Maccabiah Games

And the World Cup came up.

And if you remember, we also hosted the Maccabi Games.

And so we lowered them to a year before those activities took place within the Kansas City metro region.

And I said, after this, we're going to put a group together and we're going to discuss it.

And back in 1932, my mom had a first cousin who was a professional boxer, a very good boxer, featherweight.

And he came in 1932 to box in the first Jewish Olympics.

No kidding, wow.

He went back to Poland and then in 1936 came for the second Jewish Olympics, boxed again.

And then he decided, he became so enamored with boxing building up the beach fronts and Tel Aviv and Bat Yam.

And so he basically immigrated to Israel.

So when you started running longer distances like the, you know, say the half-marathon, and did you run half-marathons before you started doing marathons, or?

Um, I, I didn't actually, although I did run a half at the Maccabiah Games after I'd finished third in New York, and we ran in, outside Jerusalem in extremely hot weather, and I ran, uh, the half-marathon in 1:05:50 and change.

I think that was actually probably the best race of my life given the, gi- given the temperature, although the New York Marathon result was the most exciting for sure.

Um, so I didn't, I didn't, I run, didn't run terribly many halves.

I entered New York another year.

I was sick, so I think it's the only time I really dropped out of a race.

I ran the Maccabiah Games.

I ran, um, I ran the Grandma's Marathon, uh, in qualifying for the next Olympic trials, and, um, and won that race.

Mm-hmm.

And back in 1932, my mom had a first cousin who was a, a professional boxer, a, a very good boxer, featherweight, and he came in 1932 to box in the first Jewish Olympics.

No kidding.

Wow.

He went back to Poland, and then in 1936 came for the second Jewish Olympics, boxed again, and then he decided...

He became so enamored with building up, uh, the beachfronts in Tel Aviv and Bat Yam, and so he basically immigrated to Israel.

And so he was here, and his mother, who was my grand- grandfather's sister, and the rest of the family that had stayed in Poland begged him to come back to Poland, "You've gone crazy.

Thank you.

Yes, I, I will mention I was a three-time Maccabiah champion as a captain on, on, on colors red, white, and blue.

Oh, so it didn't really matter.

You got all of them.

Um, and for you people who don't know that, look up the Jewish stuff.

That's like the Jewish Olympics.

Mm.

It's, it's amazing.

It just hurt too much.

And, um, I said to myself, I was just like, "At some point, Zach, you've gotta pull up your pants and be a big boy and step back into the arena and figure out how you can be with the sport again." And w- so what I did is in, um, 2017, I went with the Maccabi team, uh, to Israel for the Team USA for the Maccabiah Games, which for people that don't know, it's like the Jewish Olympics in Israel.

Um, so I went there.

Um, I had played two previous Mc- Maccabiah Games, uh, before that.

But, uh, Sean Litman, who was the coach, was like, "Hey, like, you can't play.

I know you can't play, but I think with everything that you know about this game, come as a coach.

I do remember this, 'cause I thought it was so cool to have such an accomplished guy as a Suns assistant.

Um, not just an, an NBA assistant, but, uh, one of the biggest international coaching assistants of all time, like Maccabiah Games, Olympic Games, USA Basketball, overseas, a ton of different teams.

Herb Brown is 90 and still going strong.

Right on.

Athletic skills, not a Jewish talent.

Unless that's what the Maccabee Games

report.

It's everywhere.