The rise and rise of a true Warrior

A BREAKOUT season from Maccabi Warriors’ Benji Tamir has garnered league-wide attention, with the athletic forward controversially missing out on the Division 2 All-Star team at the Big V Awards evening on Saturday.

Tamir’s campaign saw him finish with averages of 22.4 points and 9.6 rebounds, but he lost out to Casey’s Matthew Witherden, despite the forward averaging just 16.5 and 8.5 for the year.

Tamir, 22, also finished in the top three for Defensive Player of the Year award and made the top 10 for the league’s Most Valuable Player.

It was a disappointing season for Maccabi, which finished with a dismal 3-17 win/loss record, but the side had plenty to celebrate at the awards ceremony thanks to Tamir’s watershed season.

“For the first time in my career I’m getting recognition outside the club,” Tamir said.

“It’s quite a special feeling and motivates me to go harder. It makes you think that maybe something even bigger and better can come of this.”

Career-high averages in points, rebounds and steals (2.4) were only a part of Tamir’s meteoric rise, in which he adopted a leadership role and faced double-teams on a regular basis.

“Obviously this year the team needed me to be a bigger scorer and contributor and I know I had to step up and really tried to,” he said.

“There’s no way I would have been able to do it without the support of coach Drew [Solewicz], and all the players around me.”

Predictably, Tamir picked up the Maccabi Warriors MVP trophy at a recent function, earning him the club’s most prestigious award for the third time in four years. As a skinny 17-year-old, who turned up to tryouts on a whim in 2009, Tamir never predicted the dominant player he would become.

“I wasn’t even going to try out for the team,” Tamir said.

“It wasn’t even on my mind, but my dad brought it up and I went to the try-outs just for the experience.

“I’d never even played organised basketball before, never been in that sort of environment.

“I never imagined that from that first try-out, I would have stayed at the club for 5 years and represented them at a high level. And to win the top award three times, it’s unbelievable.”

Solewicz has coached Tamir on two Maccabiah squads – including a bronze medal-winning youth team – and three seasons on the Warriors’ roster. Solewicz says Tamir is a consummate team player and natural athlete, but believes it’s his “vicious competitiveness” that sets him apart.

“We have had many great players come through the doors at Maccabi,” he said.

“And in my mind, [Tamir] would be the hardest working player, on and off the court, to ever to put on a Warriors uniform.

“He has improved his ball handling and added a deadly jump shot. His production has also increased on defence, dominating the rebounding statistic for his position.”

Season 2014 has sent Tamir’s stocks skyrocketing around the leagues, meaning he may be entertaining offers to play in higher divisions – a conflicting prospect for the proud Warrior.

“If I do leave the club next year, it’s definitely not forever, and it’s so I can come back a better player to help us win in the future,” Tamir said.

“What’s my record [at Maccabi]? Something like 19 wins over five seasons. While we lose, it doesn’t take away from how amazing the club is, what it’s given me.

“It makes me want to take the Warriors into a winning era, like 2006 and before that. I know we are capable of succeeding, our history shows it … it’s just about staying the course, staying strong.”

ADAM BLAU

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