Burstein valley

Burstein valley
Player information
birthday	19th February 1980
place of birth	Petach Tikwa, Israel
size	198 cm
position	Point forward
Clubs as active
1997–2000 Bnei Herzlia 2000–2009 Maccabi Tel Aviv 2009–2010 Ayuda en Acción Fuenlabrada 2010–2012 Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv
National team
2000-2011	Israel

Tal Burstein ( Hebrew טל בורשטיין; Born February 19, 1980 in Petach Tikwa , Central District ) is a retired Israeli basketball player . Among other things, Burstein played ten seasons for the record champions Maccabi Tel Aviv, with whom, in addition to other Israeli championships, he also won the Triple Crown three times , which consists of winning the national double in championship and cup competition as well as the highest-ranking European club competition. The junior vice European champion of 2000 took part in four European basketball championships with the Israeli men's national team. Burstein ended his active career back in 2012 after hip problems required lengthy surgical treatment.

Career

Burstein came from 1997 in the team of Bnei Herzlia on the Israeli coast to first appearances in the highest national league Ligat ha'Al . He also took part in the competitions of FIBA Europe as a long-time selection player with the Israeli youth and junior national teams. Burstein was the top scorer of his team at the European Junior Championship in Macedonia in 2000 and, together with Yaniv Green , helped a talented Spanish junior selection to bring Pau Gasol , José Calderón and Felipe Reyes their only tournament defeat in the semi-finals. The title win was just missed after a 65:66 defeat against the Slovenian junior selection, which was led by Sani Bečirovič and Boštjan neighbor . At the Junior World Championship a year later they won the first four games, including against an Argentinian junior selection led by Luis Scola and Carlos Delfino . Then they lost against the US juniors and surprisingly in the quarterfinals against the Dominican Republic's junior selection. After another defeat against the Spaniards, they finished seventh after a victory over Australia.

As early as the 2000/01 season, Burstein had switched to the dominant Israeli club team Maccabi from Tel Aviv a year earlier after the European Junior Championship . This season they not only defended the championship and cup titles, but again reached the final in the FIBA European Suproleague competition , which this time they won against defending champion Panathinaikos Athens in a new edition of last year's final . In the following season, the FIBA ​​competition was reunited with the split-off competition ULEB Euroleague under the umbrella of the ULEB . Coach Pini Gershon initially passed responsibility on the sidelines to his assistant David Blatt . With the exception of defending titles in national competitions, there were initially no further successes in European club competition after they failed in the ULEB Euroleague 2001/02 in the semifinals at Panathinaikos and a year later in the group stage of the last sixteen at Benetton Treviso . Gershon then took command on the sidelines again.

At the 2003 European Championship finals , Burstein was also represented in the men's national team's final squad for the first time, after having only played the Junior World Championship two years earlier. Israel reached the quarter-finals via an elimination game, in which they were defeated by the eventual European runner-up, Spain, and lost their chances of participating in the 2004 Olympic Games. In the end, Israel took seventh place here too. In the ULEB Euroleague 2003/04 they survived the round of 16 group stage and then played convincingly in the Final Four tournament in front of their home crowd, when in the final game Skipper Bologna was broken up with the highest point difference in a final game of the Euroleague 118: 74. In the following season ULEB Euroleague 2004/05 they beat Panathinaikos in the final four in the semifinals and won the final against TAU Cerámica , who had defeated hosts PBK CSKA Moscow in the semifinals . This was the first and until 2013 only successful title defense in the ULEB competition and already Burstein's third triple with Maccabi. At the European Championship finals in 2005 , Israel allowed itself only one defeat in the preliminary round with a difference of 16 points against the world champions and hosts Serbia and Montenegro . Due to the worse direct comparison , Israel had to go into the elimination game, which was lost to Greece this time . Burstein, his team's top scorer in the two previous games, remained pale in this game.

In the following ULEB Euroleague 2005/06 Burstein moved with Maccabi as defending champion again in the final, but this time it was lost to CSKA Moscow. After missing the third triplet in a row, coach Gershon moved to Olympiacos and Maccabi's previously self-evident successes were no longer as desired, so that there were several coach changes in the following two years. In the 2006/07 season they lost the title in the national cup competition and failed in the quarter-final play-offs to defending champions CSKA, who also defeated Maccabi in the ULEB Euroleague 2007/08 in the final and regained the Euroleague title. The runner-up in the Euroleague 2008 was also essentially the only success in the season in which Burstein only had a few appearances for Maccabi due to injuries. Not only could you not regain the title in the national cup competition, you also surprisingly lost the championship final against Hapoel Holon , so you had to give up this title as well. Then Pini Gershon came back to Maccabi as a coach again, but in the ULEB Euroleague 2008/09 they were eliminated this time before the quarter-finals and as early as six years ago. After failing to win the national cup competition, the season was saved when the title in the national championship was regained. The 2009 European Championship finals were disappointing for Burstein with Israel when they lost all three group matches and were eliminated after the preliminary round.

After returning from his injury-ridden 2007/08 season, the 2008/09 season was personally disappointing for Burstein and he moved to the Spanish league ACB for the club from Fuenlabrada for the 2009/10 season . After this team had narrowly missed entry into the play-offs for the Spanish championship last year due to the poorer direct comparison, this time it was only enough to third from bottom of the table at the end of the season. Burstein then returned to Maccabi, where after the renewed loss of the championship coach Gershon had again made room for David Blatt. The 2010/11 season was again very successful and Maccabi only lost two games in national competitions and again secured the double. In the ULEB Euroleague 2010/11 they moved back into the Final Four, where, as in earlier times, it came to the final against Panathinaikos. However, the Greek team was able to prevail with 78:70 and prevent Burstein's fourth triple in his sixth final in the highest European club competition. After Burstein had been left without individual points in the semifinals and only had rebounds and assists for himself, he stayed in the final in less than ten minutes, except for a loss of the ball without a positive entry on the statistics sheet. Burstein also remained pale at the 2011 European Championship finals . After a disastrous opening defeat against Germany , they also lost the following two games, so that the final two victories were no longer enough to qualify for the second round. In the 2011/12 season Burstein tried to attack again, but in the quarter-final play-offs of the ULEB Euroleague 2011/12 they lost five games against defending champions Panathinaikos. In the national competitions, however, you could defend the double. After the end of the season, after a thorough examination of his hip problems, surgical treatment was deemed necessary, which would have led to a lengthy break. Burstein then ended his active career.

Web links

Commons : Tal Burstein  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Burstein, TAL - Statistics on the websites of the ULEB ( English )
• Tal BURSTEIN (ISR) - Overview of participation in FIBA tournaments (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Maccabi great and three-time European champ Burstein retires. ULEB , August 27, 2012, accessed May 29, 2014 . 
2. ↑ archive.fiba.com: 2000 European Championship for Young Men / Box Score: ISRAEL vs SPAIN. FIBA , accessed on May 29, 2014 (English, game statistics). 
3. ↑ The Euroleague History Archive - Tel Aviv 2004: Maccabi breaks all records! ULEB , accessed May 27, 2014 . 
4. ^ The Euroleague History Archive - Moscow 2005: Maccabi wins back-to-back crowns. ULEB , accessed May 27, 2014 . 
5. ^ The Euroleague History Archive - Prague 2006: CSKA wins again after 35 years. ULEB , archived from the original on January 8, 2015 ; accessed on May 27, 2014 (English). 
6. ^ Vered Cohen, Elad Zeevi: Basketball / Rejuvenated veteran guard Tal Burstein takes over the reins of the national team. Haaretz , August 8, 2010, accessed on May 29, 2014 . 
7. ^ The Euroleague History Archive - Barcelona 2011: Panathinaikos lifts sixth crown. ULEB , archived from the original on February 23, 2014 ; accessed on May 27, 2014 (English).