At the risk of being admonished by readers from both sexes, I'll admit I throw in a sports story from time to time to appeal to male blog followers. Sexist stereotyping? So did you hear about the rabbi and the basketball team from Israel? This is not a joke, but an actual incident in a charity game between the New York Knicks and Maccabi Tel Aviv. The Maccabi coach, pictured above, got heated over what he felt was a bad call by the referee and eventually he was through out of the game. Except he wouldn't leave. Eventually there was divine intervention, or at least by someone from the "God squad." Read on:
The game was halted for about eight minutes when Coach Gershon continued to linger near Maccabi's bench – a delay that included a rabbi trying to intervene by asking the NBA's replacement referees calling the game to allow Gershon to stay. "I explained that this is not a regular game and the kids are watching and (it's) important that there will be peace and forgive him," Rabbi Yitchak Dovid Grossman said of his talks with the officials. "If you forgive him, I can speak to the children and say, `You also forgive. If you have a fight, you forgive.' But he says this is the law, that you must obey." Gershon eventually left after a discussion with the referees, his assistant coaches and NBA security.
Some sports have introduced instant replay to help the officials. I wonder if instant forgiveness is close at hand? Then again, it doesn't sound as though the coach was prepared to repent and sin no more.
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