for the Hungarian national league. Soon after, he launched a career as a player for Maccabi. In 1970, he was named the team’s coach, and made it the preeminent Israeli team.

He led it to a European championship in 1977. The footage of streets packed with Maccabi fans that victorious night still features in televised recounts of Israeli history.

Klein shocked Israelis in the mid-1980s when he agreed to coach the German national team. After his retirement, he returned to Israel and dedicated himself to teaching young Israelis about a sport he believed helped forge character. — jta

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