Translation from Hebrew from the “thank you post” from Jimmy’s now previous team, Herzliya:

“Thanks for everything Jimmy and good luck in the future

The Beni PenLink Herzliya basketball club announces today that it has reached an agreement on the transfer of Jimmy Clark to Maccabi Tel Aviv.

Jimmy joined the club in the summer as a young player in his first year in Europe and immediately connected with the club. Throughout the season we received many offers regarding him which we rejected. The high sums of money offered for us and for the player, along with the professional option and the desire to allow Clark to progress led the club to accept the current offer. We are proud to be the first club that believed in Jimmy and gave him the opportunity and the stage, and are happy for him that he received such interest and opportunity. We want to wish Jimmy the best of luck from the bottom of our hearts, thank him for a great time together and are sure that he will be an ambassador for Bnei Herzliya in every station he plays.

The professional team and the club management are working to find a replacement. We are confident in our ability to fill the ranks and continue to be competitive, both through the players who are in the team and through the reinforcements that will arrive. The move we are making today will ensure that the team will be able to continue competing at the top in the years to come and will become very attractive for young talents who will see the leap and progress that Jim made."

https://www.instagram.com/p/DGQO1xdN27r/?igsh=aG82cG4wZjRyajA=

Fans of Herzliya are not happy with their club’s decision. Some translated posts:

“Why mid-season?”

Someone must give an explanation to this thing. It seems like a delusional move as if they are giving up on the season already.”

“Is this how to release our best player? A little money blinds the eyes”

“How painful that Jimmy is leaving. We will miss him.”

“Shame on the club”

Yes, the fans are mad… but it seems like a overwhelming majority are directing that anger to the club and not Jimmy. This is a great step in his career and having the opportunity to showcase his skills in the euro league will be fun to watch.

Thanks, BluffHunter, for all of this great information. Happy for Jimmy taking this step. Interesting that he is staying in the same league, but moving from the 6th place team to the 1st place team (and Maccabi TelAviv has a ton of resources). Sounds like Jimmy made his old team, Hertzeliya, rise up the standings and made them a bunch of cash as part of the trade (hmmm, can someone check if Bob Nutting is part of the ownership group there?).

https://www.euroleaguebasketball.net/euroleague/news/maccabi-inks-guard-jimmy-clark-to-multi-year-deal/

Another Duquesne connection is Shawn James who played very successfully for Maccabi from 2011-2014.

And one more Duquesne connection - Assistant Coach Ari Stern’s dad, Itamar, played for Maccabi back in the early 1980’s.

luckymcd wrote:

I was shocked when he ended up not only in the Israeli league, but for such a small club in a small league. This is a great step for him. Not only will he be playing for a better team, the exposure the bigger competitions he’ll be playing in will give him the opportunity to continue climbing the ladder.

Yes, he was playing for a small club, but it was in the same Israeli league as Maccabi. In fact, Jimmy led Hertzeliya to a victory over Maccabi back in November (one of 2 Maccabi league losses) with 19 points, 7 rebounds, 9 assists and 2 steals. So, no change in competition at the Israeli league level for Jimmy.

What does change is that Maccabi is part of the EuroLeague, which will allow Jimmy a chance to play against the best teams in Europe. Right now, Maccabi is in 17th place (out of 18 teams).

More from Jimmy….
https://x.com/maccabitlvbc/status/1907877988143870302