Basketball Association responds to Ofer Yanai: "Hapoel Tel Aviv asked to naturalize D'Shawn Schwartz"

The conflict between Hapoel Tel Aviv and the Basketball Association is intensifying. Less than a day after the owner of the Reds, Ofer Yanai, claimed that the heads of the Basketball Association asked to naturalize the team's center, the Association published a sharp statement today (Monday) in which they rejected the claims entirely.

"The chairman of the Association did not approach Ofer Yanai or anyone on his behalf regarding the naturalization of D'Shawn Schwartz or any other player. The opposite is true: representatives of Hapoel Tel Aviv were the ones who approached the chairman of the Association, asked to meet with him, and they were the ones who raised the request for Schwartz's naturalization before him."

"The chairman of the Association noted to the representatives that Schwartz is a great and perfectly worthy name, like other names referred to him by other teams. It was clarified to the Hapoel representatives several times that the committee that was established does not discuss the names of players at all, but only the formulation of the naturalized player selection process. It was further clarified that the proposed method of selection is the establishment of a team of three: two professional factors accompanied by the president of the court, and that the chairman of the Association is not part of the selection team at all."

"The Hapoel representatives were even explicitly told: any naturalized player who is chosen, whoever it may be, faces a very long process, and there was no chance that he could play in the upcoming windows. For the avoidance of doubt: the selection of a naturalized player for the summer of 2026 was not on the agenda at all. The summer national team already has two naturalized players, Khadeen Carrington and Danny Wolf, and as is known, only one of them can be registered for the games. The selection of the next naturalized player, if at all, will only come up for discussion ahead of the national team's participation in the next major summer tournament."

The Association added: "Hence, the claim of 'sabotage' is also fundamentally baseless: D'Shawn Schwartz was not chosen to be the naturalized player simply because no one has been chosen yet, and it is impossible to sabotage a selection that never took place. Representatives of Maccabi Tel Aviv and Bnei Herzliya asked to advise the committee before its conclusions were formulated, and were invited to have their say before it, as is open to any factor in the industry. We will repeat and emphasize: the discussions in the committee meetings dealt with procedure only, and not with the identity of the naturalized player. The committee's conclusions will be brought before the Basketball Association's management in an orderly manner."

"Ofer Yanai attacks the Association regularly and seeks to discredit it in every way, time after time, in complete contradiction to the facts. The Basketball Association is engaged in promoting Israeli basketball and not in conspiracy theories. We will continue to act transparently and substantively, for the benefit of the entire industry."