Face of Maccabi Commits Suicide

There's Israeli basketball news more shocking than Pini Gershon's Bobby Knight moment on the floor of Madison Square Garden this morning. Reports are surfacing that Moni Fanan, considered the face of Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball and the man who built Israel's pre-eminent franchise over the 1990s and 2000s, has been found dead in his apartment. Authorities believe Fanan commited suicide.

Fanan served as the team's general manager from 1992 to 2008, a period in which Maccabi dominated Israeli basketball and competed well in Euroleague, boasting foreign stars like Sarunas Jasikevicius, Anthony Parker, and Beno Udrih but also with homegrown studs like Tal Burstein, Omri Casspi, Yotam Halperin and Lior Eliyahu. Fanan's death comes as Maccabi's current team tours the United States to play exhibitions against NBA teams.