FIBA - FIBA legend looks back on life-long involvement in basketball (part2)

GENEVA (FIBA) - Veteran Israeli journalist and one of the last remaining Holocaust survivors Noah Klieger was the keynote speaker in Geneva on Wednesday as the United Nations celebrated the 65th anniversary of the liberation of World War II concentration camp Auschwitz.

Mr Klieger, 83, has been associated with FIBA for the better part of the last six decades. In that time, he has reported on 27 of the 29 European Championships played since attending his first one in 1951 and provided coverage of countless Summer Olympic Games and World Championships. He has worked primarily for leading Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronot as well as French sports daily L'Equipe, publications he has been tied with for more than 50 years.

The current Chairman for the Basketball Commission of AIPS (International Sportswriters Association) and former President of the now-defunct FIBA Media Council, he has assisted FIBA in making huge strides to set the regulations for coverage of all international competitions.

Before beginning his career in journalism and basketball, Mr Klieger survived a two-year spell at Auschwitz. Ahead of his speech at the UN, he took time to talk to FIBA.

For the first part of this interview, in which Mr Klieger tells of his World War II ordeal, please click here.

In this part of the interview, he recalls the first time he saw a basketball game, his long-standing collaboration with FIBA and reveals his favourite players and teams.

FIBA: How did you discover basketball?

Noah Klieger: During World War II, my family and I were living in Belgium. Jews had to wear the yellow star and there was a curfew of eight in the evening to obey. One day in 1941, I was about 14 or 15 years old at the time, I went to see a girlfriend.

When I left her it was already past the curfew. The roads had been closed and the Germans were stopping and checking everyone, asking to see their papers. I knew I would be in trouble if they stopped me because I wasn't wearing the yellow star and my papers had a big letter 'J' on them for Jewish. So I looked for a way out or at least a way to postpone the inevitable which was that the Germans would ask me for my papers.

I looked around and I saw a kind of park and a big crowd had gathered there. I worked my way through to the front of the crowd and was standing on the edge of an outdoor basketball court. It was set up a bit like an amphitheatre. I had never seen a basketball game in my life. At the beginning I didn't know what they were doing. The players were dribbling the ball and throwing it in a basket and I asked myself 'what is this?' But I was a big sports fan so I figured out more or less what the rules were and became very interested.

I was still thinking about the Germans but they did not come. I guess they didn't want to bother with 500-600 people. The game I was watching featured the Belgian League champions. At that time, basketball there was an open air sport. I kept going back to watch those games.

After the war, I was among the organisers of Zionist Federation in Belgium and France and the Maccabi club. I decided to develop my passion for basketball. I tried to play but it wasn't my game. The moment I touched someone, the referee would call a foul and I would think 'I didn't do anything. I just pushed him a little'. I realised that my place wasn't on the basketball court itself, but next to it.

FIBA: What was the first major international competition you attended and reported on?

Noah Klieger: The European Championships played in Paris (1951). I was the first Israeli journalist to go and cover an international championship. There were 17 teams and they played from eight in the morning until about 10 or 11 at night because the games took place on just one court. The tournament was held in this place called the Vélodrome d'Hiver near the Eiffel Tower.

At that time, basketball really was like a family. At that tournament, the players, coaches, referees and journalists spent a lot of time together.

FIBA: Have you kept track of the number of international competitions you have reported on?

Noah Klieger: I have missed just two European Championships since 1951. I wasn't at the ones in Hungary (1955) and Bulgaria (1957) but it wasn't my fault. I just wasn't allowed in those countries. I went to the border and tried to get in but they didn't allow me.

I haven't kept an exact count of the Olympic Games and World Championships but I have been to my fair share.

I stopped going to the Olympics when the arenas got too big and the system got too complicated. My last Olympic experience was Athens (2004). I went to see basketball and I got to see basketball. I could not go and see other sports like swimming because we had to get from the basketball to the other venue and the security was very high. I found it took too long.

I was at the Olympic Games in Helsinki (1952), Rome (1960), Tokyo (1964), Mexico (1968) and Munich in 1972, which unfortunately saw the massacre of 11 Israeli athletes. I stopped going after that.

In terms of World Championships, I was in Rio (1964), Spain (1986), Athens (1998), Indianapolis (2002) and Japan (2006). I hope to go to the one in Turkey!

FIBA: Your involvement with FIBA started soon after you went to your first international competition?

Noah Klieger: Yes. The Secretary General at that time, William Jones, asked me to come to Munich and attend their meetings. This is where I got to meet all the great people like Robert Busnel and Bora Stankovic as well as Dr Hepp.

FIBA: Can you tell us more about your relationship with Mr Stankovic?

Noah Klieger: We have been friends for more than 50 years. That's the easiest way to describe our relation.

After he stopped playing, Bora was assisting Jones at FIBA and I was involved like I said in all meetings. Every time they held one, they asked me to come so I made my way from Israel to Munich which was no small feat at that time.

When Bora took over, he told me 'I want you to become more involved' and that's how we came up with the Press Commission and the two of us ran it with Aldo Vitale. Then I came up with the idea of the Mixed Commission and I was Chairman of the Basketball Commission of AIPS.

FIBA: As someone who's seen more than his fair share of basketball, who was your favourite player?

Noah Klieger: Arvydas Sabonis. I saw him in Stuttgart in 1985 when he was 19-20 years old and was not ravaged by injuries yet. The things he did for a player of his height (2.20 metres) were unbelievable. And then of course there was Drazen Petrovic.

FIBA: What about the best team?

Noah Klieger: I would say the best national team was the USA Olympic team that won gold at the 1960 Games in Rome. They had guys like Jerry West, Oscar Robertson, Walter Bellamy, Jerry Lucas and Terry Dischinger. Seven or eight of those players went on to become NBA stars and entered the Hall of Fame.

You have to keep in mind that they were amateurs at that time. These were college players. I think it was the first time the Americans did not send their college championship team to represent the country. So this group of players had to learn to play together in a short period of time.

I remember when the USA played the Soviet Union, Vladimir Krumminch did not get on the court because he was too slow and too heavy against guys like Bellamy and Lucas. Both of them could easily outrun the Yugoslav centre down the court. Bellamy was outrunning the Yugoslav guards and he was the only player I ever saw who could pick off coins off the top of the backboard.

In my opinion that American team was the best. Better even than the Dream Team.

And then there was the Yugoslav national team that won the European Championships in Zagreb (1989). They were very good with players like Petrovic, Toni Kukoc, Vlade Divac, Zarko Paspalj.

FIBA: You have been involved in journalism for the past six decades, what are your thoughts on what that industry is like nowadays?

Noah Klieger: It's completely different that what it was when I started. Back then, newspapers had to send journalists out to report on events. Nowadays, they don't need to send anyone. They can get all the information they need from television, from the internet. The standing of journalism has dropped. We're not needed much to report anymore. What we do now is comment, provide opinion and reaction. The written press has suffered a lot and in my opinion it only really has about 10 more years to go.

FIBA