New York Knicks President Leon Rose, looks on during the first half against the Chicago Bulls at United Center, Chicago, Illinois, Dec. 14, 2022 (Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
(JTA) – Leon Rose, the Jewish team president who built the New York Knicks’ roster, is one win away from his first NBA title — but it wouldn’t be the first time he’s won championship hardware.
That’s because he coached a Jewish community center’s youth basketball team in South Jersey, leading them to two gold medals and two silvers at the JCC Maccabi Games, which hosts JCC teams from around the United States every year.
“We were holding basketball tryouts,” recalled Rob Kiewe, who served as the Katz JCC’s fitness and wellness director for more than two decades, “and our Maccabi [Games] chairperson at the time was in the gym.”
By this point, in the mid-2000s, Rose had built himself up to become a high-profile agent with superstar clients like LeBron James and Allen Iverson. And yet here he was, volunteering at the local JCC in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, the same township where he’d grown up.
During a break in the tryout, the Maccabi chairperson took the kids aside. “‘Guys, I just want you to understand who this guy is, what his life is like,’” Kiewe recalled him saying. “‘And he takes time out on a Sunday morning to run a tryout and run this team.’”
