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Former Yeshiva U phenom Ryan Turell features in Amazon’s ‘Destination NBA: A G League Odyssey’
(JTA) — Fans of the Jewish basketball star Ryan Turell, who is trying to become the first Orthodox Jew to play in the NBA, likely followed his debut season last year in the basketball minor league known as the G League, in which Turell played for the Motor City Cruise in Detroit.
Now, a new documentary about the G League season heavily features Turell, and his segments have a focus on his Jewish identity.
The film is called “Destination NBA: A G League Odyssey,” and it starts streaming on Prime Video on Tuesday. The film is a project of the sports and pop culture media company The Ringer and the Tom Brady-cofounded sports documentary outfit called, apropos for Turell, Religion of Sports.
“Destination NBA” takes turns following the seasons of several players at various stages of their basketball careers who are in the G League, which is the NBA’s official minor league.
One of them is Scoot Henderson, who played last year for G League Ignite and ended up the third overall pick in the NBA Draft, by the Portland Trail Blazers. Other G League players are journeymen on the fringes, while still others (such as film subject Denzel Valentine) are former high draft picks looking to work their way back to the NBA.
And then there’s Turell, who played in the G League last season at age 24, following a final season at Yeshiva University the previous year, when he was the leading scorer in all of college basketball. After the California native was not chosen in the following NBA Draft, Turell was drafted by the Detroit team with the 27th pick in the 2022 G League Draft.
The first time we see him in the film, he’s saying the blessings over Hanukkah candles. Later Turell, who wears a kippah on the court when he plays, is shown signing kippot for fans, and describing one particular basketball move as “The Spinning Dreidel.”
Turell also discusses how he handles playing basketball while observing the Sabbath — he’s willing to play during the day of rest, although he will not ride in a car or bus on the way there — and expresses interest in one day playing basketball in Israel. He has also been helped out by an area Chabad-Lubavitch rabbi in his observance, with challah he can eat in his hotel room during Shabbat.
In one scene, when his team visits Long Island for a road game, Turell is welcomed by numerous Jewish fans, including a large contingent from his alma mater. Viewers also see Turell cooking with his family and his Jewish mother gushing about him.
“I want to be a Jewish hero,” Turell says at one point in the film, repeating a sentiment that he has shared before.
“He’s willing to wear a yarmulke and say: ‘I’m proudly Jewish,’” Turell’s father Brad told New York Jewish Week, on the day of that Long Island game. “Here’s a kid who doesn’t have to do this. There’s a lot of antisemitism and a lot of bad things going on, but he’s inspiring a lot of people. The symbol is the kippah and that makes a huge difference.”
The next G League season does not begin until November, but Turell is still listed on the roster of the Motor City Cruise.
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The post Former Yeshiva U phenom Ryan Turell features in Amazon’s ‘Destination NBA: A G League Odyssey’ appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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250 Hezbollah Terrorists Including 21 Commanders Eliminated in Ground Op
DF operating in southern Lebanon. Photo: IDF Spokesperson
i24 News – The Israeli military eliminated 250 Hezbollah terrorists including 21 commanders in four days of ground combat, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement on Friday.
IDF soldiers operating in southern Lebanon have uncovered vast caches of weapons and munitions in civilian residences, showing how central embedding within civilian population is to Hezbollah’s mode of warfare.
Meanwhile, heavy strikes targeting the Hezbollah stronghold of Dahieh in southern Beirut were ongoing, Lebanese media reported.
The post 250 Hezbollah Terrorists Including 21 Commanders Eliminated in Ground Op first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Airstrikes Launched on Several Parts of Yemen, Houthi Al Masirah TV says
Illustrative. Hodeidah, Yemen, July 20, 2024. Houthi Military Media/Handout via REUTERS
Airstrikes were launched on Friday at several parts of Yemen including its capital Sanaa and Hodeidah airport, Al Masirah TV, the main television news outlet run by the Houthi movement controlling much of Yemen, and residents said.
Strikes also targeted the south of Dhamar city and the southeast of al-Bayda province, the channel added.
Residents said that the attack on al-Bayda province targeted several Houthi military outposts.
Al Masirah TV reported that the strikes had been carried out by the United States and British forces, but a British government source said Britain was not involved.
Iran-aligned Houthi militants have launched attacks on international shipping near Yemen since last November in solidarity with Palestinians in Israel‘s war with Hamas.
The attacks have drawn US and British retaliatory strikes and disrupted global trade as ship owners reroute vessels away from the Red Sea and Suez Canal to sail the longer route around the southern tip of Africa.
Following the airstrikes, a Houthi spokesman called the attack “a desperate attempt,” adding that “Yemen will not be deterred by these attacks and will continue its steadfastness in confronting the enemies.”
The post Airstrikes Launched on Several Parts of Yemen, Houthi Al Masirah TV says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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IDF Kills Hamas Commander in Tulkarem
Illustrative. Israeli troops during counterterrorism activity in Tulkarem, northwestern Samaria, September 2024. Photo: IDF.
JNS.org – An Israeli Air Force fighter jet conducted a rare strike in Tulkarem in the West Bank on Thursday night, targeting top Hamas terrorist Zahi Yaser Abd al-Razeq Oufi.
The Palestinian Authority reported at least 18 fatalities in the strike, with a local security source telling Agence France-Presse it was the deadliest in Judea and Samaria since the Second Intifada.
Ayyth Radwan, the head of Islamic Jihad’s Tulkarem branch, was also reportedly killed.
Oufi was planning a terrorist attack “in the immediate time frame,” according to the Israel Defense Forces, and directed the thwarted car bombing last month near Ateret in the Binyamin region of Samaria.
There were no casualties in the incident, which Israel Ganz, the head of the Binyamin Regional Council, called a “great miracle.”
The IDF said Oufi was involved in smuggling weapons to terrorists who perpetrated several recent attacks against Israelis, including some that resulted in injuries to civilians.
He also “worked to establish terrorist networks on behalf of Hamas and assisted terror operatives in the area to carry out significant shooting and explosive attacks,” added the military.
The post IDF Kills Hamas Commander in Tulkarem first appeared on Algemeiner.com.