60 Sporting Heroes for 60 Years: No.16 Doron Jamchy

The former Mac TA star was famous for being able to shoot with incredible accuracy from anywhere on the basketball court.

By JEREMY LAST
jamchy 88 (photo credit: )
jamchy 88
(photo credit: )
As we move closer to the summit of the list of the top sporting heroes in the 60-year history of the state of Israel, the achievements of the athletes featured become ever more significant. In the world of basketball, Doron Jamchy was one of the country's greatest ever performers. He, of course, starred for Maccabi Tel Aviv, winning 11 Israeli league titles and seven state cups from the late '80s to the early '90s, and became Israel's best shooter, scoring 4224 points in his career. Before moving to Tel Aviv he spent eight years at Maccabi Ramat Gan where he made his league debut at age 17. He also played for Maccabi Rishon Lezion later in his career. Jamchy was famous for being able to shoot with incredible accuracy from anywhere on the court, stunning the opposition and wowing the crowd. One of his most memorable shots came during a European game against Cibona Zagreb in 1995, where he scored the winning basket from 22 meters out. His legendary scoring skills brought him 3,262 points in European competition with Tel Aviv. He reached three consecutive Euroleague finals from 1987 to 1989 and made two other Euroleague Final Fours. While others of his era retired, Jamchy just kept on going, and at age 38 he returned to Maccabi Tel Aviv, helping Pini Gershon's team reach the 2000 Euroleague finals, losing to Oded Katashs Panathanaikos. Jamchy's achievements did not end with club basketball. He led the Israel national team to five European basketball championships during a superb career.