Maor Built Strong From Even Greater Challenges

New Zealand head coach Mody Maor’s journey to the NBL’s head coaching ranks has been unconventional to say the least. 

Following in the footsteps of former Breakers head coach Dan Shamir, Maor went years without even considering basketball as a career. He was busy working hard in the Israeli armed forces.

“I was born in ’85 in Los Angeles, then me and my family moved to Israel later on,” Maor said in the upcoming episode of the NBL's documentary, Unrivalled: Inside NBL23.

“When you’re 18 in Israel you enlist in the military – it’s mandatory.

“I spent almost five years in the army and didn’t think about basketball for one minute during that period.

“The army was the first time I was thrust into an environment where you really need to be great at what you do.

“The stakes are high, being average is not a good thing – not for yourself and not for others.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">From active military service to potential championship coach ?<br><br>Mody Maor gets ready to share his incredible story in the latest episode of Inside NBL23 ? <a href="https://t.co/yFbye3VuwM">pic.twitter.com/yFbye3VuwM</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1628576212804317184?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 23, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Maor discusses his remarkable story on episode five of the NBL's documentary, which airs on ESPN on Friday, March 3 at 6pm AEDT.

Maor and his Breakers will then contest their first Championship Series since 2015, as New Zealand takes on Sydney.

Game 1 of the series tips off live and free on ESPN via Kayo Freebies at 7:30pm AEDT, following the airing of the documentary.